Idea and aims
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The European biennial of contemporary art, Manifesta, was founded in the early nineties in the course of the political changes in Europe with the aim of initiating an international dialogue among young artists and their respective audiences in Europe and of creating a forum for new and unusual forms of contemporary art. Manifesta conceives of itself as a dynamic, open process. In its striving to react in the area of contemporary art to current trends and to extend cultural discourse, Manifesta conceives of itself - on the background of a geographical structure and the social and political situation in Europe - as part of a dynamic, open process.

Manifesta 1 - 3
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Since 1996, the Manifesta Biennial has taken place in changing countries and cities within Europe. The launch in Rotterdam was followed by Luxembourg in 1998 and Ljubljana in 2000. To date, a total of about two hundred artists from 46 European countries have participated in Manifesta.

Curators
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For each biennial, a changing team of independent curators develops a completely new project. Since its initiation in 1993 and up to the third Manifesta in 2000, the following curators have worked out the program: Rosa Martinez, Viktor Misiano, Katalin Neray, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Andrew Renton (Manifesta 1), Robert Fleck, Maria Lind, Barbara Vanderlinden (Manifesta 2), Francesco Bonami, Ole Bouman, Mária Hlavajová, Kathrin Romberg (Manifesta 3)