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  • MANIFESTA
  • Pre-Biennial
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  • 14 May 2025
    Meet the Manifesta 16 Ruhr Visual Identity
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr

    Manifesta 16 Ruhr proudly presents its new visual identity – the result of an inspiring collaboration with NODE, a design …

  • 29 April 2025
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr announces its urban conceptual framework
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr

    At a press conference organised in Essen, Germany on the 29th of April 2025, Manifesta 16 Ruhr’s director Hedwig Fijen …

  • 27 April 2025
    Join the Manifesta 16 Ruhr Citizen Consultations
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr

    Every two years Manifesta, the European Nomadic Biennial, is organised in a different Host City or Region in Europe. It …

  • 26 March 2025
    Join the Manifesta 16 Ruhr team
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr

    Manifesta continues to redefine the relationship between culture and society, using contemporary art as a catalyst for positive social change …

  • 8 March 2025
    This is not a church: Manifesta 16 Ruhr …
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr

    As part of the pre-biennial research process Manifesta 16 Ruhr organised the interdisciplinary workshop This is not a church: future …

  • 12 February 2025
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr holds first Urban Vision Workshop
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr

    On February 5th, 2025, Manifesta 16 Ruhr held its first Urban Vision Workshop, marking a significant milestone on the path …

  • 2024
  • 11 October 2024
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr 2026 announces urbanist Josep Bohigas …
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr

    Manifesta 16 Ruhr, taking place in 2026 in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia, has selected the Catalan architect and urbanist Josep Bohigas …

  • 12 February 2024
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr 2026 Job Openings Announced!
    Manifesta 16 Ruhr

    We are thrilled to unveil the first job opportunities for key positions including Education Coordinator, Business Coordinator, and Production Coordinator. …

News, 29 April 2025

Manifesta 16 Ruhr announces its urban conceptual framework

At a press conference organised in Essen, Germany on the 29th of April 2025, Manifesta 16 Ruhr’s director Hedwig Fijen and Manifesta 16’s First Creative Mediator, Josep Bohigas presented the initial findings of the urban vision and the conceptual framework which forms foundation of the 16th edition of the European nomadic biennial.

In line with Manifesta’s core mission, the biennial will investigate how culture can inspire civic engagement and instigate positive social change through inclusive and participatory practices.

The Ruhr Area, with its rich industrial heritage, experienced widespread destruction during the Second World War due to its strategic significance as a centre of coal and steel production. In the post-war period, the region underwent rapid reconstruction, with new architectural and social models reshaping city centres and neighbourhoods. In preparation for Manifesta 16, the team has explored this history through the lens of urban transformation that played a central role in rebuilding neighbourhoods in the region.

A key feature of this research concerns the role of churches in the post-war reconstruction of the Ruhr Area. These buildings, often constructed by local communities, came to symbolise civic identity and democratic participation. Today, however, many of these churches face redundancy. In Germany alone, nearly half of the country's 40,000 churches are expected to be closed, demolished, or sold within the next decade.

Photo © Manifesta 16 Ruhr / Dirk Rose

Manifesta 16 Ruhr will explore how these former places of worship might be repurposed as inclusive cultural and social spaces. By reimagining these vacant structures as sites for community gathering and artistic exchange, the biennial aims to promote intercultural dialogue and social cohesion—especially in response to current global tendencies of polarisation and nationalism. Historically, churches and other religious buildings have not only served spiritual purposes, but also acted as civic spaces — sites of gathering, exchange, and support within communities. From a civic and urban perspective, the church inherits the function of a public space from Roman basilicas and the Agora, which were centres of community life. Drawing on this legacy, the Manifesta 16 Ruhr collaborative process seeks to explore the potential of these vacant neighbourhood axis points.

This conceptual framework and especially the relation to these sites will be further developed by the Second Creative Mediator(s) in the autumn of this year.

Find the conceptual framework via this link.

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Manifesta Amsterdam Head Office
c/o Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten
Sarphatistraat 470
1018 GW Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel. + 31 (0) 20 672 14 35

Manifesta 16 Ruhr Office
c/o Regionalverband Ruhr
Referat Kultur, Sport und Industriekultur
Gutenbergstraße 47
45128 Essen
Germany

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