Palermo hosts Manifesta 12, workshops available
The city of Palermo — home to one of Rome Photography Workshop’s many photography tours — is the center of attention at this year’s international Manifesta 12 arts festival. The deeply historic, 2,700-year-old city of Palermo has a plethora of captivating architecture and culture. As the host of one of this years largest European art conventions, Manifesta 12, Palermo is also home to one of RPW’s renowned photography workshops, lead by local, professional photographers.
With over 70 individual events, Manifesta 12 is one of the most influential and important art festivals across Europe. Also in the area is Letizia Battaglia’s famed International Center for Photography. Born in Sicily 1935, she opened the International Center for Photography in 2017 after a lengthy and impressive career as a photojournalist. She’s most famous for her work covering the Italian mafia. During the festival, Battaglia’s hand-selected exhibition titled “The Street is Watching” will be on display from 13 June to 20 September, 2018.
But why Palermo? Manifesta intends to help cultivate the multi-layered and intense history of Palermo, to work interdiciplinarily with the local community to rethink their cultural, urban, economic, architectuaral and social foundations. In a detailed description of their 2018 choice for the biennial, Manifesta expressed their wish to help Palermo take ownership of their city, and use their existing foundations to create a platform for social change.
Surrounded by a conglomeration of art and culture during the festival, you won’t help but feel alive capturing those quiet moments and subtle treasures within the city during our workshops. Inky shadows and juxtaposing light create challenging and graphic visuals during our tours. Characters, spices, oddities, architecture and hidden gems will grace senses and lenses alike to create unforgettable scenes of local life in Palermo, with the promising backdrop of weathered and earthy landscape. Fit for all levels of photographer, from amateur to hobbyist to professional, the RPW tour takes participants to customizable locations like the Ballaro Market, Cathedral of Palermo, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and the Pretoria Square (home to the Fountain of Shame).
In the past, events have varied across the board in regards to theme and form. From canvas paintings to massive sculptures to interactive medias, each event is carefully chosen out of hundreds of submissions, with the majority of work coming from local artists in Palermo.
Known as the European Nomadic Biennial, the major international art event hosts hundreds of artists and visitors from around the globe and spans five months, from 16 June to 04 November, 2018. Manifesta was founded in 1996 in Amsterdam, after the end of the Cold War. At first, the goal remained the same: using contemporary art to enhance cultural and artistic exchanges, but as the years have passed, Manifesta said they’re aiming to make the event less of an art exhibition and more of an “interdisciplinary platform for social change.”
Download the official Manifesta 12 app to keep up to date on details and opportunities regarding the event. Be sure to also check out our full page on Palermo Workshops. Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions, or head to our booking page.
Explore the depths of the hidden city and get the most out of Manifesta 12 by signing up for one of our workshops in between events.