Longitudes

2019 in 10 monthly Cover Stories

 23 Dec 2019
Since our 10th anniversary in Spring 2015, Latitudes has published a monthly cover story on its website (www.lttds.org) featuring past, present or forthcoming projects, as well as research, texts, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects or travel related to our curatorial work.  

2019 has been an active year of field trips. We have been lucky to visit ARCOmadrid, Buenos Aires (May 2019), Valencia (to research for an article and to participate in a conversation), Devon and Cornwall (September 2019), to Chicago and Detroit (hinted at in the September 2019 Cover Story), Helsinki (October 2019), Bilbao, Moscow (December 2019) and Amsterdam (and Reykjavík from the screen as featured in the April-May cover story).

Happy holidays and a joyful 2020!

Cover Story—December 2019: Curating and the Web of Life.
Cover Story—November 2019: ‘Fighting fires in Valencia: the 30-year story of the IVAM’.
Cover Story—October 2019: Mercedes Azpilicueta in Helsinki.
 Cover Story—September 2019: ‘Polperro to Detroit’
Cover Story—Summer 2019: Francesc Ruiz’s Brexit Bristol sequel, ten years ago.
Cover Story—June 2019: ‘Thinking like a drainage basin: Lara Almarcegui’s ‘Concrete’.
Cover Story—May 2019: Buenos Aires in Parallel.
Cover Story—March-April 2019: Icelandic refraction.
Cover Story—February 2019: Schizophrenic Machine.
Cover Story—January 2019: "Seesaw".


→ RELATED CONTENT:
  • Cover Story—December 2018: "Treasures! exhibitionism! showmanship!" 1 December 2018
  • Cover Story—November 2018: "Joan Morey—postmortem judgement reenactment" 1 November 2018
  • Cover Story–October 2018: "I can’t take my eyes off you: Eulàlia Rovira and Adrian Schindler" 1 October 2018
  • Cover Story–September 2018: Harald Szeemann’s travel sculpture, 10 September 2018
  • Cover Story–August 2018: Askeaton Joyride, 2 August 2018
  • Cover Story–July 2018: No Burgers for Sale 2 July 2018
  • Cover Story—June 2018: Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group, 4 June 2018
  • Cover Story – May 2018: Shadowing Roman Ondák, 7 May 2018 
  • Cover Story – April 2018: "Cover Story—April 2018: Dates, 700 BC to the present: Michael Rakowitz" 3 April 2018 
  • Cover Story – March 2018: "Armenia's ghost galleries" 6 March 2018 
  • Cover Story – February 2018: Paradise, promises and perplexities 5 February 2018 
  • Cover Story – January 2018: I'll be there for you, 2 January 2018 
 2019, art-agenda, Bilbao, Buenos Aires, Chicago, cover story, end of the year, field trip, Francesc Ruiz, Frieze, Joan Morey, Lara Almarcegui, latitudes, looking back, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Moscow, report

‘6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective’ by Jan Dibbets screened in Barcelona

 10 Dec 2019
Production 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.

Projection of Dibbets' 1969 film as part of the itinerant film programme ‘A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art’s Expanded Field 1968–2008’ on July 11, 2008, at the barn Hongersdijk Farmstead, Wilhelminapolder, Zeeland, The Netherlands, a programme hosted by SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space, Amsterdam). 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

Video of Latitudes' lecture "Curating in the Web of Life" at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow

 04 Dec 2019

‘Curating in the Web of Life’ is in a 1-hour-long lecture presented on November 7, 2019, at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, in the context of their group exhibition ‘The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100’. It is in English and a Q+A follows. You can also watch it with Russian translation (voice-over). 

 Latitudes during the lecture ‘Curating in the Web of Life’. Photo: Anton Donikov. © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.

In the lecture, Latitudes discuss how Modern art and modernist art history largely assented to the ontological and epistemological lie which imagined humanity and the humanities making their own history by themselves, while hiding the fact that their productions, relations, and economy were always teeming with biophysical processes. The increasing violence by which the limits of the planet, its feedback loops and tipping points, are forcing themselves into world events has profound consequences for how we narrate (art) history and curate exhibitions in the web of life.


