Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.

Manifesta 13 Marseille was one of the only international biennials to take place during the global pandemic COVID-19, the biennial ended earlier than planned due to the second national lockdown

Karl Holmqvist, SE

For Manifesta 8, Karl Holmqvist makes use of some of the techniques discovered by the poet, painter and fervent inventor Brion Gysin (1916¿1986), who spent eight years in Tangier, Morocco in the 1950s. Using the format of printed posters and text works, Holmqvist investigates how such formal elements as graphic repetition can take language outside the constricts of time. He also links Arabic calligraphic tradition, for instance, to the visual arts. Holmqvists installation in El Parque Cafeteria in Cartagena functions as an anteroom to the amphitheatre, where there will be live readings of his work.