Manifesta 6 Nikosia 2006 / cancelled

cancelled:
Manifesta 6 Nikosia 2006
Nicosia for Art Ltd
At The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre
Associated with the Pierides Museum of Contemporary Art

Kuratoren:
Mai Abu ElDahab, Florian Waldvogel, Anton Vidokle

23 06 2006 Manifesta 6 curators now individually attacked by Nicosia officials

Dear colleagues and friends,

International Foundation Manifesta (IFM) is deeply saddened by the recent cancellation of Manifesta 6 by local officials in Nicosia, Cyprus. We are also outraged by this blatant lack of respect for the work of the more than 100 young artists and writers from all parts of the world who were selected by the curators to take part in this amazing project. International Foundation Manifesta categorically rejects all attempts to censor or misuse culture to serve a specific political agenda, and calls on cultural producers and institutions to protest at this gross violation of freedom of expression and political persecution of cultural producers.

By definition, Manifesta, the European Biennial for Contemporary Art, is a roving exhibition that seeks to create venues for art in European countries that will lend their own, site-specific qualities to the project, changing it each time it moves. The goal of Manifesta is, every two years, to explore the conditions of cultural production in a different, and, therefore, challenging place, as well as to create a new venue, where local artists and intellectuals can participate in a shared European artistic discourse. Precisely for this reason, after a long period of research and development both by the International Foundation Manifesta and its Cypriot partners, Manifesta 6 came to be located in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Nicosia is a city divided into Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot sectors, separated by the Green Line - a demilitarised zone maintained by the UN. It was impossible to move from one sector of the city to the other until a number of crossing points were opened in 2003. Manifesta 6 in Nicosia and the surrounding region was intended to serve as an index of change through the development of sustainable relationships with the local and regional communities. At the time when planning was still in its early stages, the International Foundation Manifesta drew up contracts with the host organisation, Nicosia for Art Ltd. (NFA) - a special legal entity set up by representatives of the Municipality of Nicosia and the Cypriot Ministry of Culture and Education to administer Manifesta 6 - determining the scope of their responsibility to Manifesta 6, and defining their role as the facilitators of the project in Nicosia, who would provide the core organisation and assist the curators with the choice of venues, on both sides of the Green Line. Since the North Turkish Republic of Cyprus and its government are not recognised under international law, the Cypriot parties entrusted with organising Manifesta 6 were drawn from the Greek-Cypriot authorities, though every effort was made at the time to ensure that the IFM’s partners would be willing, and able, to collaborate fully with their neighbours to the North and enable Manifesta 6 to take place in both communities.

Sadly, now it is the very specifics of the Nicosia location, which drew Manifesta 6 to Nicosia, that have been cited as a principal reason for its cancellation. Despite the early and explicit intention of all parties to hold the exhibition on both sides of the Green Line, in both the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot sectors, the local authorities in Nicosia have abruptly terminated the contracts of all three curators, Mai Abu ElDahab, Anton Vidokle and Florian Waldvogel, and taken legal action against both the International Foundation Manifesta and each of the curators individually, for sticking to their intention to hold a part of the project on the Turkish-Cypriot side of the city. Moreover, this legal action is aimed at preventing any part of the project from being realised in any form, anywhere, at any future date – thereby, effectively aiming to eradicate all the work carried out on this project by all its numerous participants over the last 18 months. For these reasons, the IFM maintains that Nicosia for Art is in flagrant breach of its contractual obligations.

The International Foundation Manifesta, as a non-profit organisation, is entirely dependent on outside funding and has no resources of its own. For this reason, it is in the process of setting up a legal defence fund, to protect both itself and the curators from the litigation of Nicosia for Art. Manifesta welcomes any and all support in this time of crisis, and appreciates the efforts that have already been made on its behalf.

All enquiries or offers of support should, please, be directed to:

International Foundation Manifesta Amsterdam, the Netherlands e-mail: secretariat@manifesta.org Tel: +31 (0)20 672 1435

Please also note that a discussion of issues and opinions pertaining to Manifesta 6 can now take place at the International Foundation Manifesta’s website at: http://www.manifesta.org/forum/

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06/09/06 International Foundation Manifesta to hold Press Conference at Art Basel

Dear Friends, we are all deeply saddened by the cancellation of Manifesta 6 by the authorities on Cyprus. Both, the Manifesta Foundation and the Curatorial team are looking into the best possible ways to assure that work done towards this important project will be carried through.

To publicly address this situation, the International Foundation Manifesta will hold a press conference at Art Basel.