Max Andrews of Latitudes during the lecture ‘Curating in the Web of Life’. Photo: Anton Donikov. © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.
Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes during the lecture ‘Curating in the Web of Life’. Photo: Anton Donikov. © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.
 
New disciplines are broaching the separation between human activities and Earth systems – environmental law, political ecology, ecological economics, and so on. Likewise, what is at issue when artists, curators, exhibitions, and museums venture into new formations and shared rather than adjacent perspectives? What is at stake in a curatorial ecology, an environmental art history, or in integrating socio-natural processes into an institution’s account of itself, and so on? Turning to a world-systems approach as well as the insights of micro-history, Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna presented a series of curatorial and artistic perspectives on such questions, drawing from “uncomfortable objects” and “dishonest research” [1] across their exhibitions “4.543 billion. The matter of matter” ( CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux 2017–18), ‘Hemauer Keller: United Alternative Energies’ (Kunsthal Aarhus, 2011), “Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities” (Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, 2008) and related projects such as the residency programme “Geologic Time” (Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, 2017).

[1] “Uncomfortable objects” is a notion borrowed from artist Mariana Castillo Deball, and “dishonest research” from artist Mercedes Azpilicueta.

Latitudes during the lecture ‘Curating in the Web of Life’. Photo: Anton Donikov. © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art

→ RELATED CONTENTS:
 2019, 4543 billion, Anthropocene, Capitalocene, decolonise institutions, deep time, Ecology, latitudes, Lecture, Moscow, Youtube

Premios de la 3a edición del Dart Festival de cine documental sobre arte contemporáneo 2019

 01 Dec 2019

Latitudes ha tenido el placer de ser miembro del jurado de la ‘Sección Explora by Laie Llibreria!’ de la tercera edición del Festival de Cine Documental sobre Arte Contemporáneo 2019 junto al crítico de cine Quim Casas y la artista visual Núria Güell.

Los ganadores son los documentales ‘Elliott Erwitt - Silence Sounds Good’ de Adriana López Sanfeliu como mejor producción nacional, y ‘Barbara Rubin & The Exploding NY Underground’ de Chuck Smith, como mejor producción internacional. 


Elliott Erwitt ha pasado toda su vida adulta haciendo fotografías de presidentes, papas y estrellas de cine, así como de personas an´ y también de sus mascotas. Mientras que su trabajo es icónico en la cultura mundial,  su vida es en gran parte desconocida. ‘Elliott Erwitt - Silence Sounds Good’ es un retrato amable e íntimo de un artista en su trabajo, mostrando ser alguien que valora la compañía de todo tipo por encima de la conversación ociosa. Su trabajo vital es un importante testimonio del poder de la imagen. Con su primera película, Adriana López Sanfeliu logra crear un retrato íntimo de un fotógrafo de primer nivel.



El documental “Christmas on Earth” (1963) conmocionó la escena del cine experimental de Nueva York. Su autora, la cineasta experimental Barbara Rubin, realizó la película cuando solo tenía 18 años. Durante su trayectoria, trabajó con el cineasta Jonas Mekas en la Filmmaker’s Coop, colaboró con Andy Warhol y fue fundamental en la creación de la próspera comunidad de cine underground de Nueva York. Durante años Mekas, que en la película tenía 94 años (falleció con 96), guardó todas las cartas de Barbara y atesoró su memoria. Trabajando con las imágenes de Mekas y los extraños clips de los archivos de Warhol, ‘Barbara Rubin & The Exploding NY Underground’ nos transporta dentro del mundo y la mente de Barbara Rubin, una cineasta que realmente creyó que el cine podría cambiar el mundo.


Proyección en el Cinema Girona. Cortesía: DART Festival 2019.

