Why?
The bid of Barcelona and its metropolitan area to host the 15th edition of Manifesta is the result of the implementation of one of the lines of action in Barcelona City Council's Cultural Rights Plan. To be precise, the hosting of Manifesta Europa is a specific initiative that falls under measure #2: “Grassroots culture and cultural sectors: the right to creation, experimentation, research and cultural production”.
The second measure aims to promote the right to creation and cultural production under conditions that respect the socio-occupational dignity of those working in the cultural sector, seeking to mitigate structural precariousness, supporting creative processes, promoting new forms of interaction between stakeholders and guaranteeing access for a wider range of people.
On 30 April 2021, the Municipal Plenary of Barcelona City Council approved this plan, which brings the city into the international debate on cultural rights, and the approval of a specific plan for cultural rights makes Barcelona a pioneering municipality. The plan includes a framework of ambitious political reflection and a series of innovative and functional government measures and actions that are binding.
In all there are 100 projects that are to be rolled out by 2023, and to which a budget of around €68.7 million has been allocated in order to ensure that Barcelona will have a cultural policy based on cultural rights, one with a focus on considerations such as access, cultural practices, innovation, democratic governance, creativity, cultural production, the recognition of diversity and the strengthening of the community together with local citizens and stakeholders.
One of these initiatives is the celebration of Manifesta 15 Barcelona in 2024, which stems directly from this Cultural Rights Plan.
Manifesta 15 has been working to broaden cultural rights and ensure access to culture for everyone, without discrimination on the basis of social class, ethnic origin or economic status. This is why a programme of activities that avoids the centre-periphery dynamic, instead mapping out a new form of centrality with many different clusters of interconnected cultural activity across the whole of the Barcelona metropolitan area, is being prepared for the biennial.
