Manifesta in Our Backyard
a research project (1999-2002)

Initiating group: SCCA-Ljubljana team (Barbara Borčić, Alenka Pirman, Saša Glavan, Igor Španjol), Jože Barši in Urška Jurman
Main working group: Jože Barši, Barbara Borčić (project director), Saša Glavan, Urška Jurman (coordinator)
Production: Center for Contemporary Arts SCCA-Ljubljana in frame of the SCCA (Soros Centers for Contemporary Arts) Network regional program Research and Education in Contemporary Art in the Region

In the Manifesta in Our Backyard research project, Manifesta 3 (a European biennial of contemporary art) that was hosted in Ljubljana in 2000, has served as an example of a large, representative contemporary art event and thus as an example of the manifestation of the cultural industry.

On the model of Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana we were examining the operation of the contemporary art system trying to avoid passive and uncritical acceptation of the event. The goal of the research is to encourage a critical discourse on the contemporary art system, which operates in accordance to the market mechanisms and the dominating (post-modern) ideology. We wished to encourage the self-reflection of the protagonists on the local art scene as well as broader (especially in Eastern Europe). Parallel to this we wished to encourage the formation and emancipation of individual models of operation within the art system - models, which would emerge from the specifics and needs of the area in which we are working.

In the research project we have focused on three fields and formed three working groups:

• a group for analysing the Manifesta 3 self-image
• a group for studying the influence of Manifesta 3 on the local art scene
• a group for analysing works of art

Contributors and collaborators: Ivanka Apostolova, Vanesa Čokl, Eda Čufer, Maša Gedrih, Petja Grafenauer, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Wapke Feenstra, Ralf Hoedt, Moira Zoitl, Lev Kreft, Slavko Kurdija, Bogdan Lešnik, Rastko Močnik, Tanja Pesko, Tadej Pogačar, Marjetica Potrč, Alenka Pirman, Sandra Sajovic, Sabina Salamon, Andreja Slavec, Igor Španjol, and Miško Šuvaković

Project Manifesta in Our Backyard is presented and discussed in publications PlatformaSCCA No.1, PlatformaSCCA No. 2 in PlatformaSCCA No. 3.

PlatformaSCCA, n.1, junij/June 2000		PlatformaSCCA, n.2, December 2000

PlatformaSCCA, n.3, januar/January 2002