Manifesta 9 shows a different approach from earlier editions. The choice of an extraordinary location has not changed - in this case the large Waterschei mining complex in Genk, Belgium. New is the way contemporary art is accessibly embedded in the cultural heritage of the location, the mining industry. In an interview in Metropolis M no. 3, curator Cuauhtémoc Medina explains the context of the exhibition. The issue also gives a concise history of Manifesta 1 - 9.
For Beaufort 04 artist Lucy McKenzie has curated a project that spectacularly transformes the facade of the Mu.ZEE in Ostend to the building's original function: a department store. Check the first photo's here.
Modes of always looking and being looked at have been inscribed in a palimpsest of 20th Century critical thought, creating an imposing framework for Belgian theatre practitioner cum artist, Ief Spincemaille'sEverything is art now, except you. You are only watching at the Brakke Grond in Amsterdam.
Just recently he created a newspaper which perfectly matched the design of the newspaper in which it was inserted, namely, the Belgian dailt, De tijd. The editors of De Tijd were shocked when they arrived at their desks in the morning to find an unknowninsert in their own newspaper. Sven Augustijnen plays with the veracity of fact by presenting his fiction as documentary. On the off chance that it is the truth, then it's the truth about stealing.
