Lawrence Weiner has recently opened a solo show at Lisson Gallery, London (6 February – 15 March). The show includes works from 2007 (titles below) and expands on his recent touring retrospective 'AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE', which opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art last November and will tour to MoCA Los Angeles (13 April – 14 July) and K21 in Düsseldorf, Germany (20 September 2008 – 11 January 2009).

In the autumn Latitudes will curate a project with Weiner which will be presented in Barcelona at the Nivell 0 space in Fundació Suñol.




OFFSIDES

A BIT BEYOND
WHAT IS DESIGNATED AS
THE PALE

A DETERMINATION OF WHERE WHAT FALLS OFFSIDE RESTS

THAT WHICH IS BROUGHT TO BEAR
REDUCING THE MASS AS IT WAS
& HINDERING PASSAGE
AS IT IS FIRST MOVE SECOND MOVE THIRD MOVE

FOUND BY CHANCE AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME
FOUND ALONE AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME
FOUND DUE TO PROXIMITY AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME
FOUND DUE TO ITS NATURE AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME
FOUND WHERESOEVER IT IS AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME
FOUND TO MAKE TO WITH AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME
FOUND MIXED + MATCHED AFTER ANY GIVEN TIME

All works courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery, London.

31 January–31 March 2008 
www.pacmurcia.es

ARTISTS
LARA ALMARCEGUI, BERND & HILLA BECHER, BLEDA Y ROSA, JUAN CRUZ, VERNE DAWSON, MARK DION, JIMMIE DURHAM, CYPRIEN GAILLARD, ILANA HALPERIN, JOACHIM KOESTER, MARK LOMBARDI, ALLAN McCOLLUM, PAUL NOBLE, PAULINA OLOWSKA, DIEGO PERRONE, ABRAHAM POINCHEVAL & LAURENT TIXADOR, MARJETICA POTRC, GREGOR SCHNEIDER, EVE SUSSMAN & THE RUFUS CORPORATION and KEITH TYSON.

VENUES
Centro Párraga, Espacio AV, MAM (Museo Arqueológico de Murcia), MUBAM (Museo de Bellas Artes de Murcia), Museo de Santa Clara, Sala San Esteban, Sala Verónicas, Cendeac, Filmoteca and three other public spaces in the city.

The first Contemporary Art Project (PAC in Spanish) wants to make itself distinctive from the circuit of international biennials and art festivals by promoting a series of seminars for the duration of the project ('Heterocronías, Temporalitites in contemporary art practices' with guests including Pamela M. Lee, Peter Osborne, Manuel Cruz, Gary Shapiro and José Luis Villacañas), a film season in the regional filmoteca, and by offering six 3-month residency grants to Murcian artist to go to GlogauAIR, Berlin; Gasworks, London and Duende, Rotterdam; on top of the usual guided tours organised for this kind of events.

Organiser _ Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia. Consejería de Cultura, Joventud y Deportes
Curator _ Nicolas Bourriaud
Assistant Curator _ Aurelia Kreienbühl
Coordination & Communication _ Urroz Proyectos

[all photos: Latitudes with courtesy to all the participating artists]

Here is a brief (just over 3 mins) audio interview, complete with canary and dog, recorded this past Friday with Lara Almarcegui about her work Rubble Mountain, commissioned by Estratos, the first Contemporary Art Project / Proyecto Arte Contemporáneo, Murcia (photos here) and an interview by Max Andrews.

From the following archive you'll be able to download the text file 'ALMARCEGUI_Estratos.pdf', an essay written by Mariana Cánepa Luna on Almarcegui's contribution (and published in 'Estratos' catalogue).

The first artist under the age of 40 to have exhibited at MACBA (link in English and Catalan) if we are not wrong...? And Happy Birthday for today Asier! Curated by Peio Aguirre, likewise the youngest curator to have produced a project at MACBA? The Times They Are a-Changin'.


Photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org

En primer número de la revista Art&Co se incluye un texto de Max Andrews donde se analiza la obra de los artistas Amy Balkin, Cyprien Gaillard, The Bruce High Quality Foundation y Allora & Calzadilla – cuyas obras estaran presentes en la exposición co-comisariada por Latitudes 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities' junto a Ilaria Bonacossa, que inaugura el 28 Febrero 2008 en la Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (exposición abierta del 29 Febrero al 11 Mayo 2008).



Max Andrews, 'El arte después de la ecología' / 'Art after Environmentalism', Art&Co, Número 1, Invierno 2008 / Number 1, Winter 2008, pp.28-32 & 116-118 (English translation). Descargar pdf aquí (3.7MB)

Latitudes has recently accepted an invitation to join APT Intelligence, as one of its curatorial advisors (see a full list here).

An arm of the Artist Pension Trust, APT Intelligence is an advisory service which consists of a global network of curators, critics., etc.

Two corrections:

• Curated by ... Mariana Cánepa Luna, NOT Cánapa.

• The exhibition will be on view until 11 May.

Lara Favaretto, Plotone, 2005. 20 air compressed tanks, 20 pressure regulators, 20 distributings, 20 timers, 20 electrovalves, 20 whistles, plastic cables, 165 x 10 each tank. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino.