→ CONTENIDO RELACIONADO:
  • Mariana Cánepa Luna vocal del jurado del Premi Ciutat de Barcelona 2017 en el ámbito de las Artes Visuales 1 Febrero 2018
  • Antoni Hervàs's exhibition "El Misterio de Caviria" awarded the Visual Arts prize of the Premis Ciutat de Barcelona 2016 1 February 2017
  • Jurado y equipo tutorial de Barcelona Producció 2017 – Anuncio de los proyectos ganadores 25 Mayo 2017
  • Jurado y equipo tutorial de BCN Producció 2016, La Capella, Barcelona. 2 Febrero 2016
  • Latitudes-nominee artist Annette Kelm shortlisted for the Aimia | AGO Photography Prize 2015 24 June 2015
    Resolución Convocatoria 2012 de Artes visuales y Tutorial de la Sala d'Art Jove 7 Diciembre 2011
  • Fallo Jurado Premios Casablancas 2008, 20 Junio, 20h 16 junio 2008
  • Otros jurados – véase sección "About"
 2019, cinema, documentary, festival, Film programme, jury, latitudes

Lecture ‘Curating in the web of life’ in Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 7 November 2019 at 7:30pm

 28 Oct 2019




Image: Dan Perjovschi.

On November 7, 2019, at 7:30pm Latitudes will present the lecture ‘Curating in the web of life’ in the context of the public programme related to the group exhibition ‘The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100’ on view at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, until December 1, 2019. 

Curated by Snejana Krasteva and Ekaterina Lazareva, the exhibition ‘The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100’ currently occupies the entire Museum and presents historical and new works by over 50 Russian and international artists—from a 16th-century tapestry to works using VR.


Roman Keller and Christina Hemauer, ‘A Road Not Taken. The Story of the Jimmy Carter White House Solar Installation’, film still, 66 min., 2010. Courtesy of the artists.


‘Curating in the web of life’
— A lecture by Latitudes

Modern art and modernist art history largely assented to the ontological and epistemological lie which imagined humanity and the humanities making their own history by themselves, while hiding the fact that their productions, relations, and economy were always teeming with biophysical processes. The increasing violence by which the limits of the planet, its feedback loops and tipping points, are forcing themselves into world events has profound consequences for how we narrate (art) history and curate exhibitions in the web of life. 

New disciplines are broaching the separation between human activities and Earth systems – environmental law, political ecology, ecological economics, and so on. Likewise, what is at issue when artists, curators, exhibitions, and museums venture into new formations and shared rather than adjacent perspectives? What is at stake in a curatorial ecology, an environmental art history, or in integrating socio-natural processes into an institution’s account of itself, and so on? Turning to a world-systems approach as well as the insights of micro-history, Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna will present a series of curatorial and artistic perspectives on such questions, drawing from “uncomfortable objects” and “dishonest research” [1] across their exhibitions “4.543 billion. The matter of matter” (2017–18), “Hemauer Keller​: United Alternative Energies” (Kunsthal Aarhus, 2011) “Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities” (Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, 2008), and related projects such as the residency “Geologic Time” (Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity​, 2017).
 
[1] “Uncomfortable objects” is a notion borrowed from artist Mariana Castillo Deball, and “dishonest research” from artist Mercedes Azpilicueta.
 
→ RELATED CONTENTS:

 2019, Ecology, environmentalism, global trade, latitudes, Lecture, world ecology

Conferencia ‘4.543 miles de millones y la naturaleza social abstracta’, Jornadas Eremuak, Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, 17–19 octubre 2019

 14 Oct 2019
Imagen gráfica de las jornadas. Cortesía eremuak.

Latitudes ha sido invitada a participar en las jornadas 2019 de eremuak, que tendrán lugar en la primera planta de Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, entre el 17 y el 19 de octubre del 2019. 

Tituladas ‘-K/-S naturak / naturalezas’, el comité de eremuak (formado por Maider Lopez, Aimar Arriola e Iñaki Imaz), pretende hacerse eco de los ‘variados aspectos de lo que tradicionalmente se ha denominado naturaleza. Desde el abandono de los espacios institucionales en busca de un afuera comprometido y renovador, hasta la inclusión de procesos u organismos vivos en esos mismos espacios, el deseo de exterioridad parece evidente.’

