Longitudes

Longitudes cuts across Latitudes’ projects and research with news, updates, and reportage.

'The Margins of the Factory' on Artforum's Critics' Picks

 
If you can't read it correctly, click this link to the review by Miguel Amado.

The exhibition 'The Margins of the Factory' by Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum is on view until 30 April at ADN Platform. There will be a breakfast and guided visit on Saturday 12 April at 10:30am. If you would like to join please contact Jordi Vernis <[email protected]>

La exposición 'Los márgenes de la fábrica' de Iratxe Jaio y Klaas van Gorkum permanecerá abierta hasta el 30 de abril en ADN Platform. El sábado 12 de abril a las 10:30am habrá un desayuno y visita guiada, si estáis interesados en asistir, por favor poneros en contacto con Jordi Vernis <[email protected]>


Related posts:
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This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos:
Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
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Tuesday 18 March, 17:30h: Book launch of "European contextualising in analytical sociology and ethnographical representation on history and present" and conversation between Remco Torenbosch and Max Andrews (Latitudes) at the Library Fundació Tàpies

This and following images, courtesy of Remco Torenbosch.
Book launch
"European contextualising in analytical sociology and ethnographical representation on history and present"
Tuesday 18 March, 17:30h
Library of the Fundació Tàpies
c/ Aragó 255, 08007 Barcelona
Limited seating available. Please RSVP [email protected]

Book launch and conversation between Dutch artist and publication editor Remco Torenbosch and Barcelona-based curator Max Andrews of Latitudes.

In the context of the solo exhibition "European Contextualisation" by Dutch artist Remco Torenbosch (1982, Assen) opening next Thurday 20 March, 19h at NoguerasBlanchard, the gallery has organised the book launch of his most recent publication "European contextualising in analytical sociology and ethnographical representation on history and present" (Black Dog Publishing, 2014) at the library of Fundació Tàpies. The exhibition is part of the exhibition cycle "The Story Behind", curated by Direlia Lazo.



From the artist website:  

"Originally conceived for the Council of Europe, the successful design of the flag was later adopted by the European Union in 1985 whilst under the moniker of the European Economic Community. Designed by Arsene Heitz, a French draughtsman at the CoE, and Paul Levy, a Jewish-Belgian Holocaust survivor who worked for many years as the council's Director of Information, the finalised design was presented to the CoE in 1955 at its headquarters in Strasbourg, Heitz's hometown.

This publication profiles the documents, design proposals and written correspondence between Heitz, Levy and further collaborators that would form the painstakingly diplomatic development of an iconic vexillological moment. As part of the book's research, a collection of fabric monochromes woven by weavers from all 28 member states of the EU in the base colour of the flag was compiled. These collated monochromes as such become a map themselves of the socio-economic shift within EU member communities, an embodiment of the disappearing textile industries of Europe."




Author/Editor: Remco Torenbosch
Contributors: Charles Esche, Mihnea Mircan, Council of Europe Archive

Paperback: 244 pages
Publisher: Black Dog Publishing London

ISBN-13: 978-1908966698



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Documentation of Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum's exhibition "The Margins of the Factory" and the opening performance by Nathaniel R. Mann

Installation view of "Producing time in between other things" (2011). Three videos (12' 30'', 5' 22'', 36' 11''), 32 colour photographs (76x115 cm & 50x75 cm), 49 wooden legs, and MDF platforms with objects made by Jos van Gorkum between 1976 and 1996. Photo: Roberto Ruiz. Courtesy: ADN Platform.

More installation photos of the exhibition here (flickr).

The exhibition "The Margins of the Factory" (ADN Platform, Sant Cugat, 25 January–30 April 2014) presents two recent projects by the Rotterdam-based duo Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum that are motivated by their interest in art's relationship with labour. Each explores sculptural form and manufacturing processes from the perspective of artists who have not usually made objects. Jaio & van Gorkum undertake what are in part sociological investigations by documenting the local, marginal effects of the displacement of manufacturing industries over the last two generations with the emergence of the global market. Emerging from the artists' personal history and implicating the direct effects of their own vocation as well as work they ask of others, the projects are moreover complicit in asking what kind of industriousness brings value and what political life objects might have.

