Tue, Dec 10 2019Production of '6 Hours of Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009) by Jan Dibbets. Photo: Paloma Polo / SKOR.
The 8-minute film ‘6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective’ by Dutch artists Jan Dibbets is currently exhibited as part of "Fingers Crossed" (pdf, Spanish), a group exhibition opening December 14, 2019, curated by Blanca de la Torre and Sue Spaid, at ADN Platform in Sant Cugat (Barcelona), on view until April 4, 2020. The film was produced in 2009 for ‘Portscapes’, the year-long programme producing ten new commissions in and around the Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, curated by Latitudes.
Gerry Schum's 1969 'Land Art' series of films screened on German public TV.
Jan Dibbets’ (1941) film was ‘Portscapes’ inaugural project and was filmed on February 8, 2009. Originally filmed 40 years earlier, in February 1969, in black and white and in 16 mm, it was titled ‘12 Hours Tide Object...’. The film was originally presented in 1969 as part of Gerry Schum's seminal 'Land Art' series of artists' films screened that same year on German public TV (this programme was included in Latitudes-curated touring film programme ‘A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art’s Expanded Field 1968–2008’ which began at the Museo Tamayo in April 2008.)
The film presents the drawing of an isosceles trapezoid in the sand using a bulldozer – the shape consequently appears as a rectangle in the resultant film due to the angle of perspective. The new 2009 realisation was filmed 40 years later to the month on the beach of the Maasvlakte, an area that was soon after forever transformed with the construction of Maasvlakte 2 – a land reclamation project, realised between 2008 and 2013, that extended Europe's largest seaport and industrial area by 2,000 hectares. The resulting 8 minute-long film was premiered at the FutureLand Information Centre of the Port of Rotterdam in June 2009 and during Latitudes’ participation in the New York festival NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival of Independents (24–28 June 2009).
Dibbets’ film presented as part of Latitudes’ participation in the festival NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival of Independents, New York, 24–28 June 2009. Photo: Latitudes.
‘6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective’ was produced in collaboration with SKOR | Foundation Art and Public Space (1999–2012), an organisation which initiated, curated and developed art projects in relation to the public domain that no longer exists, realising over a thousand projects in public space in the Netherlands for over a decade. Portscapes was curated by Latitudes, culminating in a display of the projects at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 2010.
→ RELATED CONTENT: - Portscapes commissions
- Portscapes exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
- Making of '6 Hours of Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009) by Jan Dibbets – part 1 here.
- Making of '6 Hours of Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009) by Jan Dibbets – part 2 here.
2009, 2019, 2020, ADN Platform, film, Jan Dibbets, Land Art, latitudes, No Soul for Sale, Port of Rotterdam Authority, Portscapes, SKOR
Wed, Dec 12 2012Part of our interest in the #OpenCurating research we are currently carrying out is to look at how museums and curatorial departments are engaging in new ways with their audiences and the means through which "open" initiatives are being promoted and implemented in exhibition-making and via other types of programming.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art has created two really dynamic initiatives which promote transparency throughout the museum's operations: a real-time statistics "Dashboard" including data such as the museum's energy consumption, works of art currently on display, the value of the museum's endowment, their operating expenses, average time of visits to the website, etc. The tool was implemented in 2008 and is the brainchild of museum director Maxwell L. Anderson, an active advocate of implementing new media technologies to advance public interest in art.
The data can be compared to previous years (stats for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011), filtered by museum departments (Buildings, Education, Conservation, Curatorial, Finance...) as well as by topics (Art, Greening the IMA, Attendance...).
Dashboard data of the curatorial.
However admirable this tool is, the curatorial dashboard falls rather short on the depth of information, only offering statistics for the "number of acquisitions" and the "number of works with gaps in WWII-Era Provenance". They do not reveal full data sets of their departmental operational budget, for instance. This might show there is still some resistance to really open up to show other kind of costs (shipping, insurance, exhibition display, fees paid to artists (or not?)...) or even interesting insights such as (air)miles travelled by the curatorial staff, or the amount of paper used for their publications, just to mention a few.
