Prof. Dr. Lilian Haberer

Since its founding in Rotterdam in 1996, Manifesta is a nomadic art biennial. The biennial takes place in different regions of Europe and is organized by changing international teams of curators, architects, and educators. Manifesta's temporary exhibition format relies on regional city governments applying to host the event, seeking to benefit from increased visibility, infrastructure development, and tourism. The venues of Manifesta have taken place in geopolitically, culturally and historically heterogenic regions, such as South Tirol, Prishtina, Zurich, Barcelona, San Sebastián, Saint Petersburg, Palermo, Marseille etc. but was cancelled in Nicosia due to several geopolitical conflicts. While in some editions the focus was more on multilingual aspects or the specificity of regions, in others it followed specific questions (What do people for money? in Zurich Or The planetary garden. To cultivate the commons in Palermo). The next Manifesta 16 will take place at 16 secularized churches in the Ruhr area (at Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen and Bochum). And instead of curators, it is conceived by engaged cultural mediators. Within our excursion and critique seminar we look into the publications and other paratexts of the Manifesta, from its topologies and political decisions, its critical approaches to its curatorial, educational practice as well as its spatial and institutional decisions. For a critical reading, debating and understanding of Manifesta we discuss the exhibition, speak to its involved mediators, read and reflect on diverse texts and approaches of writing and developing critiques. The aim of the seminar is trying out experimental and multiperspective forms of art writing/art critiques. Reading Matter: Marina Vishmidt, „Beneath the Atelier, the Desert: Critique, Insatitutional and Infrastructural, in: Maria Hjavalova / Tom Holert: Marion von Osten: Once We Were Artists (A BAK Critical reader in Artist`s Practice), Utrecht, 2016, S. 218–238. Pelin Tan, „The General Intellect of Transcversal Instituting“, in: Bijana Ciric / Nikita Yingqian Cai, „Active Withdrawals – Life and Death of Institutional Critique“, ed. By Bijana Ciric and Nikita Yingquian Cai, Active Withdrawals: Life and Death of Institutional Critique, London 2016, S. 43-55. Aruna D`Souza, Imperfect Solidarities, S.52–67. Kea Wienand, „Artistically Juxtaposed (Hi)stories: Hiwa K.`s View from Above as a Multidirectional Memory Practice“, in: Cathrine Bublatzky, Burcu Dogramaci, Kerstin Pinther, Mona Schieren (Eds.), Entangled Histories of Migration: Theories, Sites and Research Methods, Bristol: 2024, S. 15–37 Estelle Hoy, Tba. Research Material: Manifesta-Publications for critical reviews: https://manifesta14.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-01-31-Festa-3.pdf Manifesta-Paratexts: https://secondaryarchive.org/news/secondary-archive-at-manifesta-14/ https://manifesta.org/education https://www.frieze.com/article/school%E2%80%99s-out

Cinnabar, orpiment, meteorite dust, and purple snails—in his constant experimentation with organic pigments, plants, chemicals, and binders, painter and intermedia artist Sigmar Polke focused on the interaction and transformation of material properties and their states. With his real-time observation of contamination and toxicity, as well as an alchemical interest in experimenting with and against physical and chemical modes of decay and transformation, Polke focused on the process and its reproduction through carrier and recording media such as textiles, canvas, paper, exhibition walls, photography, film, and projection. Working with and against techniques and materials has inspired many artists in recent years to engage in material interventions and reflect on Polke's methods of experimentation. The painter Helen Marten has highlighted his working method as a fluid system of describing the world and his multi-layered use of projection—photographic, theatrical in the sense of drag, psychological, etc. The processual nature of the material due to the effects of moisture and heat was a central feature of Polke's Biennale cycle and continues to be reflected in fluid exhibition staging and experiments in contemporary art as material and eco-critical reflections. The jointly organized study day by Anna Polke Foundation and KHM on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Polke's Athanor project at the German Pavilion in Venice in 1986, the diverse approaches, experimental methods, and artistic updates will be examined and reflected upon with theoretical and performative interventions in 2026 in cooperation with the Museum Abteiberg (Polke Room). On occasion of the seminar there will be excursions and it will culminate in a study day with interventions at the Museum Abteiberg on November 7, 2026. Reading list (selection): Kathrin Busch/Kathrin Peters (eds.), Wessen Wissen? Materialität und Situiertheit in den Künsten, Berlin 2016. Reader productive image interference: Sigmar Polke and current perspectives, Anna-Polke-Foundation, Berlin 2023. Kathy Halbreich/Barbara Engelbach (eds.), Alibis: Sigmar Polke Retrospecticv 1963–2010, exh. cat. MoMA New York/Museum Ludwig Cologne, Munich 2014. Dierk Stemmler (ed.), Sigmar Polke: ATHANOR, exh.cat. German Pavillon, Venice Biennial, Dusseldorf 1986. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World : On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Princeton 2015.