The exhibition opening featured a performance by British “avant-folk” musician Nathaniel Robin Mann developed for the occasion in collaboration with Jaio & van Gorkum around the raw footage of "Work in Progress" (2013), a film by the artists showing men and women at work in the Lea Artibai region in Basque Country, where they trim rubber parts destined for the global automobile industry. 


Photos: Roberto Ruiz.
Mann interpreted the Basque popular song “Oi Peio Peio” – a dialogue between a woman worker and her cruel boss "Peio", who insists she carries on working throughout the night. He keeps telling her to carry on with the next step in the spinning process, until the sun comes up and it is too late to go to sleep. First collected in Cancionero Popular Vasco in 1918, the song was popularized by singer–songwriter Mikel Laboa, founder of “Ez Dok Amairu” (“No Thirteen”), the cultural movement of Basque poets, musicians and artists whose name was a suggestion of sculptor Jorge Oteiza.

  Nathaniel Robin Mann performing "Oi Peio Peio" during the exhibition opening of "The Margins of the Factory". Video by Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum.

While singing, Mann manually assembled a device which broadcasted his prerecorded voice to a transistor radio, with which he then performed a moving duet. The performance is Nathan's response to the themes and issues explored in the installation of "Work in Progress", infused with his own longstanding interest in work song and traditional music.

More info:

www.lttds.org/projects/jaiovangorkum/
Download exhibition leaflet (English or Spanish):

www.lttds.org/projects/jaiovangorkum/archive/

Related posts:


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Storifying the social media related to the exhibition "The Margins of the Factory" (until 30 April) at ADN Platform, Sant Cugat

We have began to storify all the social media posts related to the exhibition "Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum: The Margins of the Factory" that opened last Saturday 25 January at ADN Platform in Sant Cugat. 

The exhibition will remain open until 30 April. If you would like to visit, please make an appointment writing to [email protected] or calling (+34) 93 451 00 64.

More information about the exhibition:  
Press Release: http://mad.ly/7b4164 (English) / http://mad.ly/657564 (Español)
Exhibition leaflet (pdf English) / Hoja de sala (pdf en Español) 

Follow
@LTTDS
@KlaasvanGorkum
#ADNPlatform 




Related content:


This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Colaboración en el catálogo digital de la exposición "7.000.000.000" de Arlandis/Marroquí para el Espai d'art Contemporani Castelló (EACC)

El próximo 31 de enero inaugura en el Espai d'art Contemporani Castelló (EACC) la exposición colectiva "7.000.000.000", un proyecto que parte de la idea de desarrollo sostenible. La exposición está comisariada por David Arlandis y Javier Marroquí.  

Arlandis y Marroquí han invitado a una serie de autores a contribuir textos para el catálogo digital, entre ellos a Mariana Cánepa Luna de Latitudes que ha escrito sobre Time/Bank, el sistema económico alternativo creado en el 2009 por los artistas Anton Vidokle y Julieta Aranda. Podéis leer o descargar la publicación desde este enlace.

Para la ocasión, como avanzan los comisarios en este texto, Time/Bank abrirá una sucursal "y colaborará con otra iniciativa similar, la Ecoxarxa, que se está desarrollando fuera del ámbito artístico. Time/Bank es un proyecto que consta de una instalación en la que podemos ver material diverso y documentación relacionada con las primeras iniciativas de banco de tiempo. La segunda parte trata de poner en marcha esa sucursal de banco de tiempo, con voluntad de continuidad, en la ciudad. Lo que se persigue es favorecer la implantación real de un modelo económico alternativo donde se intercambia con el tiempo como moneda."

Time/Bank en dOCUMENTA (13), 2012.
A continuación un extracto del texto de Cánepa Luna que se incluye en la publicación:

"Como acertadamente señala el antropólogo teórico David Graeber en su ensayo “The Sadness of Post-Workerism” (La tristeza del post-laboralismo), una de las ideas más ignoradas y, sin embargo, más poderosas y perdurables del marxismo, es que el mundo no solo consiste en la producción de mercancías que puedan ser compradas y vendidas, sino en acciones y procesos.[1] El sistema económico alternativo Time/Bank, de Anton Vidokle y Julieta Aranda, que utiliza el tiempo como unidad de cambio, se concretó en 2009, un año después de que la crisis actual llegara a su punto álgido. Time/Bank evolucionó de forma natural a partir de PAWNSHOP (2007), su negocio de préstamos a corto plazo para obras de arte, situado en un local comercial de la calle Ludlow, en Nueva York. Ambas iniciativas median inquietudes en torno a la circulación y la distribución, temas que siguen presentes en sus prácticas artísticas, y que posiblemente estén mejor ejemplificadas en e-flux, el servicio de mensajes por correo electrónico que fundaron conjuntamente en 1999, y que se utiliza dentro del mundo del arte para difundir información sobre acontecimientos relacionados con el arte, exposiciones y proyectos, entre sus más de 90.000 suscriptores electrónicos.