Evitando recurrentes simplificaciones o la reducción del eje temático a binomios humano/no- humano, los organizadores aportan al término el matiz de la pluralidad (la –k de naturak, o la –s de naturalezas) con la intención de ‘atender a una diversidad más acorde a la realidad del mundo del arte y todas las naturalezas que genera o con las que se enfrenta.’

El programa incluye la participación de una docena de conferenciantes, así como la presentación de la revista eremuak#6, Cuaderno de artista, y a modo de clausura, un concierto de Hidrogenesse (entrada libre con invitación, recoger en Azkuna Zentroa). Las jornadas son de libre acceso hasta completar aforo.


Sala de la exposición colectiva ‘4.543 billion. The matter of matter’, CAPC musée d'art contemporain, 2017–18. Photo: Latitudes/RK.

Tomando como referencia una de las diez salas de la exposición colectiva ‘4.543 milliards. La question de la matière’ (CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, 2017–18), Latitudes analiza la noción de "naturaleza social abstracta" acuñada por el historiador ambiental e historiador geógrafo Jason W. Moore mediante la obra de cuatro de los artistas participantes: Lara Almarcegui, Pep Vidal, Lucas Ihlein y Amy Balkin.

Actualización: 
Jornadas Eremuak 2019 en vimeo.
Video de la presentación y turno de preguntas.


→ CONTENIDO RELACIONADO:
 2019, 4543 billion, Bilbao, conference, Ecology, latitudes, talk, world ecology

Helene Romakin interviews Latitudes for artfridge.de

 08 Oct 2019


Over the course of the Summer, Helene Romakin (PhD candidate at the Institute for the History and Theory of the Architecture, ETH Zurich) interviewed us for the Berlin-based online platform www.artfridge.de run by the art historian and curator Anna Lena Werner.

As Helene mentions in her introduction, we met last July in Valencia, after Mariana's conversation with Lara Almarcegui on the occasion of her solo exhibition “Agras Volcano. Mining Rights” at the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM). Afterwards, we had a lively discussion on several topics surrounding Lara's practice, our thoughts on other artistic practices tackling a range of environmental issues, the Extinction Rebellion, etc. so we were happy to continue our conversation when she proposed doing this interview looking back at several projects we produced in the mid-two thousands. 


→ RELATED CONTENTS:
  • Conversation for the exhibition catalogue "Limits to Growth" by Nicholas Mangan (Sternberg Press, 2016) 31 October 2016
  • In conversation with Lucas Ihlein for Artlink Magazine 5 September 2016
  • Witte de With and Spring Workshop's 'Moderation(s)' publication 'End Note(s)' is out! 5 March 2015
  • Interview with Nicholas Mangan in Mousse Magazine #47, February–March 2015 11 February 2015
  • "Focus Interview: Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum", frieze, Issue 157, September 2013 14 September 2013
 2019, 4543 billion, Barcelona Gallery Weekend, Composiciones, Harald Szeemann, interview, Lara Almarcegui, latitudes, Mariana Cánepa Luna, Max Andrews, press coverage, world ecology

PUBLICS' Library in Helsinki incorporates Latitudes-edited publications

 27 Sep 2019

We are glad to announce that PUBLICS in Helsinki now has all Latitudes publications available for consultation in their library (with the exception of the monograph "Lara Almarcegui, Projects 1995–2010" which is out of print). Our first publication, "LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook" (RSA/Arts Council England, 2006, also out of print), was already in their library. 

PUBLICS library is the third location where the whole set of Latitudes' publications reside, together with the Library of the MACBA Study Centre, Barcelona, and the Paul D. Fleck Library & Archives, The Banff Centre, Canada.

We also donated a few books we have contributed to with essays or interviews, such as "Antoni Hervàs. ‘The Mystery of Cabiria" (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2016), "C-H-R-I-S-T-O-P-H-E-R-K-N-O-W-L-E-S SO LISTEN UP" (NoguerasBlanchard, 2017), Rasmus Nilausen, ‘Soups & Symptoms, