We are pleased to announce that Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes have successfully qualified to be in the first cohort of Active Members of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC). To achieve this status we had to demonstrate that our organisation had implemented environmental sustainability best practices in line with GCC’s guidelines.

This initiative marks an evolution in GCC’s strategy from awareness raising and community building to one focusing on the near-term tangible progress of members following three key actions:

• Completing a CO2e report or audit (our 2019 and 2022 emissions are published here).
• Establishing and maintaining a Green Team (Latitudes is also on the Founding Committee of GCC Spain).
• Publishing an Environmental Responsibility Statement.

As part of the initiative, GCC provides qualifying members with a badge (see below) to recognise and celebrate the actions taken. These badges are year-stamped and members have to re-submit annually to retain the latest Active designation. 

Active Membership is neither a certification of sustainability nor a claim that we are doing things perfectly and have all the answers — none of us are at this point. Yet it does entail transparency in the assessment, reporting, and reduction of climate impact, the setting of targets in line with science, and the search for working solutions.

We encourage everyone to visit the Gallery Climate Coalition website to learn more about the initiative and how to get involved.

Moreover, Latitudes is part of the Founding Committee of the recently formed volunteer team, GCC Spain. To get involved, please contact: [email protected]

Active Membership Press Release, 10 May 2023.

RELATED CONTENTS:

• Latitudes’ Environmental Policy Statement – Extended version here.
• Cover Story, March 2023: Art, Climate, and New Coalitions, 1 Mar 2023
• Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) en el Estado español, 25 January 2023
• Latitudes’ essay “Un suelo para las historias del arte del futuro” [Soil for Future Art Histories] in TBA21’s catalogue “Futuros Abundantes / Abundant Futures”, 22 Jan 2023
• “‘Minor’ Ornithologies” podcast conducted by Max Andrews of Latitudes for TBA21 on st_age, 27 Sep 2022
• 18 marzo 2021, 18:30h: Mesa redonda “Transformación geológica y construcción artificial” con Lara Almarcegui y Juan Guardiola, 8 Mar 2021
• Lead Faculty, Geologic Time, Banff International Curatorial Institute, Visual + Digital Arts Department, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada, 11 September–6 October 2017
• Group exhibition, “4.543 billion. The matter of matter”, CAPC musée d’art contemporain Bordeaux, France, 29 June 2017–7 January 2018
• Editors, “Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010”, Archive Books, 2011
• Solo exhibition, “Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies”, Kunsthal Aarhus, Århus, Denmark, 22 January–3 April 2011
• Public realm commissions, Portscapes, Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, throughout 2009
• Custodians, Reduce Art Flights (RAF) website (2008–ongoing)
• Touring film programme, “A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art’s Expanded Field 1968–2008”, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, and other venues, April–October 2008
• Group exhibition “Greenwashing. Perils, Promises and Perplexities”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, February–May 2008
• Convenors, “Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change”, 3-day symposium during the Sharjah Biennial 8, 5–7 April 2007
• Editors, “UOVO #14: Ecology, Luxury and Degradation”, 2007
• Editor, “LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook” (2006)
• Curator, Tue Greenfort, Arts & Ecology public realm commission in London, 2005–2008.

Spread of UOVO magazine #14, a 500-page issue + two CDs guest edited by Latitudes, 2007. Photo: Alexis Zavialoff.

Cover and back cover of the exhibition catalogue “Greenwashing” (Archive Books, 2008), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino. The 192-page full-colour catalogue embraced environmentally-conscious design with a degree of irony, each of the book's thirteen sections was printed on a different 'eco-paper' such as Shiro Alga Carta (produced by harvesting algae from the Venetian lagoon), KeayKolour Recycled Honey or Shiro Tree Free Naturale, alongside their corresponding eco-credentials. Photo: Latitudes. 

Pages of Lara Almarcegui's first monograph “Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010” (Archive Books, 2011) covering 15 years of her artistic practice, with commissioned texts by Cuauhtémoc Medina and Lars Bang Larsen, and an introduction by Latitudes. Photo: Latitudes.

In terms of related public-realm commissions, we worked with Danish artist Tue Greenfort for The Royal Society of Arts’ pioneering Arts & Ecology programme (2005–2008) and curated ten public art projects around Europe’s largest seaport, the Port of Rotterdam (“Portscapes” in 2009–2010). We have also organised thematic curatorial residencies around geological agency (“Geologic Time”, Banff Centre, 2017) and a touring film programme on the legacy of Land Art (“A Stake in the Mud a Hole in the Reel”, 2008–2009).

Last but not least, since 2008 we have been custodians of the website of RAF/Reduce Art Flights, a reference resource about the campaign initiated by the late Gustav Metzger (1926–2017).

Latitudes’ environmental impact is small, yet we acknowledge that the largest impact comes from flights and the disproportionate mobility practices of the sector we work in. We believe that art and culture have a role to play in bringing about ambitious change, applying best practices and setting a positive example to position the climate crisis at the centre of the political and social debate.

In January 2023 we became individual members of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) and began to work with colleagues to set up the Spanish volunteer team, GCC España, that meets regularly to track progress on environmental targets and actions. 

Editors of Rotterdam-based magazine Fucking Good Art were ‘embedded’ in the port's Yangtzehaven for a month in the summer of 2009 from where they produced ‘Portscapes_ON AIR Station Maasvlakte’, a series of audio walks, field recordings and conversations with guests from different disciplines for the “Portscapes” website. Photo courtesy: FGA.

Latitudes requests external collaborators opt for train or alternative low-carbon transit and freight options in line with GCC’s guidelines (as well as Gustav Metzger’s RAF/Reduce Art Flights campaign) and this is reflected in work contracts. We hope to lead by example in implementing a sustainability strategy in the planning of exhibitions from an early stage, and whenever curating projects we always try to build the minimum necessary temporary architecture and ensure that any exhibition-related production is entirely locally tuned. We ask that collaborators use no plastic or other single-use materials when transporting works or for events.

Latitudes’ website runs on sustainable energy. According to websitecarbon.com (see stats below), LTTDS.org produces 16.76kg of C02 equivalent per year, roughly the amount of carbon that one tree would absorb in the same time, and it consumes 44kWh of energy (equivalent to 280km in an electric car). 

• Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) en el Estado español, 25 January 2023
• Latitudes’ essay “Un suelo para las historias del arte del futuro” [Soil for Future Art Histories] in TBA21’s catalogue “Futuros Abundantes / Abundant Futures”, 22 Jan 2023
• “‘Minor’ Ornithologies” podcast conducted by Max Andrews of Latitudes for TBA21 on st_age, 27 Sep 2022
• Cover Story, September 2021: Erratic behaviour—Latitudes in conversation with Jorge Satorre, 31 Aug 2021 
• 18 marzo 2021, 18:30h: Mesa redonda “Transformación geológica y construcción artificial” con Lara Almarcegui y Juan Guardiola, 8 Mar 2021
• Lead Faculty, Geologic Time, Banff International Curatorial Institute, Visual + Digital Arts Department, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada, 11 September–6 October 2017
• Group exhibition, “4.543 billion. The matter of matter”, CAPC musée d’art contemporain Bordeaux, France, 29 June 2017–7 January 2018
• Editors, “Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010”, Archive Books, 2011
• Solo exhibition, “Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies”, Kunsthal Aarhus, Århus, Denmark, 22 January–3 April 2011
• Public realm commissions, Portscapes, Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, throughout 2009
• Custodians, Reduce Art Flights (RAF) website (2008–ongoing)
• Touring film programme, “A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art’s Expanded Field 1968–2008”, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, and other venues, April–October 2008
• Group exhibition “Greenwashing. Perils, Promises and Perplexities”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, February–May 2008
• Convenors, “Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change”, 3-day symposium during the Sharjah Biennial 8, 5–7 April 2007
• Editors, “UOVO #14: Ecology, Luxury and Degradation”, 2007
• Editor, “LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook” (2006)
• Curator, Tue Greenfort, Arts & Ecology public realm commission in London, 2005–2008