La creciente desconfianza hacia los sistemas económicos y financieros existentes creó la tormenta perfecta para que se materializara su propuesta Time/Bank, aunque Vidokle y Aranda insisten en situarlo en el contexto de otros casos previos de moneda alternativa o local, y de estructuras financieras basadas en la reciprocidad, como Ithaca HOUR, la moneda creada por el organizador de comunidades Paul Glover en 1991 en el norte del estado de Nueva York, que todavía está en funcionamiento y se ha convertido en la moneda local que más tiempo lleva en circulación en Estados Unidos. Vidokle y Aranda crearon Time/Bank con la intención de fomentar un sentimiento de valor cultural dentro de la comunidad cultural, donde a menudo se ha dado un intercambio de aptitudes y productos al margen de los sistemas monetarios –por ejemplo, intercambio de obras, ayuda durante la instalación, traducción, etc. Como sostiene Vidokle, "Time/Bank puede potencialmente convertirse en la base de una economía diferente, capaz de soportar nuevas y distintas formas de relaciones sociales y prácticas culturales... Esperamos ir más allá y crear una estructura económica que pueda ser compartida por otros y que sea capaz, hasta cierto punto, de atender a sus necesidades". [2]

[1] David Graeber, “The Sadness of Post-Workerism or“Art And Immaterial Labour” Congreso: A Sort of Review (Tate Britain, sábado 19 de enero de 2008)”. Editado en The Commoner, 5 de diciembre de 2013.  
[2] Jolien Verlaek, "Working With That 'We-Feeling'”, Metropolis M núm.1, 2011.

Billetes Time Bank diseñados por Lawrence Weiner.

"7.000.000.000" permanecerá abierta hasta el 27 de abril 2014.
Artistas participantes: ANETTA MONA CHIŞA & LUCIA TKÁČOVÁ, BASURAMA, CARLOS MOTTA, DANIELA ORTIZ Y XOSÉ QUIROGA, JOHAN GRIMONPREZ, JULIETA ARANDA Y ANTON VIDOKLE, JUAN JOSÉ MARTÍN ANDRÉS, NÚRIA GÜELL, TUE GREENFORT, REGINA JOSÉ GALINDO, OLIVER RESSLER, OLIVER RESSLER Y ZANNY BEGG, THE OTOLITH GROUP, URSULA BIEMANN
 
Posts relacionados:
dOCUMENTA (13) in pictures & as seen by the critics, 9 June–16 September 2012 (12 June 2012)



This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Commentary text on Roman Ondák now available via The Common Guild' website


Compilation of commentary texts. Photo: The Common Guild.

The Common Guild regularly commissions artists, writers and curators a series of short texts to accompany their ongoing exhibitions programme. These commentaries are uploaded as pdfs on their website, and can be printed and easily compiled – see image as a suggestion for how to do this. 

Latitudes' commentary text on Roman Ondák's work and exhibiton "Some Thing" (12 October – 14 December 2013) has just been uploaded and can be found as a pdf here. The text follows Latitudes' talk on 21 November 2013 (audio here).

Commentary text can be downloadable as a pdf here.



This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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25 January 2014: Opening of the solo exhibition 'The Margins of the Factory' by Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum at ADN Platform, Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona)

The Margins of the Factory, a solo exhibition by the Rotterdam-based duo Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum curated by Latitudes will open on Saturday 25 January 2014, as part of ADN Galería and ADN Platform's exhibitions programme. 


