Manifesta 12 The Planetary Garden: Cultivating Coexistence

Manifesta 12 Palermo explores coexistence in a world moved by invisible networks, transnational private interests, algorithmic intelligence, environmental crisis and ever-increasing inequalities. It looks at this world through the unique lens of Palermo – a city at the crossroads of three continents in the heart of the Mediterranean. Closely collaborating with Palermitan partners, Manifesta 12 co-inhabits Palermo, as an ideal place to investigate the challenges of our time, and to experiment with traces of possible futures.

The Planetary Garden: Cultivating Coexistence hosts three main sections: Garden of Flows, Out of Control Room and City on Stage. It takes place in the magnificent Botanical Garden and numerous other historical, sacred, modern and previously abandoned locations in the city center and beyond. It re-occupies the Teatro Garibaldi as the heart and central meeting place of Manifesta 12.

Manifesta 12 is curated by an interdisciplinary group of Creative Mediators composed of Bregtje van der Haak, a renowned Dutch documentary filmmaker and journalist; Andrés Jaque, a Spanish architect, founder of the Office for Political Innovation and professor at Columbia University; Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, a Sicilian-born architect and partner at OMA/AMO and Mirjam Varadinis, a Swiss contemporary art curator at Kunsthaus Zurich. The biennale was preceded and informed by Palermo Atlas, an urban study by OMA/AMO commissioned by Manifesta 12 and the city of Palermo.