Manifesta originated in the early 1990’s in response to the political, economic and social changes following the end of the Cold War and the subsequent steps towards European integration. Since that time, Manifesta has developed into a traveling platform focusing on the dialogue between art and society in Europe.
Education
The Nomadic nature of Manifesta enables a unique encounter between home-based and international citizens. They come from diverse cultures, professional backgrounds, and life experiences.
The Education and Mediation programme aims to establish a space where all these diversities are valued and shared. A space where we all learn, and not teach. Its goal is to engage with and learning from the existing (self-organised) initiatives in order to create a biennial programme where more people can recognise themselves.
School Projects
Formal education is an important social institute, that forms our society, its values, social behaviour, and cultural norms. In each Manifesta edition we investigate in what way artistic and/or critical pedagogical practices can contribute to the curricular of primary, secondary, or high schools. Projects are focused on exploring subjective gaps in the curricular and/or teaching methods and offer proposals for tackling them. These proposals are results of collaboration between students, teachers and schools’ management, guest artists/educators and Manifesta’s Education team.
Manifesta 14 Prishtina: Uncover your Story: a manual to local cultureAs the pre-biennial Urban Vision of CRA showed, Prishtina is often perceived as a spatially fragmented city with little to no social contact between the neighbourhoods.
Manifesta Mediators
Mediation programme of Manifesta offers different ways to welcome and to engage with our diverse public. It is a collective encounter that involves treating each other as owners of authentic experiences and cultures. This opposes the common idea of transferring “objective” knowledge or opinion from a more informed guide to a less informed audience.
Community projects
The Community programme of Manifesta follows the mediation approach. Following the findings of the pre-biennial urban research and citizens’ consultations, it aims at engaging with the existing practices and knowledges of communities and offering space and support for their development in dialogue with the project of Manifesta.
Community-driven programmes requires time, safe environment, creative independency and openness to unexpected outcomes. In recent editions we put significant resources in community programmes, setting up physical spaces and facilitating collective projects with shared agency. The outcome of community programmes cannot be pre-defined, it goes beyond institutional categories and disciplinary divisions and can be described as educational, curatorial, research or artistic, but always developed in a collective process.
Manifesta 12 Palermo: Un Grande GiardinoThe most ambitious and challenging persuits of Manifesta lie in the realm of urban commons of the host city. The path to commons consciousness in Palermo is very twisted, but no cultural initiative can develop successfully and meaningfully there without …
Education and Community spaces
Manifesta 13 Marseille: Tiers QGTiers QG, the headquarters of Le Tiers Programme (Third Programme), was the first space Manifesta 13 opened to public almost a year before the official opening of the biennial in Marseille.
Publications
Manifesta 14 Prishtina: Mapping Subculture MovementsTo understand Prishtina’s pre-existing cultural ecosystem, especially outside of that which is supported and endorsed by institutions, Manifesta 14’s Education and Mediation Department in collaboration with the community centre Termokiss, initiated a research project which attempted to map and trace …
Fora Per Fer Escola
Radical practices from Catalan Pedagogies
Manifesta’s Education and Mediation programme emerges from collaborative research with local actors, exploring overlooked aspects of educational and cultural histories that help envision alternative futures. In Manifesta 15, the research centres on Catalan progressive educational movements pre and post-Francoist dictatorship, employing artistic research, mediation, public programming and professional networks.

Fora per fer Escola, 2024. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Helena Roig.
Initiated in 2023, Fora per fer escola emerged as a collaborative research process led by the Education and Mediation team of Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana. It consolidates various projects forming the biennial's education and mediation programme. Translated from Catalan, the title embodies multiple significant dimensions: the idea of taking education outdoors, setting precedents and being expelled for creating a school.
This initiative aims to reconnect with the progressive Catalan educational movements, both pre- and post-Francoist dictatorship. Through artistic research, mediation, public programming and professional networks, it aims to illuminate ideas and practices that can contribute to pedagogical and eco-social transformations necessary today and are aligned with the overarching biennial themes: Balancing Conflicts, Cure and Care and Imagining Futures.
Five local collectives and individual artists were invited to delve into (existing) archives. The collective Inland Campo Adentro focused its attention on Escola de Bosc’s unique approach to cooking and dining, which were integral to its educational and social agenda. As part of this research, the collective organised a community banquet at the Torre Negra in Sant Cugat del Vallès, bringing together local stakeholders advocating for food sovereignty. The Paisanaje collective continued this initiative with their biennial project Agápē, expanding their research to contemporary Catalan school canteens, raising awareness amongst today’s students about the impact of different consumption habits and food production chains.
Diversorium, a crip and queer temporary gathering space for all bodies, engaged with the archives of Vil·la Joana, the first municipal public school dedicated to students with disabilities. The research focused on analysing the systems that label and isolate children who do not fit into ‘normal’ educational standards, questioning the notion and systems of inclusiveness. Subsequently, Diversorium invited the artist Ariadna Guiteras to create a welcoming and restful space, inspired by the text and research that Diversorium did of Vil·la Joana. Throughout the biennial, the space hosted performances, gatherings and educational activities.


Agápē, 2024 © Paisanaje. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Helena Roig.
Sara Torres-Vega, an artist and researcher, explored a human-centred pedagogy of Escola del Mar and the role of the sea in our global, multi-species ecosystem. The research subsequently shaped a collaborative programme of public talks and workshops "What do sea creatures know about pedagogy?" at the Centre de la Platja, a municipal centre focused on environmental education and ocean literacy.
Massa Salvatge and Lluc Mayol concentrated the research on revitalising solidarity networks, drawing inspiration from Batec, a teachers’ collective that was active in the province of Lleida in Catalonia from 1930 to 1936. In collaboration with community members, artist Anaïs Florin compiled and restored the archive of a social movement Escoles en Lluita. With a membership comprised of educators, students, political activists, intellectuals and artists, this grassroots movement advocated for high-quality public education and struggled against exploitation in disadvantaged neighbourhoods along the Besòs River.
The archival research sparked multiple projects and collaborations that form the biennial’s education and mediation programme. Teachers’ Camps is one of the projects initiated in the metropolitan region that aims at collectively reflecting on the historical methodologies of the pedagogical movements in dialogue with the contemporary teaching practices and political responsibility of education.
Through a publication and a display at the Gustavo Gili, the programme sought to contextualise the five pedagogical situations within broader historical processes and educational renewal movements in Spain, Europe and Latin America. It also provided theoretical and artistic insights on pedagogical and archival practices, along with the Pedagogical Oracle—a methodological resource for teachers and educators developed during the Teachers’ Camps process. While the publication and exhibition focused on historical contexts, the International Education Symposium addressed contemporary issues, exploring what remained of their political agenda today.
Inspired by the Batec practices of peer exchange and mutual support, the Territorial Working Group has been initiated as a platform for municipal officials in culture, education and social affairs in the Barcelona metropolitan region to share challenges and critical reflections on cultural participation and inclusion.

Education Symposium at Gustavo Gili, 2024. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Helena Roig.
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