Opening programme:

12h: Opening at ADN Galería (c/ Enric Granados 49, Barcelona). Exhibition: “This is not Just Fucking Business” by Carlos Aires
13:15h: Buses depart from ADN Galería towards ADN Platform (Avda. Can Roquetas, Sant Cugat del Vallès). To book a seat in the bus: [email protected] / 93 451 0064

14h: Arrival at ADN Platform and light lunch. Exhibitions: Micro-actions of Emergency #2 [Curated by Colectivo de vuelta y vuelta (Claudia Segura & Inés Jover)] and The Margins of the Factory by Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum [Curated by Latitudes].
14:15h: 15 min. voice and instrumental performance by Nathaniel Robin Mann, as part of The Margins of the Factory
16/16:30h: Buses return from ADN Platform (Sant Cugat) towards ADN Galería (Barcelona).

The Margins of the Factory presents two recent projects by Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum that are motivated by their interest in art's relationship with labour. Each explores sculptural form and manufacturing processes from the perspective of artists who have not usually made objects. Jaio & van Gorkum undertake what are in part sociological investigations by documenting the local, marginal effects of the displacement of manufacturing industries over the last two generations with the emergence of the global market. Emerging from the artists' personal history and implicating the direct effects of their own vocation as well as work they ask of others, the projects are moreover complicit in asking what kind of industriousness brings value and what political life objects might have.


The exhibition opening will also feature a performance by British “avant-folk” musician Nathaniel Robin Mann, developed in collaboration with Jaio & van Gorkum around the raw footage of Work in Progress and the tradition of work song. Mann interprets the Basque popular song “Oi Peio Peio” – a dialogue between a woman worker and her cruel boss, who insists that she carries on working throughout the night. First collected in Cancionero Popular Vasco in 1918, the song was popularized by singer–songwriter Mikel Laboa, founder of “Ez Dok Amairu” (“No Thirteen”), the cultural movement of Basque poets, musicians and artists whose name was a suggestion of sculptor Jorge Oteiza. 

Installation of Producing time in between other things. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: MUSAC.

Central to Producing time in between other things (2011) is a selection of wooden objects made by retired factory worker Jos van Gorkum – Gorkum’s grandfather – which the artists documented in the homes of his relations, friends and former neighbours across the Netherlands. During this process, the artists located the original lathe on which these items had been crafted and began to teach themselves woodturning. The forms which they made as they worked at learning a hobby become the means to support the display of the original objects, presented alongside three videos and photography

Still from the video "Work in Progress". Courtesy of the artists.

Work in Progress (2013) immerses itself in the manufacturing industry of Markina-Xemein, the rural Basque village where Jaio comes from. A video documents the mass-production of rubber car parts, following the pieces from the assembly line in a worker-owned factory to subcontracted workshops where informal workers finish them by hand. Several of these workers are employed by the artists to cast hundreds of replicas of small modernist sculptures. These are displayed on mass-produced shelving to evoke the "Chalk Laboratory" of Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza, a fierce critic of the commodification of art. 

Visit adnplatform:
Avda. Can Roquetas (corner with Victor Hugo)
08173 Sant Cugat del Vallès
[email protected]
Tel. (+34) 93 451 00 64
By appointment only

Location map

Download the A3 invite-as-poster-as-leaflet of the exhibition (Spanish & English versions). 

Producing time in between other things was produced as part of the Latitudes-curated Amikejo exhibition season at MUSAC, León, in 2011, supported in part by the Mondriaan Foundation (now Mondriaan Fonds). Work in Progress was produced with support from the Eremuak program of the Basque Government and from the Centrum Beeldende Kunst Rotterdam.

Related content:  
"Focus Interview: Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum", frieze, Issue 157, September 2013 (14 October 2013).



This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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La cultura en España (2a parte): estadísticas, cifras y porcentajes del 2013

Hace poco más de un año analizamos los resultados ofrecidos por el Anuario de Estadísticas Culturales 2012. Hace unos días el Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes ha publicado el del presente año, el Anuario de Estadísticas Culturales 2013, una publicación que aporta datos de los principales indicadores del quinquenio 2008–2012. Se puede descargar en formato pdf e incluye 345 páginas, así que paciencia. 

Tal y como han resaltado varios periódicos, portales de noticias y blogs, las estadísticas desprenden ya claros datos sobre el devastador impacto que han tenido los recortes en la cultura, aunque sólo recoge datos sobre los últimos 4 meses del 2012 cuando subió el IVA al 21%, así que habrá que esperar al año próximo para ver con más claridad (¡si es que aún hubiese dudas!) el tremendo impacto que están teniendo los recortes en la economía española. Pero vayamos por partes. 

