Manifesta 4: defining Europe? Acting more as facilitators than as curatorial stars, the organizers of last summer's Manifesta created an experimental visual forum—with mixed results - Report From Frankfurt

Art in America, Jan, 2003 by Susan Snodgrass

Further dialogue with the artists about issues raised by Manifesta 4 occurred at Trespassing, a meeting place housed within the Frankensteiner Hof. Here, lectures, panel discussions and performances took place during the course of the exhibition. A network of computers maintained several Internet projects, including the Manifesta Web site (www.manifesta.org) and its extension, e-manifesta.org, created by Spaniard Daniel Garcia Andujar as an open forum for debate.

In other works, artists adopted a curatorial role, additionally intervening within the economic apparatus of the exhibition. For instance, in lieu of creating a project to exhibit, the Basel-based Christoph Buchel auctioned his participation rights on E-bay. Sal Randolph, of New York, made the winning bid, and was accepted by the curators as a fully credentialed participant. Randolph's Free Manifesta (www.freemanifesta.org) was, in turn, an open call to artists to create projects during Manifesta 4 that were noncommercial and public in nature, most of them on the Web. Approximately 225 artists from Europe and North America participated under Randolph's supervision.

Artist Dirk Fleischmann, of Frankfurt, created a bistro for relaxation and consumption within the former canteen of the Frankensteiner Hof. The menu and prices were determined by those Manifesta 4 artists who participated in the project, waiving their participation fee in exchange for profit received from products sold under their names. The operational costs of maintaining the bistro were borne by Manifesta. Refreshments for sale included beverages, which visitors enjoyed while sitting on wood chaise lounges. The Amsterdam-based Zapp Magazine offered white bread smeared with creamy butter and dark chocolate sprinkles.

Public Spaces

Other works utilized public media and information systems, including television, radio and video info-screens installed in subways and train stations. There were also more traditional public works situated out-of-doom in the city, but few seemed to make inventive use of their sites. Hungarian Antal Lakner provided a notable exception, creating fictitious military uniforms and equipment for the (nonexistent) Icelandic army; these items the viewer encountered unexpectedly on the north bank of the river, where mannequins wearing "turtle" defense armor were displayed in a small metal hut, while a "plankton" submarine unit bobbed atop the muddy currents of the Main.

A Romanian collaborative calling itself the Construction & Deconstruction Institute offered one of the few public works that directly commented on Frankfurt as a place of economic power and social mobility. A shipping container attached to a deflated parachute appeared to have fallen from the sky and landed in a passageway between the Kunstverein and the Kunsthalle. Depicted on a banner on the container's side were flags of Romania and Germany, along with the words "One-way Ticket, Worldwide Travels" and "Nonstop Utopia." Inside, the floor was carpeted with a map of Frankfurt, and several exit signs attached to the walls directed viewers to leave the trailer. Given the current debate in Germany and elsewhere regarding immigration laws, the piece carried a potently sardonic political charge.