Manifesta 9 Parallel Events: looking back

foto/photo: Berndhaut Smilde, 'Nimbus D'Aspremont', 2012

Manifesta 9 Parallel Events have brought along new visitors and have initiated international collaborations

Manifesta Parallel Events are collateral events taking place in the time frame of the Manifesta exhibition. The Manifesta 9 Parallel Events program offered a broader view of different aspects of the regional and inter-regional local, artistic and museum cultural scene to the regional, national and international public. The Manifesta 9 Parallel Events completing Manifesta 9 have all, each in their own specific way, zoomed in on the industrialisation and modernism as part of the regional development of Belgian Limburg into a cultural region, and on the EU-regional collaboration with Liège, Dutch Limburg and the German Rhineland.

Manifesta 9 Parallel Events gave the visitor the opportunity to discover the local cultural sector in all its layers. A lot of Parallel Events referred to the transformation of an industrial region into a service economy, with all the visible changes this has initiated in the rural environment.

We are very proud that over 98 cultural events, cultural, educational and social organisations, museums and art centres took part in the Manifesta 9 Parallel Events.

Apart from resulting in extra and new visitors, the Manifesta 9 Parallel Events program also offers the participating organisations and individuals a complementary platform to communicate and show their activities to a broad and international audience. And, as previous editions of Manifesta Parallel Events have proven, it can be the first step in durable international collaborations and exchanges.

We are delighted what some of the Manifesta 9 Parallel Events initiators have experienced and stated that:

“Manifesta 9 has linked contemporary art to the art history and industrial heritage of the region. The exhibition in itself was a very refreshing experience this summer and has significantly enlarged the attention for contemporary art.”
Brigitte Franzen, Ludwig Forum für internationale Kunst, Aachen

“In my opinion, the influence of Manifesta 9 on the region has been both positive and neutral. Positive, because it stimulated several galleries, artist collectives, individual artists to set up “something”, which wouldn’t have existed otherwise. (...) Thanks to its great accessibility it may have made a broader audience enthusiastic about contemporary art. (...)
Luc Theuwis, Art and Advice

"The reactions to MIJN-Versie were positive to very positive and for a number of people the project has proven to be a moment of visual “zen” after the vastness of Manifesta 9.”
Jozef Constant, MIJN-Versie

“In museum Het Domein in Sittard we have now created a fertile basis on which we can realize ideas (...) Furthermore 600 primary school students have, in a time lapse of two weeks, learned more about healthy food and cooking (...) and in Maasmechelen we are now developing a splendid community art project”
Juul Sadée, Han Rameckers. 'Uit de keuken van....' - Museum het Domein en CC Maasmechelen