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

Ymane Fakhir, MA

Ymane Fakhir’s project is a performance that tells the tale of Le gouffre du leopard (The Leopard’s Abyss). Bina is an island dweller. She tells us about the journey of her parents Doress and Ahras, who left their mountain for a new land of welcome: ‘the island’. Her parents, Ahras and Doress, cross paths with various young people desperately trying to find their way: Ahras who is slowly weakening; courageous Doress who never has regrets; other young people sinking into a deadly routine and those like Ayour who suddenly disappear, not to mention the ghosts of the mountain. Bina tells us about these adventures and refuses any sense of pity. She sees them as a victory over silence, nothingness and the injustices suffered by Doress and her family. This title of the performance was inspired by the coloured clay stains deposited by water on walls which have patterns similar to the furs of the leopards and the hyenas of Djurdjura. Whenever problems happened there, rescue was almost impossible given the hostile environment, hence the hopelessness of the ‘abyss’.