Jakob and Manila Bartnik are an artist duo based in Osnabrück (Germany). They are a husband-and-wife team of Jakob Bartnik (b. 1974, Wegorzewo. Poland) and Manila Bartnik (b.1973, Manila, Philippines). Both were trained in art, philosophy and sociology at Osnabrück University. After having worked individually and evolved their art in the sectors of performance, installations and painting, they began to develop a vision together of art as a tool for knowing, evaluating, testing and connecting individuals and social groups. In fact, their projects involve participatory methods and undertakings that envisage the public`s direct involvement: art for them means sparking off a mechanism for “exploring by doing“ or “learning by experience“ and, as a result, their performances always call for a moment of confrontation and dialogue with the participants.
Their creative partnership started off in 2012 with Many things we don`t need, in the DORIS gallery, Berlin; since then they have created projects in Europe, Asia and the United States. In 2014 they founded the BartnikProjectRoom, a non-commercial space for artistic research, social practice and artist-in-residence programs.