Regina Gleeson
discusses issues at the core of Manifesta 5
in San Sebastián.
Political rumour / cultural
landscape / present imperfect / ruins in reverse / zones of contingency
/ under construction / spiritual noises / project and accusation
/ landscape manual / encounter with ambiguity / city folded over
onto itself / two way mirror / double exposure / bipolar city
/ power of identity / potemkin village / staged matrix / trickland
/ silent factory - With All Due Intent
(Manifesta 5concept and themes)
The doors have just closed on the fifth
edition of the nomadic biennial of European Art, Manifesta.
This year's show was located in the Basque city of San Sebastián
in the North of Spain, which is a beautiful location but also
one that is alive and edgy with affirmations and tensions surrounding
its cultural and sociopolitical autonomy. The location was chosen
for what it could offer to Manifesta in terms of providing
a context within which to consider the themes of the show. These
themes, listed above, looked at some schizophrenic associations
of architectonics and urban landscape and many individual works
in the show were formed around the bipolarity between the utopia
and dystopia of Home - separation from it, desire for, dispersal
from, deconstruction of, familiar shape of and inescapable ties
with Home.
Manifesta San Sebasti‡n,
graffiti along Pasaia San Pedro, 2004; image courtesy
the author
Manifesta 5 does not shout about
its brilliance or stomp its creative little feet in demand of
our attention. It is an understated show, sincere in its portrayal
of this moment in time. Marta Kuzma and Massimiliano Gioni have
beautifully and skilfully curated the exhibition, attending to
the minor details that can be the demise of many a show, such
as attention towards avoiding the distractions of noise and light
pollution, facilitating the audience with simple seating where
necessary and affording each work the kind of capsule of space
for which it had been intended. This is not an exhibition that
rages against the machination of global structures but rather
one that shows a collection of first-person-singular accounts
of small moments that collectively offer a broad account of the
psychogeography of contemporary Europe. Manifesta offers
these unpretentious accounts of suffocation and survival within
the mechanisms of the societies of these global times with all
of the redefining of borders, bitter ironies and quirky contrasts.
The works exhibited use a sentient, coded
language that functions on a delicate energy; one that had no
need for grandeur or ceremony. David Zink Yi's La Cumbia
is a projected video showing the artist's fingers dancing a solemn
tango along the contours of his body and strongly suggests a difficult
separation from the sounds, smells, rhythm and roots that the
artist knows as Home. This lonely but sweet reverie shows
something of the quiet idiosyncrasy we sometimes engage in when
we think no one watches, such as when a pianist is waiting for
someone and all the while dancing their fingers along the edge
of the table as they mentally rehearse a piece of music. The work
is a poignant expression of the reality of Home sweet Homesickness
when one is in search of home in every other location.
The thread of a global suburbia that
grows out of sprawling homes-from-home continues throughout the
various exhibition venues, but a greater proportion of work relates
to the situation of being grounded in the physical location of
home whose roots simultaneously strangle and seduce. Carlos Bunga's
work, which expresses interest in urban spatial relationships
in the light of rapid degradation of structures and objects, is
shoulder-to-shoulder with Michael Sailftorfer's installation,
Breadboard construction Marilyn. This work operates on
a transformation and displacement of form, function and concept.
Laura Horelli's Helsinki shipyard videos expose the background
to the homes of those involved in the luxury-cruise-ship industry
as being far removed from the opulence of the customers they serve.
In contrast to Bunga's work, these videos identify a commercial
structure and its regime as home, even if that ‘home' imposes
impossible practical and lifestyle limitations on its inhabitants.
Angela De La Cruz's Clutter examines displacement of form
in a deconstructionist exploration of formal physical structures.
Leopold Kessler has made the simplest intervention in the city,
and like many of the smallest, most precise efforts, has had a
resounding effect. He has tilted the flow of one jet of water
in a fountain and in doing so, has quietly drawn attention to
the sharp edges of the over-planned uniformity of the city space.
This is one of the most playful, unassuming and cleverly engaging
works in the show.
