MyLuxBook I Summer 2016

My LUx BOOK 73
How do you approach a city?
Hedwig Fijen: I have my own flat in every Manifesta city, where I
spend time on a regular basis. Three years before the start of
construction, I am on site to get a feel for the city, to build up
contacts and to form a team. I meet a lot of people but have to
keep a certain distance to be able to remain critical.
“We are not just here to
make art but we also enter
into dialogue with the
local community.” Hedwig Fijen
How would you describe the soul of Manifesta?
Hedwig Fijen: Manifesta is a Think Tank, which inspires through
dialogue – also with other continents – and creates innovative
feelings and thoughts.
As an artist, you are deeply rooted in performance and dialogue...
the unexpected as fascination.
Christian Jankowski: I am interested in people with different personalities
and stature, and situations, in which they find themselves,
and thus the performance where people meet and the
outcome is still not foreseeable. Something that does not follow
a clear pattern.
Is there anything that surprised you about Zurich?
Hedwig Fijen: I would never have thought that control would be
given such a high priority in Zurich. I don’t mean that negatively,
because if a city is well controlled, the result is consequently positive.
As everything is so well organised here, there is still room
for other cultures. There is a wonderful sense of cosmopolitan
spirit in Zurich.
The profession as an inspiration...?
Christian Jankowski: Absolutely. It will be an artistic confrontation
where the artist conceives the professional environment as his
new atelier, as a place of inspiration and production, making Manifesta
11 a place of presentation. Whether or not a sculpture, an
installation or a film is created, will be completely up to the artist.
Will the entire city become a venue?
Christian Jankowski: yes. Besides the traditional institutions like
the Löwenbräu Art Complex, the Art Gallery, the Migros Museum
or the Zurich Helmhaus Hotel, there will be 25 to 30 socalled
satellites where new productions in the respective professional
field will be presented. That can be, for example, in the
sewage treatment plant, in the dental surgery or at the police
station. However, there will always be a modified counterpart of
the production in one of the traditional institutions, too.