Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.
Manifesta 6 was cancelled by the President of the Greek Part of Cyprus
Martin Toloku, GH
Immortal Smell, 2024 © Martin Toloku. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Cecília Coca.
The central theme of Martin Toloku’s practice is decay; he is fascinated by the at-times mysterious relations between deterioration and materiality. To create his works, he engages the history of dead or rotten wood and other related objects, encountering his accumulated subjects of inquiry as an archive of obscured moments. Toloku’s portfolio is indicative of his curiosity for how memories and histories are trapped or hidden in objects that are raw reflections of their environment. Throughout his practice, which spans disciplines and often follows an anthropological approach, he searches for his own language and definition of death and life vis-à-vis humankind’s encounters with physical and spiritual space. In creating his works, Toloku sometimes collaborates with living organisms, specifically termites. For his performances, he employs himself as a material object, confronting and challenging the mortality of all living beings as well as his own death phobia.