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.
Manifesta, The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, was born as a nomadic contemporary art event, and has developed into a flexible and mobile structure, capable of continuously changing and reinventing itself.
It sees itself as an open-ended, dialogical process, initiating international collaborative projects and of adding a dimension of its own to a wide range of independently organised initiatives. At the same time, Manifesta works to develop new audiences for contemporary art and stimulate new approaches to artistic production and display. Its various programmes are designed to offer artists and curators alike the greatest possible freedom to experiment with innovative working methods and approaches to communicating with different publics.