Manif d’art 12 — The Québec City Biennial Announces Theme and Approach

Francoise Sullivan, L’arrêt, Promenade parmi les raffineries de pétrole. Photo: Alex Neumann. Courtesy Manif D’Art

Manif d’art 12 – The Québec City Biennial – Briser la glace / Splitting Ice

February 28 – April 19, 2026
Québec City, Canada
manifdart.org

Opening in just 16 days, from February 28 to April 19, 2026, Manif d’art 12 — The Québec City Biennial will transform Québec City and its surrounding region into a constellation of contemporary artworks unfolding across more than 40 venues in Québec City, Lévis, and beyond. Taking place over seven winter weeks, the Biennial remains the only event of its kind in North America presented during the winter season, continuing a distinctive tradition that has shaped Canada’s cultural landscape since the first Manif in 2000.

This 12th edition brings together over 60 artists from 18 countries, including Cozic, Jessie Kleemann, Jota Mombaça, Françoise Sullivan, Anouk Verviers, and Giorgia Volpe, alongside a wide range of established and emerging voices from Québec, Canada, and the international scene.

Curated by Didier Morelli, Briser la glace / Splitting Ice proposes an exploration of winter as both material condition and symbolic terrain, where ecological transformation, embodied experience, and political imagination converge.

“With Briser la glace / Splitting Ice, I wanted to offer a poetic and political journey through winter.  For me, splitting ice is a physical, sensitive, and engaging act: a way of exploring the tension between our body and the frozen landscape in a world that has been shaken by climate change. Snow, ice, thaw, blizzards, dormant or turbulent waters… water in all of its states becomes a medium with which to create, perform, and sometimes resist. How do we inhabit a warming planet? How can we relearn to become one with our environment? My inspiration comes from the history of the land—from Françoise Sullivan’s Danse dans la neige to Lori Blondeau’s Lonely Surfer Squaw to contemporary art practices—to honour the intergenerational legacy of embodied practices. The Biennial’s programming brings together artists who engage with natural elements, who assert their political identities and denounce the effects of patriarchy, colonisation, and extractivism on our ecosystems. Through exhibitions, performances, narratives, installations, and public artworks, I invite the public to slow down, connect, and imagine new ways of being.”
— Didier Morelli, curator of Manif d’art 12

At the heart of the Biennial, the central exhibition at Espace Quatre Cents presents works by 17 artists across three floors, including ILILIAQ by Jessie Kleemann, shown for the first time in North America. Notably, 35% of the works in this edition are newly produced, underscoring Manif d’art’s sustained commitment to artistic creation and support for contemporary practice.

Beyond the central venue, the Biennial unfolds across galleries, cultural spaces, public libraries, temporary public art sites, and partner museums throughout Québec City and Lévis. Emerging artistic voices are foregrounded through exhibitions curated by Camille Biron, Dounia Bouzidi, Laurence Duchesne, and Ally Rosilio, four young curators mentored by Didier Morelli and the Manif d’art team, each offering new perspectives on the Biennial’s theme.

The 2026 edition continues Manif d’art’s strong commitment to accessibility and public engagement, with most exhibitions and activities offered free of charge and the central exhibition operating on a pay-what-you-can basis. Free Sundays on March 1 and April 5 further extend access, supported by Caisse d’économie solidaire Desjardins.

A wide-ranging public programme includes creative workshops for families and schools, lectures, conferences, professional gatherings, performances, and cultural mediation activities designed for audiences of all ages.

New collaborations further expand the Biennial’s reach. An agreement with the Commission de la capitale nationale du Québec introduces additional exhibition venues and strengthens the public art programme, while a partnership with the National Gallery of Canada supports the Québec City presentation of a major project by performance pioneer Sylvie Tourangeau, including three new site-specific performances.

“The Biennial has the power to bring the art community together while generating tangible economic benefits for Québec City. At a time of year when there are few major events to enjoy, it captures national and international attention by transforming winter into a cultural high point.”
— Claude Bélanger, General and Artistic Director, Manif d’art

Didier Morelli is a curator, art historian, cultural critic, and interdisciplinary artist. He is Scholar-in-Residence in the Curatorial Studies and Practices program at Concordia University and holds a postdoctoral fellowship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec—Société et culture, shared between Concordia University and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. His writing has appeared in Art Journal, Canadian Theatre Review, C Magazine, CBC Arts, Esse, Spirale, and The Drama Review (TDR), among others.