Mediation Programme

Proposed by the education team of Manifesta 14, the programme is a mediation initiative between the main curatorial program and the city of Prishtina. Inspired by the encounters with the local scene, this programme aims at questioning and adapting the practice of cultural and art mediation to the context of Kosovo within the frame of Manifesta 14. The programme starts in February 2022 with the learning sessions of the Mediation school. The sessions will focus on exploring and reflecting about the project of Manifesta 14 in the historical and socio-cultural context of Kosovo, as well as co-developing mediation approaches with the input of various local and international experts to be put in practice when Manifesta 14 will open to public. 

The term art mediation generally refers to the process of acquiring or negotiating knowledge in artistic contexts including artistic creations, institutions, the social context and the people who encounter these settings. Cultural and art mediation is based on exchange and creative response and suggests treating each person as an expert in their own experience and culture. This opposes the common idea of educating as transferring “objective” knowledge from a more informed person to a less informed one. 

As part of the biennial’s Education programme the mediation practices aim at creating space for meaningful dialogue between the biennial programme and its audiences, the inhabitants of the host city and international visitors. In each host city, Manifesta explores existing practices and histories in the fields of cultural mediation, knowledge production and education, imagining possible approaches together with a local team of mediators.