Image: Kristof Vranken

Manifesta, the roving European Biennial of Contemporary Art, showcases the most innovative work by artists and curators from Europe and beyond. Kicking off in Belgium on June 2, 2012 and running for a period of 120 days, Manifesta 9 will be taking place in the historical Mine Building of Waterschei in Genk, Limburg, Belgium. Since its first edition 15 years ago, Manifesta has been concerned with the idea of breaking down barriers, crossing borders and building bridges. Incorporating exhibitions, performances, multi-media experiments and broadcasts, Manifesta 9 highlights the very best of creative thought, research and experimentation, involving individual artists and artistic communities with diverse backgrounds from all around the world. For the first time in the history of Manifesta the exhibition will not be limited to contemporary art. In 2012, the former coalmining complex in Waterschei will become the stage for a multi-faceted exhibition showcasing, alongside the vast contemporary art section, a groundbreaking collection of historical artworks directly related to the history of mining, industrialism and the importance of coal in the 19th and 20th centuries. Furthermore Manifesta 9 aims to reveal a completely fresh approach to dealing with material and immaterial heritage.
Manifesta changes its location every two years in response to a variety of social, political and geographical considerations. Since 1996, it has been held in Rotterdam, Luxembourg, Ljubljana, Frankfurt, Donostia-San Sebastián, Nicosia, Trentino-Alto Adige and the Region of Murcia.

Curators
Cuauhtémoc Medina heads the curatorial department of Manifesta 9 and works as a curator, art critic and historian. He lives and works in Mexico City. He holds a PhD in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex, UK. Medina is a researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas at the National University of Mexico. Medina was the first Associate Curator of Latin American Art Collections at Tate Modern in London.

Katerina Gregos is a curator and writer based in Brussels, Belgium. She is currently curator of Newtopia: The State of Human Rights (Mechelen, 2012). Recent exhibitions include the Danish Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennial and the 4. Fotofestival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg (both 2011). Previously, Gregos served as artistic director of Argos - Centre for Art & Media, Brussels, and director of the Deste Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens.

Dawn Ades is a fellow of the British Academy, a former trustee of Tate and was awarded an OBE in 2002 for her services to art history. She has been responsible for some of the most important exhibitions in London and overseas over the past thirty years, including “Dada and Surrealism Reviewed”, “Art in Latin America” and “Francis Bacon”. Dawn Ades has a remarkably wide knowledge of the social and poetic dynamics of modernism and the avant-garde both in Europe and the Americas.

Practical Details:
Former coal mine of Waterschei
André Dumontlaan
3600 Genk
closed on Mondays
Open every day from 10-19pm, Thursday and Friday evening from 19-22pm
www.manifesta9.org