The press conference will take place on Wednesday June 14, at 18:00 hrs in the Kleine Festsaal, conference Room Luzern, located on the second floor in the Art Unlimited Hall, at Art Basel.

Please note that a discussion of issues and opinions pertaining to Manifesta 6 can now take place at an open forum at the Manifesta Foundation’s website, please visit the forum at http://www.manifesta.org/forum/

For further information please contact:

Mrs Hedwig A.M. Fijen, Director International Foundation Manifesta, Amsterdam

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JUNE 6 2006 A letter from Mai Abu ElDahab, Anton Vidokle and Florian Waldvogel, former curators of Manifesta 6

Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends, Manifesta 6 was planned to take the form of a temporary art school, the Manifesta 6 School, comprised of three departments revolving around diverse cultural issues and debates, and each proposing a different structural model for art education. The proposed Manifesta 6 School is a postgraduate, trans-disciplinary program for approximately 90 participants from many parts of the world lasting about 12-weeks: (see full list of Manifesta 6 participants below). Inspired by such historical examples as Black Mountain College and the Bauhaus, the School would be a meeting ground for cultural producers in the region and beyond, and a platform for discussion and production.

In keeping with the past goals of Manifesta to open dialogue between West Europe's artists and audiences and their Eastern European peers, Manifesta 6 intended to "play a modest role in developing new forms of cultural partnerships, not only within the new Europe, but particularly between Europe and its immediate neighbouring regions." Such cultural partnerships in the context of Nicosia, a city located on the furthermost edge of European Community and divided into Greek and Turkish Cypriot sectors, specifically implies engagement and presence in both communities inhabiting this city.

Unfortunately, on June 1st, we received a letter from the Mayor of Nicosia, Cyprus, effectively terminating our contracts to organize Manifesta 6, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art in Nicosia. On June 2nd, Nicosia for Art Ltd. (the non-profit organization set up and owned by the Municipality of Nicosia to run the project) made a public announcement and circulated it internationally defining a variety of alleged breaches of contract by the curators, which led the city to cancel the project.

The alleged breaches of contract being referred to relate in large part to what Nicosia for Art Ltd. states as "Recently and contrary to the original concept of the Manifesta 6 program the curatorial team insisted on the establishment and operation of an essential part of the Manifesta 6 School in the occupied part of Nicosia", a break of confidentiality and an unwillingness on the part of the curators to mediate the situation to reach an amicable compromise to allow for the project to be realized.

With regards to the primary issue around the location of a part of the school in the north, the contractual agreement made with the local authorities clearly defined Manifesta 6 as a bi-communal project, therefore, we believed ourselves to be working within the parameters outlined and agreed upon at the outset of the project. Accordingly, we developed the project in the spirit of this bi-communality, and throughout the process, the Greek Cypriot authorities not only agreed, but also encouraged this approach to working in both areas of the city and made numerous official public statements confirming their support.

The Manifesta 6 School was envisioned as an important cultural project to take place in a city whose political climate has been changing dramatically. Needless to say, we continued to work to safeguard this position while obviously making every effort to reach a compromise with Nicosia for Art Ltd. to ensure our concept is realized. Moreover, we continuously advocated for a transparency within the process to maintain responsible and accountable conditions for our collaborators and ourselves.

Unfortunately, throughout the course of the last six months, we were increasingly hindered by a lack of administrative support to realize the project, which simply climaxed with the termination of our contracts as the final gesture reflecting Nicosia for Art's unwillingness to resolve any disagreements. Although we can conjecture and analyze the problematics of the situation, we feel that our foremost priority now is to attempt to find a way to ensure that the commitments and hard work of all of those involved whether administratively or from the artistic side is not lost, and is treated with the utmost respect and support.

This cancellation of the Manifesta 6 School does a great disservice to the cultural community of Cyprus. Numerous artists, writers and academics who live on both sides of the island have sent us letters of support, protesting arbitrary action by local authorities that deprives the cultural community of an invaluable opportunity to meet and engage with their peers from around the world, noting that "given the limited resources available at the local level, the mobilization of such interest and expertise for Nicosia is unprecedented and extremely special."

We are currently in the process of considering and planning how to proceed, while rejecting any form of censorship that obstructs the dissemination of ideas and impedes artistic production.

We very much appreciate the support we have been getting in the course of the past few days and very much hope we are able to turn these unfortunate events into a productive outcome. The International Foundation Manifesta will be sending out a press release shortly outlining the plans to come.

Thank you once again.

Sincerely, Mai Abu ElDahab, Anton Vidokle, Florian Waldvogel