Some of these topics (how to articulate institutions and organisations complex needs in seeming transparent, responsible and benevolent) were addressed in Latitudes' 2008 exhibition "Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities" (Archive Books, 2008) and in its catalogue essay "Shades of Green: a conversation between the curators", as well as in the essay by Stephanie Smith "'Alas for the dreams of a Dreamer!': Art Museums and Sustainability" included in the Latitudes-edited publication "Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' (RSA, 2006).
A second initiative we find quite relevant is the "Deaccessioning database", which classifies pieces that have been deaccessioned at the museum since 2007 (following IMA's policy, see pdf here), explaining provenance, the reasons for its deaccession, listing the recipient and the day of sale, etc.
Take for instance "Houses in the Snow", a 1929 canvas by Maurice de Vlaminck sold via Sotheby's in 2009 for $173700; or the 1889 suite of prints "Les Misères Humaines" by Gaugin, which were transferred to the Musée de Pont-Aven in 2009. Fascinating and revealing, isn't it?
Deaccessioned file for Maurice de Vlaminck's 1929 canvas. #OpenCurating, 2.0, 2012, Greenwashing, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Land Art, museums, statistics, technology, transparency
Wed, Mar 28 2012 |
Cover of the publication. |
Pages 44-45, with the section "Art, Research, Ecology".
Robert Smithson's seminal Land Art work Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (Emmen, The Netherlands, 1971) is treated as a case study that opens up to a number of topics, still relevant in contemporary art: 'Models of Spectatorship', 'Art, Research, Ecology', 'Documentation', 'Museum, Media, Society' and 'The Cinematic'."
Above: pages with Max Andrews' essay "A Dark Spot of Exasperation: From Smithson to the Spime".

Max Andrews' essay "A Dark Spot of Exasperation: From Smithson to the Spime".
In his text, Andrews stresses that Smithson's innovations in terms of post-studio practice are not about "the question where, or what is the work of art?", but about investigating the structure of the multiple elements which constitute the form of an art project and its place in the world. According to Andrews, the essential feature of Smithson's kinship to post-studio practice is not so much his institutional critique, but a move away from the museum and the curator as existing power structures to a "curatorial function which incorporates a social ecology: a new meaning- and value-generating system in and around art." In his essay, Andrews traces the points of congruence between Smithson and the practices of contemporary artists like Lara Almarcegui, Jorge Satorre and Cyprien Gaillard.
Documentation pages, clippings from 1987.
Pages 150-151, Section "A Living Archive – Film"
Page 194-195, Section "A Living Archive"
Pages 208-209, Section "A Living Archive"
The 240-page monograph publication will be launched on 30 March 2012 in The Hague during the symposia Rethinking Robert Smithson organised by the publishers in cooperation with Leiden University Institute for Cultural Disciplines.
Initiator and publisher: Alauda Publications
Edited by: Ingrid Commandeur and Trudy van Riemsdijk-Zandee
Authors: Max Andrews, Eric C.H. de Bruyn, Stefan Heidenreich, Sven Lütticken, Anja Novak, Vivian van Saaze
Design: Esther Krop
ISBN: 9789081531481
2012, Alauda Publications, Cyprien Gaillard, Jorge Satorre, Land Art, Lara Almarcegui, Max Andrews, Robert Smithson, SKOR, The Netherlands
Thu, Oct 8 2009
Milan-based
Kult Magazine has published an article on art and ecology in their October issue written by art critic and curator Daniele Perra. In the section, Perra interviews curator Francesco Manacorda (curator of the exhibition '
Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009' on view at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, until 18 October), as well as English artist Simon Starling and selects a few ongoing exhibitions and events that analyse the relationship between art and nature.
In page 88 (see detail above) Perra mentioned
Latitudes' ecology-related projects such as the '
Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities...' exhibition at the Fondazione Sandretto in Turin in 2008, the guest-edition of
UOVO #14 in 2007 and the publication '
Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' in 2006, to introduce our participation in the forthcoming
The Wånas Foundation seminar on Art and Ecology taking place on the 21 October in Knislinge, Sweden and in the symposium organised by Hinterland Projects on 26th November titled
'The evolving relationships between artists, the changing climate and new responsibilities'.
[Above: Detail of page 88 of the magazine. With thanks to Daniele Perra] Ecology, Greenwashing, Hinterland, Land Art, UOVO, Wanas Foundation