Como es de esperar, desde las administraciones (Gobierno central, local y Ayuntamientos) se ha invertido menos en cultura. La Administración General del Estado, por ejemplo, ha pasado de invertir 1.051.000 de Euros en el 2010 a 957.000 millones en el 2011, un descenso del 8,9% – no hay datos del 2012. 

Estadística de Financiación y Gasto Público en Cultura, desarrollada por el Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Descargar pdf aquí.



Estadística del empleo cultural en el 2012. Descargar pdf aquí.

El número de trabajadores dedicados a la cultura, en consecuencia, ha pasado de los 481.700 del año 2011 a los 457.600 de 2012, lo que supone un descenso de 24.100 empleos, según desprende el informe. Así mismo, se han perdido 1.978 empresas cuya actividad económica era la cultura (pasando de 103.320 a 101.342 en el mismo periodo).

Seguimos atónitos viendo cómo el Ministerio califica los datos de positivos, al reflejar que el sector cultural supone un 3,5% del Producto Interior Bruto (3,6% en el 2009), dato que incluye la aportación vinculada con la propiedad intelectual, y que genera un 2,6% del empleo total en España. El Ministerio ha recurrido una vez más a la recurrente frase que recalca "el significativo peso de las actividades culturales dentro de la economía española", y vuelve a señalar su importancia en la comparativa con otros sectores com la Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca (2,5%), la industria química (1,1%) o las telecomunicaciones (1,8%).

No obstante, el gobierno hace oídos sordos a las continuas demandas del sector en aplicar un IVA super-reducido a la Cultura tal y como tienen nuestros vecinos europeos – recordamos a partir del 1 Septiembre del 2012 España soporta el IVA cultural más alto de la Unión Europea, y que sólo los libros impresos, periódicos y revistas disfrutan del 4% de IVA, el resto de actividades sufrieron la subida del tipo del 8% al 10% (música y cine) o mayores subidas de 13 puntos, del 8% al 21% en CDs, DVDs o importaciones de obras de arte y del 18% al 21% en la venta de obras de arte.

En relación al cine: El número de festivales españoles de cine han descendido dramáticamente, pasando de 80 en el 2011 a 36 un año después. Este descenso se sigue reflejando prácticamente en todas sus cifras: en millones de espectadores (98,3 millones en el 2011 a 94,2 en el 2012); películas estrenadas (511 en el 2011, 472 en el 2012), y se han producido menos cortometrajes (249 en el 2011, 228 en el 2012). El cine, no obstante, sigue siendo el espectáculo cultural con más demanda, seguido por la asistencia a espectáculos en directo.

 Estadística sobre el cine y el video. Descargar pdf aquí. En más detalle aquí.

Más datos. Ahora libros (descargar pdf de las estadísticas). En el 2011 se inscribieron 111.907 libros en ISBN, en el 2012 han sido 104.724 (80.094 de ellos en soporte papel, 24.630 en otros soportes). 7.183 libros menos para disfrutar, y un 6.4% menos de un año a otro. En cuanto a editores, en el 2012 contamos con 96.910 editores privados, frente a 7.814 públicos (eran 104.118 en el 2011, frente a 7.789 públicos), ahí hay 7.208 editores que han terminado su actividad, y como siempre ocurre en cualquier caso, la cadena que genera de descenso de empleo para diseñadores, impresores, distribuidores y para lectores, claro está, que caen en picado. 

Más llamativo es el dato que aporta el apartado 18, el titulado "Cuenta Satélite de la Cultura", cuando vemos que por sectores culturales el sector que más aporta al PIB total, es el sector de Libros y prensa, con una aportación total que representa el 38,1% en el conjunto de actividades culturales, seguido por Audiovisual y multimedia (25,9%), las Artes Plásticas (15,2%), las Artes escénicas (9,1%), el Patrimonio, archivos y bibliotecas (6,9%) y una zona gris del 5,8% perteneciente a "lo interdisciplinar" (¡a saber!). También fue el sector de los libros, quien tuvo el comportamiento más favorable del comercio exterior, con exportaciones por valor de 540,1 millones de euros (véase gráfico 6 de Comercio exterior de bienes y servicios culturales).



 Gráfico de la "Cuenta Satélite de la Cultura", descargable aquí.