  March 2023 cover story on www.lttds.org

The March 2023 monthly Cover Story “Art, Climate and New Coalitions” is now up on our homepage www.lttds.org

“The terminology of environmental consciousness and carbon emissions has shifted significantly in recent decades, from talk of the greenhouse effect to global warming and sustainable development, and now from climate change to the climate emergency. ” → Continue reading (after March 2023 this story will be archived here).

Cover Stories are published on a monthly basis on Latitudes’ homepage featuring past, present or forthcoming projects, research, texts, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects or field trips related to our curatorial projects and activities.

El 22 de febrero de 2023 a las 16h tendrá lugar una sesión informativa sobre la Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) en el Exhibitors’ Lounge de ARCOmadrid. 

El encuentro lanza un nuevo grupo semiautónomo y voluntario afincado en el Estado español, GCC Spain – que se suma a los grupos de trabajo alineados con los objetivos de GCC existentes en Berlín, Italia, Los Ángeles, Londres y Taiwán – e inicia su andadura con el fin de desarrollar y compartir buenas prácticas y recursos medioambientales específicos para profesionales del sector artístico español.

Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) es una organización sin ánimo de lucro que agrupa a distintos agentes del sector artístico en Europa que ofrece directrices de sostenibilidad medioambiental para el sector de las artes visuales. La membresía es totalmente gratuita (actualmente cuenta con +800 miembros de 40 países), tan sólo exige un compromiso sincero y firme con la misión y los fines de la asociación.

Preocupados por reducir y compensar el impacto medioambiental que nuestro sector genera, los principales objetivos de la coalición son facilitar una reducción de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero del sector de las artes visuales en un mínimo del 50% para 2030 (en línea con el objetivo del Acuerdo de París de mantener el calentamiento global por debajo de 1.5 °C) y promover prácticas de deshechos cero. 

Información → https://galleryclimatecoalition.org

Contacto → [email protected]

CONTENIDOS RELACIONADOS:

• Latitudes’ essay “Un suelo para las historias del arte del futuro” [Soil for Future Art Histories] in TBA21’s catalogue “Futuros Abundantes / Abundant Futures”, 22 Jan 2023
• “‘Minor’ Ornithologies” podcast conducted by Max Andrews of Latitudes for TBA21 on st_age, 27 Sep 2022
• Cover Story, September 2021: Erratic behaviour—Latitudes in conversation with Jorge Satorre, 31 Aug 2021 
• 18 marzo 2021, 18:30h: Mesa redonda “Transformación geológica y construcción artificial” con Lara Almarcegui y Juan Guardiola, 8 Mar 2021
• Lead Faculty, Geologic Time, Banff International Curatorial Institute, Visual + Digital Arts Department, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada, 11 September–6 October 2017
• Group exhibition, “4.543 billion. The matter of matter”, CAPC musée d’art contemporain Bordeaux, France, 29 June 2017–7 January 2018
• Editors, “Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010”, Archive Books, 2011
• Solo exhibition, “Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies”, Kunsthal Aarhus, Århus, Denmark, 22 January–3 April 2011
• Public realm commissions, Portscapes, Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, throughout 2009
• Custodians, Reduce Art Flights (RAF) website (2008–ongoing)
• Touring film programme, “A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art’s Expanded Field 1968–2008”, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, and other venues, April–October 2008
• Group exhibition “Greenwashing. Perils, Promises and Perplexities”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, February–May 2008
• Convenors, “Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change”, 3-day symposium during the Sharjah Biennial 8, 5–7 April 2007
• Editors, “UOVO #14: Ecology, Luxury and Degradation”, 2007
• Editor, “LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook” (2006)
• Curator, Tue Greenfort, Arts & Ecology public realm commission in London, 2005–2008