Youth Shift

Since November 2025, a group of young people from 12 to 18 years old has met every two weeks to get to know and advise the various departments of Manifesta, as well as to develop their own project within the framework of Manifesta 16 Ruhr and present it during the biennial.

In the first project phase the Youth Shift group met team members from the fields of communication, education, mediation, production, and business to understand how these areas work, offer them advice, and consider potential collaborations.

In the second project phase the group will use this information to develop their own projects within Manifesta 16 Ruhr. The final outcome, which can be anything from a print media, a series of concerts, or an exhibition will be presented as part of the biennial.

Youth Shift is a collaboration between Manifesta 16 Ruhr and the Regionalverband Ruhr. It focuses on the specific issues of youth participation in reviewing cultural policies and developing art and cultural programs. It is designed as a pilot project to investigate how perspectives of younger people can be integrated in short-term projects structures like biennials, or festivals.

Mapping Manifesta 16 Ruhr: Youth Shift Edition
As outcome of this long-term project the team of young participants developed a map adressing younger people to find their way around the Manifesta 16 Ruhr in Gelsenkirchen. This map includes recommendations for young people within the main programme of Manifesta, the programme of Manifesta 16+ and what to do in Gelsenkirchen besides visiting the Manifesta venues. Also, they included the possibility of collecting stamps at the four Manifesta venues in Gelsenkirchen and to animate people to discover what’s on in the other Manifesta 16 cities there will be a price for everyone who collects an additional 5th stamp at any of the other Manifesta 16 venues.

The map was developed and designed in cooperation with local designer Yussra Al Aswad.

The map will be available at all info points of Manifesta 16 Ruhr.