En el 2012, el español ha gastado una media de €289 Euros en cultura, €24 menos que en el 2011, la mayoría de este gasto se ha invertido en "equipos y accesorios audiovisuales de tratamiento de la información e Internet", seguido por servicios culturales (cines, teatros, entradas museos, bibliotecas, etc...). 

A pesar de los datos aportados por los 18 capítulos (hubo 17 en el anuario pasado, este año se ha añadido "Asuntos taurinos" como nº 17), y de encontrar datos aislados sobre el comportamiento de las artes plásticas (¡esa terminología tan demodé!), no encontramos ningún gráfico específico a las artes visuales contemporáneas. 


Para completar el estudio, finalizamos aportando datos de una reveladora estadística que ha publicado recientemente el periódico El País sobre la representación de las mujeres españolas en el sistema del arte, con datos recogidos por la asociación Mujeres en las Artes Visuales (MAV). Y lo complementamos con un post publicado por NIAL Art Law sobre la obligación del Ministerio de Fomento a destinar en los contratos de obras públicas una partida de al menos el 1% (conocido como el "1% cultural") a trabajos de conservación o enriquecimiento del Patrimonio Cultural Español. 


Analicemos primero el artículo de El País. Lamentablemente, en él constatamos lo que ya sabemos: que en el sistema artístico también se reproduce la estructura piramidal que existe en otros sectores profesionales. Mientras que las mujeres predominan en las carreras de Bellas Artes (65% de las titulaciones) e Historia del Arte (74%), así como en los departamentos de coordinación y conservación de numerosos museos y centros de arte (un alto 81%; o un 67% que ha pasado por oposiciones para solicitar cargos de conservación en museos públicos), pocas ocupan puestos de responsabilidad (22% son directoras de museos o centros de arte contemporáneo) o de reconocimiento profesional (ninguna mujer española ha sido, por ejemplo, galardonada con el Premio Velázquez. Y aunque ya sabemos que éste es sólo un premio de los muchos existentes, es el que mejor dotación económica tiene: 100,000 Euros en 2013).


Representación de las mujeres españolas en el sistema del arte publicado en El País.

En cuanto a la adquisición de obra realizada por mujeres, museos como el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) en Madrid han ido, desde 2008, adquiriendo obra con criterios paritarios (46% mujeres y 54% hombres), aunque las cifras de su colección permanente (un 4% de obras y un 6% de artistas españolas en su colección) arrastran, como apunta el artículo, un notable desequilibrio. 

Lo mismo le ocurre al Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), cuya colección tiene sólo el 9.5% de piezas producidas por mujeres frente a un total de 5,314 obras. El Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), es único museo que trabaja con criterios de estricta paridad en programación y compras desde 2010, aunque su colección permanente sólo tiene un 13,9% de creadoras de un total de 537. 

Y para finalizar, volvamos al llamado 1% cultural. El pasado 15 de octubre la ministra de Fomento y el ministro de Educación, Cultura y Deporte han firmado un acuerdo con el que se amplía la aportación del 1% destinado a los citados proyectos de restauración y enriquecimiento del Patrimonio Histórico al 1,5% Cultural (no aquellas obras que excedan los 601.012,10 Euros totales, o aquellas que afecten a la seguridad y defensa del Estado, así como a la seguridad de los servicios públicos). ¿Quién puede solicitarlo? 

Como bien apunta el post de Nial Art Law y recoge la web del Ministerio es el propio Estado (las Comunidades Autónomas, Ayuntamientos, Diputaciones Forales y Provinciales, Consejos y Cabildos Insulares), Universidades públicas o Fundaciones públicas o privadas sin ánimo de lucro quienes pueden solicitarlo. Está por ver qué procedimientos se seguirán para su gestión, si se regirán bajo los deseados principios de transparencia y qué requisitos se establecen en las convocatorias públicas, pues ya sabemos que muchas veces la redacción, expectativas, plazos y términos que éstas imponen determinan quienes serán los destinatarios de tales ayudas.

Una de las medidas más preocupantes, tal y como lamenta el post de Nial Art Law, es que en la gran mayoría de las ocasiones, las medidas van encaminadas a favorecer la conservación y el mantenimiento del patrimonio cultural ya existente (mayormente en inmuebles declarados de interés cultural o similares, véanse por ejemplo las actuaciones llevadas a cabo en el 2011), y no necesariamente a favorecer la generación de nuevo patrimonio cultural, es decir, a apoyar a creadores activos, peligrando en consecuencia la generación de futuro patrimonio y el apoyo a la creación actual. Y es que a este paso, si no fomentamos a la producción actual, no tendremos patrimonio futuro que queramos exponer para generaciones venideras.

