Dutch architect, urbanist, researcher Prof. Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV and founder of The Why Factory, has been named as the new Creative Mediator for the 13th edition of Manifesta Biennial for the city of Marseille.

Set to be held in 2020 in Marseille, Manifesta will collaborate with Winy Maas, MVRDV and The Why Factory on an interdisciplinary urban study of Marseille and its metropolitan region as the base for the curatorial framework of Manifesta 13. The study will serve as a platform to develop artistic and cultural interventions during the biennial in 2020.

Manifesta successfully introduced architecture and urban studies to the curatorial process of Manifesta 12 in Palermo as visual instruments to understand and unlock the city and to leave a tangible legacy. 

The 13th edition of Manifesta Marseille will consist of an interdisciplinary program of artistic events broadly focused on the areas of art, urban development, contemporary culture, education, theory, research, and mediation. Manifesta 13 Marseille will take place between 7 June and 1 November 2020.

In Marseille, MVRDV will work closely with students from Aix-Marseille University and The Why Factory, a research institute for the future city, founded by Winy Maas in 2008 at TU Delft. The pre-biennial research will be an investigation tool for the next Creative Mediators team and an instrument for the citizens of Marseille to co-create and synergise with the biennial at an early stage.

MVRDV will make an interdisciplinary study of Marseille in collaboration with Manifesta. Image © VilledeMarseille

"As an urban planner I imagine to highlight, enlarge and manifest the potentials, necessities and beauties of Marseille. The urban study will support all artists, makers and designers involved, to show, inspire and enlarge its role and specificity within the archipelago of European cities. Thus, enlarging Europe’s cohabitation and strength," said Winy Maas, co-founder MVRDV.

"With the appointment of Dutch office MVRDV as partners in the research process for M13 in Marseille, we hope to get a better understanding of how to implement the biennial in a more inclusive way into the tissues of the host city, considering ways of working such as co-creation, co-production and collaboration with local universities and associations," said Hedwig Fijen, Manifesta Director. 

"We believe that by commissioning an architectural office to develop an urban research project anticipating the biennial, Manifesta reaches beyond specific art communities to facilitate a new social commons, and allows commissioned artists, thinkers and curators to operate both within a framework and with freedom of experiment," Fijen added.

Over the next half year while MVRDV is working on their pre-biennial research. MVRDV will announce its new team of Creative Mediators soon, and will start working on the biennial concept and research. MVRDV will present the results of their study with an intervention in public space in Spring 2019.

Manifesta 12 Palermo “The Planetary Garden. Cultivating Co-existence” is open until November 4, 2018. In Manifesta 12, OMA was selected as Creative Mediator in the city of Palermo.

Top image: Winy Maas © Barbra Verbij

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