In the first 2008 issue of UOVO, issue 16, Mariana Cánepa Luna from Latitudes interviewed Turin-based artist Lara Favaretto. The issue focuses on the relationship between art and architecture, man and environment and includes interviews with: Raimundas Malasauskas with Adam Carr, Tobias Putrih with Silvia Sgualdini, Michael Sailstorfer with Francesca Pagliuca, Dahn Vo with Adam Carr, Vincent Lamouroux with Céline Kopp, Daniel Arsham with Merce Cunningham, Tatiana Trouvé by Lillian Davies; texts by Michael Rakowitz, Liam Gillick, Marjetica Potrc and Hans Op De Beeck and many more...

Here is a peek at that interview (you can download the full text from Latitudes' website, here or buy the issue!):

MCL: In your recent Frieze Commission you sent out a letter inviting the Queen of England to visit the Frieze Art Fair (Project for Some Hallucinations, 2007). The letter in which she declines the invitation was pinned to a tree inside the fair. What kind of arrangements would you have made if the Queen had accepted?

LF: Very Few! After an official inspection by the Royal Staff, everything would have followed the Royal Protocol. My work stopped before that, with the very possibility to project an apparition, a ‘platonic’ intervention, a Goliardic visualisation, or a confrontation with the appearance of a movie star from early cinema. It was an objectless hallucination, a kind of sentimental investigation that was projected to appear yet be autonomous in denying itself. The failure was long-awaited and foreseeable and was highlighted at the fair by the sound of applause, that put an end to the great daily spectacle as everyone was heading for the exit.

Lara Favaretto, Project for Some Hallucinations, 2007, Frieze Art Fair Project, October 2007. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: Latitudes.

MCL: In the context of that commission you said that ‘when one listens to the narration of an idea that is so powerful it ultimately does not matter if it's ever realised’. Can you tell me another such idea or story?

LF: Don't you think it's like that? I think that if very few words can describe a work, just enough to capture the work's physiognomy, it could end up being even stronger than the work itself. The border is really subtle. Telling a story also means suspecting deception and trying to improve it, waiting for it to suddenly unravel, and having fun as much as I have. A story I haven't understood is: ‘I've been studying disguises for a long time now. I am hired to shadow one of the most important people on the American political scene. I am currently based high in the Tora Bora caves.’

Lara Favaretto lives and works in Turin, Italy. In 2008 she will be artist-in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; the Hayward Gallery, London, and at the Proa Foundation, Buenos Aires, where she will subsequently have solo shows. She will also present work at The British School at Rome and participate in the 16th Sydney Biennial. She is represented by Franco Noero in Turin and Klosterfelde in Berlin.

The news broke on Saturday afternoon that Manuel J. Borja-Villel (Burriana, Castellón, 1957) will be the new Artistic Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), and will start his new job at the end of January 2008. Borja-Villel has been Director of the Museu d'Art Contemporani Barcelona (MACBA) since 1998, and was founding director of the Fundació Tàpies (1990-1998). Despite his appointment not being a shock exactly, the news is important as it is one of the first appointments in Spain to follow the controversial 'Código de buenas prácticas' (Code of good practice) whereby there shouldn't be any more 'al dedo' ('made') appointments. Instead an international call for applications should be held, and was in this case, and appointments be made according to the decision of a selected international committee. And following each candidate's proposals and presentations, and not their political orientation.

That said, the decision to appoint the MACBA director has not been surprising for two reasons. Firstly, a few weeks ago the Spanish newspaper El País [15.11.07] announced Borja-Villel as the favourite for the job, together with a list of the top candidates. How were their names known when the process is supposedly strictly secret? Rightly, there was much discussion in the artistic community [read A-Desk and SalonKritik]. Secondly, the requirements for the job were that candidates should be a 'Spanish or national of a country member of the European Union' (appearing to rule out any Spanish-speaking Latin American candidates, or indeed any other non-European Spanish speaker, and clearly questioning the tip-off that had Dan Cameron shortlisted in the El País article). The candidates were also asked to have 'Excellent level of Spanish' and 'To present, in Spanish or anyone of the co-official languages in the Independent Communities, or English or French, the main lines of the Museum Plan for the Institution'. Spanish prefered, we get it. It makes one wonder what will be the requirements for the now vacant MACBA Director job, if they are to follow the 'código de buenas prácticas' with an open call.

One of the first responses to the appointment was from art critic and curator David G. Torres in A-Desk's blog, in which he briefly analysed the pros and cons of the mandate: Borja-Villel has put MACBA on the map – for sure – and has given a direction and coherence to its collection – again, yes – but it has lacked a dialogue with the city of Barcelona and its visitors. According to Catalina Serra [El País, 23.12.07], the Catalan arts community has already responded by demanding an international open call for the MACBA position, but with more time for the potential applicants to prepare proposals (candidates had a month to make their applications for the MNCARS job). Let's see what happens here; interesting times ahead! The news are, however, great for MNCARS, Spain's forever-in-crisis national museum, which has had no leading figure since September 2007, that lacks coherence in its collection, has a so-so programme, but of course holds a precious treasure in world history: Picasso's Guernica.

For more info read MNCARS' Press Release (Spanish) and the announcement in El País (23.12.07)