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Artist-run art schools – which educational models might work in Spain?

A few days ago Rachel Spence of the Financial Times published an interesting article on "Artist-run art schools". It features a range of initiatives that are being developed with different profiles and results: from Ryan Gander's Fairfield International, a residency for artists set to open in 2015 (with business partner, creative consultant Simon Turnbull), to Wael Shawky's MASS in Alexandria or Marina Abramovic's eponymous institute with a focus on 'long durational work' (and her ego?) in upstate New York for which she has already raised more than $660,000 through a crowdfunding campaign. 

Rendering of the Fairfield International art school to open in a former Victorian primary school building in Suffolk. Photo: Fizzy Dawson Mayer.

In the article, Spence makes an interesting point about the differences between the Gander and the Shawky approach: a key element of Shawky’s Independent Art Studio & Study Programme are the trips abroad "as the contemporary art scene is still limited in Egypt". Last year its participants worked as interns at the Sharjah Biennial and visited Documenta 13 in Germany, initiatives that helped them think “about the concept of the work rather than how they craft it. The discussions they have when they come back about what they have seen are really important", as Shawky explained.

At Gander's Fairfield International – read more about his plans in this Artforum '500 words' feature – there will be a sense of it being a retreat and its by the seaside, away from "all the art world distractions that don’t help an artist work". As Gander explains, “the two most valuable elements for artists are time and space with no need to earn money”. Here residents will be chosen according to both artistic excellence and financial needs, becoming "something between an art academy and a residency, entirely free to the [12] students who are also provided with a living stipend."

The article also highlights the common reasons for starting such projects: the failure of the public sector to provide a service [artistic education] and, secondly their sense that "artists who have enjoyed certain opportunities, have a duty to fill the gap". 

This makes us think about which artistic-led educational model could be more applicable in a Spanish context – Shawky's "outwards" or Gander's "inwards"? A mixture of both? And in particular, which financial models could make it happen in a context with little philanthropic tradition or the luxury of a "sense of duty" to fill the very same gap Gander and Shawky talked about? Perhaps what we are really missing the most is an internal debate within the artistic community about if such models are desirable and if so, how can they be taken forward. 

In summer 2011, we initiated Campus at the Espai Cultural Caja Madrid in Barcelona as a tuition-free, unaccredited, pilot art school. Four one-week working sessions were held during consecutive weeks, each under the guidance of international artists. This was a one-off temporary project (the Espai closed later in December 2012) which in part aimed to provoke such a debate in the context of the diminishing arts infrastructure of Barcelona and the upsurge in artists leaving the city to pursue careers abroad.

Work space during week 1. Photo: Latitudes

Having visited Glasgow and Dublin in recent months, two cities more-or-less comparable in size to Barcelona, and visited a wealth of artists, impressively well-equipped studio facilities, and numerous artist-run-spaces, one can clearly trace back the importance of generating a robust artistic community from a strong basis of residency-based models and art schools [Glasgow School of Art's Master in Fine Art being a particularly key example of this]. These feed directly back into the artistic capacity and ambition of the type of work being produced, as well as creating exchange, an influx of new blood, aweness of the work of international peers, and generating curatorial discourse.

Related reading on artist-run / self-organised art schools initiatives: 

– In 2012, frieze featured 'New Schools' profiling artist-run art academies and education programmes The Silent University, The School of Global Art, The External Program, MASS Alexandria, SOMA in Mexico City and Islington Mill Art Academy.

– 2010 frieze also featured Piero Golia and Eric Wesley's The Mountain School of Art in Los Angeles. 

– Most recently, David Batty of The Guardian [@David_Batty] wrote 'Alternative art schools: a threat to universities?' profiling the tuition-free OpenSchoolEast, which began last September in London, backed by c. £110,000 from the Barbican and Create London. In return for a year's free tuition and studio space, their 12 participants give one day a month of their time to community activities in the borough.