Angela De La Cruz: Clutter,
detail from series, 2004; image courtesy the author
The symmetrical, classical architecture
and planning of central San Sebastián gradually gives way
to functional high-rise flats and empty warehouses as one moves
out of the city towards an area called Pasaia where Manifesta
continues. Here, Jan De Cock has inverted the reflection of
an empty disused ship-building warehouse inside itself. He has
filled a hollowed-out redundant centre with multiple, super-exposures
of itself, turning it into a structure that is a tri-dimensional
Mondrianesque delineation of space.
Jan De Cock: Module LVIII Installation
detail at Ondartxo ship-building warehouse, 2004; image courtesy
the author
The only participant from the Republic
of Ireland is Garrett Phelan, whose work is also located off-site
in an old harbour building. Contrary to its description on the
art circuit's grapevine, Phelan's installation, LUNGLOVE,
is not manic at all. It is certainly cluttered but orbits a specific
concept regarding an exchange of energies in personal and collective
existences that influence health and survival in and against the
machine. Throughout the rooms his work occupies, the walls are
covered with diagrams and words elucidating variations on the
theme. The overwhelmingly dank smell that permeated the entire
space prevented viewers from lingering. This was a great pity,
as there were strong lines of thought that continued through the
series of rooms that required a little time to be read and digested,
but the heavy smell in the summer heat was a little too much for
many viewers to fight against. The work's content is suitable
to this location, but one wonders at the omission of bi/tri-lingual
texts. Phelan had considered using some translation in his text,
but found that the spontaneity of process was interrupted in doing
so. He also observed that, even though there are no obvious points
of reference for San Sebastián as a location, this work
has universal relevance and therefore could exist in any location.
Phelan's work was a good choice for this Manifesta, as
it expressed nervousness in participation in the work machine
which was a common thread in some of the other works on show.
It is also relevant to all of us in an expanding Europe Union.
It was interesting to see similar threads of tension in work from
across the continent, irrespective of the strength of the economy
and sociopolitical terrain of the artist's nationality or country
of residence.
Garrett Phelan: LUNGLOVE, installation
detail at Soto del Aquarium, 2004; image courtesy the author
Garrett Phelan: LUNGLOVE, installation
detail at Soto del Aquarium, 2004; image courtesy the author
Garrett Phelan: LUNGLOVE, installation
detail at Soto del Aquarium, 2004; image courtesy the author
Garrett Phelan: LUNGLOVE,
installation detail at Soto del Aquarium, 2004; image courtesy
the author
The next exhibition, Manifesta 6,
is to be held in Nicosia in Cyprus in 2006. Considering that the
committee's manifesto is to address (note: not redress) the balance
between the North and South of Europe and bearing in mind our
geographical, cultural, political and economic terrain, we might
then consider whether or not Ireland could be a potential future
location for this nomadic European show. Physically, we are dangling
off the outer edge of Europe, but in social and economic terms
we are within the range of Central European trends. However, it
is Ireland's cultural positioning that is the most interesting
aspect to be considered with regard to its relevance for Manifesta.
The connection with elements that might previously have been identified
as typically Irish has lessened. The population is increasingly
including new ethnicities, but our cultural production needs time
to reflect this. It seems that we are in that intermediary period
of change wherein the current position is vague and the direction
is unknown. Probably, the most notable thing we could offer in
response to Manifesta's questions, regarding peripheries
and balances, is a refrain of further questions that are at the
core of what might loosely be described as contemporary Irish
culture. We might ask what fuels the energies, challenges the
identities, defines the relationship with the centres or enables
functional imbalances within Europe and across the globe.
While we are very much part of the European
Union's political landscape, it is our fluctuating cultural landscape
that would present the most fertile ground as a context for a
future Manifesta. Some may consider that this lack of definition
and direction reflects emptiness in the Irish culture of today
but, in this instance, our supposed weakness could be our greatest
strength, as the absence of definition allows diversity to thrive.
Regina Gleeson
is a writer on art.
Research for this article was
supported by the Arts Council of Ireland / An Comhairle
Ealaíon
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