Following the August 2018 appointment by Manifesta 13 of Dutch architect Winy Maas and urban practice MVRDV to conduct the pre-biennial research study for the city of Marseille, a new artistic team has been selected for Manifesta 13 Marseille in 2020 by Director of Manifesta, Hedwig Fijen.

Manifesta 13 Marseille will apply the same innovative approach introduced in Manifesta 12 Palermo, where an in-depth urban study preceded the appointment of 4 trans-disciplinary Creative Mediators who collaborated to genuinely integrate the biennial into the social, cultural, and political fabric of the city of Palermo. This model will now be continued for  Manifesta 13 taking place in 2020 in Marseille with the intention to unlock the city and leave a tangible legacy as was accomplished in Palermo. This is the first time that Manifesta will hold a biennial edition in France. Acutely mirroring the current geo-political challenges both Europe and France are facing, and specifically Marseille as a city of many contradictions, this Mediterranean metropole provides an apt location to hold the European Nomadic Biennial in 2020.

Manifesta is announcing the artistic team of its 13th edition:

Moroccan Alya Sebti is today the director of Berlin’s ifa Gallery, has recently been the guest curator of the 13th Dak’Art, Biennial of Contemporary African Art (2018), and was Artistic Director of the 5th Marrakech Biennial;

Spanish architect Marina Otero Verzier is the Director of Research and Development at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, The Netherlands;

Moscow-based, Russian Katerina Chuchalina, is chief curator at the V-A-C Foundation in both Moscow and Venice;

German Stefan Kalmár is currently the director of the ICA in London, formerly director of Artists Space New York City, and Kunstverein München, and former resident of Marseille having lived in the city for 12 years.

Manifesta 13 Marseille will take place between 7 June and 1 November 2020.