Do You Suffer From A Borderline Syndrome?
Where do YOU draw the line?

Art, science, technology, culture: in all of these territories there is an increasing demand for openness. Traffic between them is intense. At the same time, borders remain necessary to keep a grip, to define identity, to deepen understanding. If there is a tendency to level culture horizontally, to explore the surface, there is an equal and opposing tendency to protect the 'vertical', to ground it in a specific value.

A parallel to the geopolitical situation in Europe might be drawn. In a world where globalisation and regionalisation go hand in hand, where the universality of capital is contradicted by the emergence of national, ethnic, provincial and other exclusionary values, of course it is not just culture that deals with the ambiguities of territory. It is a political issue, a social one. It is the character of global culture at large. Protection from political, economic and cultural homogenisation seems to be a fundamental concern of our time.

Manifesta 3 will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is a place on the border of Fortress Europe. It is 'former Eastern Europe', it aims to be Western. It is close to ethnic turmoil, yet refined in its cosmopolitanism. It is off the centre, it is the centre - depending on where one stands. Manifesta 3 should explore the paradoxes of borderlining and strategies of protection. It positions itself at the crossing point of art and society in a challenging place. An art exhibition in this context, under these conditions, is not another show to be visited. It is also a trajectory of thought, speech and action. Not simply a place to be, but a process to engage with.

Manifesta 3 invites YOU to rethink your field of activities and its cultural effect. Before the exhibition takes place in the summer of the year 2000, a process will be set in motion which allows for dialogue about the value and meaning of 'protection'. Francesco Bonami, Ole Bouman, Mária Hlavajová, Kathrin Rhomberg, curators of Manifesta 3, invite you to contribute your ideas and develop insights into the paradoxes of transgression and mechanisms of defence as key issues of European culture.

Don't ask what Europe can do for you; ask what you can do for Europe!

Ideas (images, statements, diagrams etc.) are welcome. Suitable materials will be published in the Manifesta 3 Book. Deadline: 1st of January 2000. Texts should be no longer than 2.000 words max. Images on slides must be accompanied with the necessary data.

Francesco Bonami, Ole Bouman, Mária Hlavajová, Kathrin Rhomberg

Note: The organisers reserve the right to exercise full editorial control over materials submitted to them, within the framework of Manifesta 3. All such material becomes the property of Manifesta. Copyright rests jointly with the authors of the material and the organisers of Manifesta.

Contact address:
Manifesta 3
Cankarjev dom
Cultural and Congress Centre
Prešernova 10
SLO-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
phone: (+386 61) 1767143, 210956,
fax: (+386 61) 217431,
e-mail:manifesta@cd-cc.si