 
This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Report from Glasgow: Lecture at The Common Guild and studio and gallery visits

Late last month we made a trip to Glasgow at the invitation of The Common Guild to give a lecture about the work of Roman Ondák, who currently has an exhibition there (until 14 December). We took the opportunity to stay a few days in Glasgow to see exhibitions and do some studio visits with the many artists who call the city home. A big thank you to Kitty Anderson and Katrina Brown for the invitation and hospitality.

Tea and biscuits with our talk at The Common Guild.
In our lecture on the evening of 21 November we talked about some key works by Ondák – including SK Parking (2001) and The Stray Man (2006) – suggesting how fin-de-siècle Vienna provides a lens with which to focus on its negotiation of both the cliché of "life as art" and the grim stereotype of "the everyday" in the former Eastern Europe. 

Ondák's show at The Common Guild filled the galleries of its present home in a Victorian townhouse near Kelvingrove Park with a series of works in vitrines which couple early still-life paintings and drawings by the Slovakian artist alongside the actual objects depicted. A chair, a length of rope, a twig, a vase, and so on, become caught in a humorous riddle about reality and its representation and when the "real" work of an artist can be said to have begun.


Roman Ondák at The Common Guild.
The previous day we'd visited the studio of the amazing filmmaker Luke Fowler, who was about to go to Huddersfield for their Contemporary Music festival and a collaboration with David Toop. We also met with Corin Sworn, who was one of the three artists representing Scotland at the 2013 Venice Biennial, though in fact none of them was actually Scottish. Scotland + Venice 2013 – whose final week was during our visit to Glasgow – was conceived and produced by The Common Guild. (We were also delighted to be able to meet the great filmmaker Duncan Campell, another of the Venice artists later in the week).

We'd also had time to check out the eclectic Hunterian Museum (the oldest museum in Scotland), Aaron Angell & Jack Bilbo's show at SWG3 Gallery, as well as The Modern Institute's two venues. At the Aird's Lane branch was a show by furniture designer Martino Gamper while the Osborne Street HQ, a former bathhouse, has a show by Chris Johanson.


The Modern Institute Aird's Lane: Martino Gamper.
The Modern Institute at Osborne Street: Chris Johanson.
Aaron Angell & Jack Bilbo's show at SWG3 Gallery.
In the south of the city, we were glad to be able to visit Tramway, the multi-use arts venue that's been running since the late 1980s and now also hosts the Scottish Ballet, as well as a huge exhibition space with an important history of shows. It hosted an impressive show by Lucy Skaer entitled "Exit, Voice and Loyalty", as well as a "House Style" a series of commissions made in response to Roundabout a series of film from the 1960s and 1970s designed to promote Britain as a progressive world leader to south and south-east Asian audiences. 

Lucy Skaer at Tramway: Exit, Voice and Loyalty takes its title from economist Albert O. Hirschman’s essay on how change comes about through dissent.
Lucy Skaer: tenmoku glazed ceramics.
Lucy Skaer: works based on ticket punch holes.
House Style, curated by Panel: film by Rob Kennedy.
Thanks to Kyla McDonald at Glasgow Sculpture Studios we visited their fantastic high-spec fabrication facilities – which include a ceramics studio, wood and metal-shop and media suites – and met with a number of artists based their. Claire Barclay had just completed a commission with Artlink commemorating the bicentenary of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. We talked with Lauren Gault about her show at Generator Projects in Dundee, and Sarah Forrest about her recent Margaret Tait Residency in Orkney. Alex Impey told us about his interest in Michael Baxandall's "Period Eye" and Sarah Tripp had just finished edited 24 Stops, a work commissioned by Camden Arts Centre. 

Claire Barclay's studio at GSS.
Lauren Gault's studio at GSS with blue-glazed ceramic forms.
Moreover, Glasgow Sculpture Studios have an exhibition space which was hosting a show by Haegue Yang entitled Journal of Bouba/kiki, the result of a residency and Haegue's evident delight in exploring some new fabrication techniques. 


Haegue Yang's exhibition at GSS included these macramé mobiles.
Haegue Yang at GSS. Yang's residency resulted in a number of new technical innovations, included a motorized system for a new Venetian-blind installation and these ceramic hand gestures.
Finally we were happy to spend time with Carles Congost, who by Catalan coincidence, opened an exhibition at CCA Glasgow on Friday 22 November. Curated by Emma Brasó with works by Congost and Henry Coombes, "Man of the Year" runs until 26 January next year.
Fear Your Talent: Carles Congost in the shadows!

This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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