The European biennial of contemporary art, Manifesta 16, will open its doors on 21 June 2026 in the Ruhr region of Germany. This latest edition of the nomadic biennial will carry out its main activities across the cities of Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Gelsenkirchen, in one of Europe’s most densely populated urban and industrial regions.
Catalan participation is a notable feature of this edition. Beyond the central role of architect and urban planner Josep Bohigas as curator and member of the artistic team -with the curatorial proposal This is not a church- Manifesta 16 also features four additional projects linked to the professional context of Catalan culture, under the artistic programme For Whom the Bell Tolls?: CaboSanRoque, with FAIL LOUDER, Curro Claret, with This is not a church pew, Llorenç Barber and Montserrat Palacios, with How Long a Clapper’s Shadow Falls, and Penique productions, with Möglich Unvorhersehbar (Possibly unpredictable).
These proposals, supported by the Institut Ramon Llull, will serve to strengthen Manifesta’s relationship with Catalan culture, which was already evident in the previous edition, Manifesta 15, held in the Barcelona metropolitan area and featuring more than 30 Catalan artists.
With over 5.3 million inhabitants, the Ruhr region is renowned for its long tradition of converting industrial spaces into prestigious cultural facilities. In this context, Manifesta 16 is focusing on a new area of intervention: so-called Pantoffelnkirchen, or neighbourhood churches, once central to community life but now often disused.
In total, 12 of these buildings, most of which were constructed during the post-war period with brutalist aesthetics, will host the artistic programme. The idea stemmed from research led by Josep Bohigas, who seeks to reinterpret these churches not as mere relics, but as incubators for social and cultural renewal at a time marked by digitalisation and polarisation.
This year’s edition will feature 107 participants from 31 countries, and will be open to visitors until October 4.
CaboSanRoque is Laia Torrents Carulla and Roger Aixut Sampietro, artists in residence at the Fundació Lluís Coromina since 2015. Their work revolves around sound and its performative capacities. Their interventions question the exhibition space and its formats; they also challenge the viewer’s ways of inhabiting that space, physically, temporally and conceptually, as well as sonically and visually. Their academic backgrounds (music, industrial engineering and architecture) have also led them to incorporate technology into all of their pieces. Since 2012, their work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including in recent years at CaixaFòrum + (2023), Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (2023), Cité de l’Architecture (Paris, 2021), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, 2020-2021) and the Centre for Contemporary Arts of Glasgow (2019).
Regarding FAIL LOUDER, which will be installed at Sant Ludgerus (Bochum), they explained: “The stadium comes alive when no baskets or goals are scored, when no one wins. On this field of play and de-competition, the rules and the pitch are broken and reshaped through the alteration of its elements, which function as the epicentre that brings together the exhibition's various conceptual concerns. Deformed goalposts, non-standardised baskets and a stand that is also a podium, where the audience, faced with the spectacle, becomes a subject of competition. It is surrounded by a children’s anthem interwoven with fragments of ultra supporters' chants that defend their colours to the death.”
Curro Claret, This is not a church pew
Curro Claret studied at ELISAVA Faculty of Design and Engineering and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Since the late 1990s, he has worked as an independent designer of furniture, objects, artefacts and interiors, focusing his practice on critically rethinking ways of living and of making and (re)using existing resources. His work shows a particular interest in involving groups that, for various reasons, are marginalised, invisible or excluded from opportunities for participation, exploring forms of empowerment. His work with these diverse groups is carried out interchangeably with sectoral organisations such as Arrels Fundació, Tot Raval, Impulsem and the We Are Water Foundation; cultural institutions such as the Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo and La Cuisine Centre d’Art et de Design in Nègrepelisse; businesses such as BD Barcelona, Camper and Ziclacities; and academic centres, primarily ELISAVA Faculty of Design and Engineering, often bringing several of these entities together within a single project.
Talking about This is not a church pew, which will take place at St. Ludgerus (Bochum) and St. Josef (Gelsenkirchen), he explained: “The proposal aims to explore how furniture can generate diverse opportunities for encounter. Through a process of dialogue and participation involving people connected to the neighbourhood, it seeks to design and build a collection of elements that deliberately encourage people to gather and interact. The main approach involves transforming disused church pews and, occasionally, other wooden elements sourced from churches. This highlights the reuse of material and structural resources that have lost their original function, giving them a new use and renewed life in a context shaped by more pressing needs.”
Llorenç Barber and Montserrat Palacios, How Long a Clapper’s Shadow Falls
Bells, everyday objects and voices are the tools through which Llorenç Barber and Montserrat Palacios explore new musical forms based on the echoes of the environment, resulting in unique and highly original proposals.
Llorenç Barber is a composer, instrumentalist and musical activist. He founded the musical action group Actum de València (1973), the Taller de Música Mundana (1978), the Flatus Vocis Trio (1987) and the Ensems (1979), Paralelo Madrid (1992) and Nits d’Aielo i Art (1998) cycles. His distinctive and heterodox creative practice spans improvisation, minimalism, plurifocal music, phonetic poetry and, in particular, urban bell concerts, which he has organised in over 150 cities worldwide.
Montserrat Palacios was born in Mexico City. In 2000 she began studying overtone singing with Llorenç Barber and Thomas Clements. Since 1999, she has collaborated with the Valencian composer Llorenç Barber on the ethnomusicological study and artistic fulfilment of his city concerts with bells, mobile bands and fireworks (aerial percussion), which also engaging with sound art and the intersection between visual, plastic and intermedia arts. She currently works in improvisation, vocal performance and extended voice techniques, focusing on the use of objects such as glassware, teapots, sewing machines and threads in relation to the voice.
In reference to How Long a Clapper’s Shadow Falls, which can be heard at St. Josef (Gelsenkirchen), they said: “The sounds of bells are close, concrete, constantly varied and often insistent. They evoke celebration, the outdoors, the street and the collective climax of the kermesse, an event organised for charitable purposes; a form akin to a desacralised church mass, now expanded and dispersed, a sound that moves and unfolds with every bend and change in level. This transforms plurifocality into a serpentine, endless sonic fabric, a voracious, gigantic flow that reaches everyone. A proposal without limits, taking on new lives beyond every bridge and stream. Bell music is, in this sense, megamusic. Listening to it is always a unique experience.”
Penique productions, with Möglich Unvorhersehbar (Possibly unpredictable)
Penique productions was founded in Barcelona in 2007 by Sergi Arbusà as a project focused on ephemeral installations. Since 2008, Penique has also operated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Each project begins by identifying a unique site to build a custom piece: the inflatable. The “balloon”, made of lightweight plastic, grows and expands as the air becomes the supporting structure and forces the inflatable to grow, consuming everything in its path. Conquered by the inflatable, the space is transformed with a new light, a new texture and a new monochrome colour. The viewer is conveyed through the sensory experience to an environment that is both familiar and new.
About Möglich Unvorhersehbar (Possibly unpredictable), which will take place at St. Josef (Gelsenkirchen), they explained: “The work consists of a large white inflatable that occupies the central nave of the church, entering into dialogue with the architecture of the space. Inside, the performative dimension of the piece becomes apparent, unifying the space through texture and colour, while outside, the sculptural aspect of the work reveals its inflatable nature through the protuberances formed between the columns. The central idea is to transform the church into a space for use and enjoyment by the local community; a space open to the public, open to being inhabited in ways each person understands and chooses. The work deactivates the church and generously offers it to the local community, allowing them to appropriate it, use it and experience it freely.”
