Curating Conflict

“Chapter 8: Curating Conflict” considers the contrast between Manifesta's goals of unifying European art and ongoing conflict around and within the exhibition. It looks at the challenges posed to its desired collaborative curatorial model by rising models of individualist freelance curatorial work, and discusses the period's different theories of relational art. The chapter relies on archival material and analysis of artworks by artists Oleg Kulik, Rirkrit Tiravajia, and Douglas Gordon, collective IRWIN. This chapter argues that Manifesta's image of a pacified Europe was achieved by the conversion of Central and Eastern European art practices to the expectations of elite, white-centric, North Atlantic art worlds.