The New El Dorado commissioned by the Manifesta Foundation for Manifesta 8, The 8th edition of Manifesta, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Murcia and Cartagena, Spain. Opening date 02-10-2010
 Closing date 09-01-2011.

The New El Dorado is a digital video commissioned for Manifesta 8, by the curator Bassam El Baroni, on behalf of The International Foundation Manifesta, Amsterdam. Manifesta 8 – the European Biennial of Contemporary Art. Hosted by the cities of Murcia and Cartagena in southeast Spain Manifesta 8 explored the idea of Europe in the 21st century at the edges of the continent and sought to engage with Europe’s present-day boundaries with Northern Africa. The New El Dorado explored three related issues; the processes of commodification at work in the consumption of art & popular forms of entertainment through the medium of video, the efficacy of comedy in mediating social conflict and the exploration of national identity within a global context. The video uses an episodic narrative to explore the values and assumptions underpinning the efficacy of socially engaged art and the interventionist impulse at the heart of international art biennials such as Manifesta. Drawing upon our own status as cultural tourists and commodity form, the video engineers a strategic collision between the elitist assumptions attached to Art and its institutions, and the perceived commonplace and vulgar aspects of popular culture. Manifesta 8 attracted over 110,000 visitors, 1809 articles were written about the exhibition and the Biennial was accompanied by a large number of parallel events as well as television and radio programs, publications, Internet sites and multi-media projects. El Dorado was positively reviewed in numerous international journals including, Frieze, Artforum and was described by Theresa Gleadowe in Art Monthly as “Common Culture’s standout video … a keenly observed parody of the rhetoric of cultural engagement.”*