One of the longest leadership tenures in European contemporary art is coming to an end. Hedwig Fijen, who helped found Manifesta and has directed it for 33 years, is stepping down, as announced on 3 November.
A biennial that never stays put
Manifesta began in the early 1990s as an ambitious experiment: a European biennial that moves to a different city every two years. Under Fijen it developed into one of the continent’s most distinctive art platforms, often choosing places marked by political tension, contested histories or social change. In the decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that nomadic model made it a kind of travelling seismograph for a changing Europe.
The biennial marked its 30th anniversary in 2026 with Manifesta 16 in Germany’s Ruhr Area. Titled “This is not a church”, it spread across 12 post-war churches in four cities, a fitting example of how the format reads local architecture and history.
New ideas for an old question
Over the years Manifesta tried out formats that went beyond the classic exhibition: collective curating, so-called urban visions for host cities, citizens’ assemblies and alternative forms of art education. According to the organisation, this built a European network of thousands of emerging artists, young professionals and cultural producers in more than a dozen countries, and gave many now-established artists an early international stage.
Fijen’s work has been recognised with the European Cultural Management Prize in 2018, and she has appeared in the German art magazine Monopol’s list of the 100 most influential people in the art world.
A two-person team takes over
Manifesta will now be led by a dual directorship: Emilia van Lynden becomes General Director and Catherine Nichols Artistic Director. Both have worked closely with the biennial for several years, which suggests continuity rather than a sharp break. The next edition is planned for Coimbra, Portugal, in 2028.
Fijen herself plans to take the coming months to reflect on how Manifesta emerged and evolved, and to write about building a cultural platform across a rapidly changing Europe. Given how much of recent European art history passed through her biennial, that book could become essential reading.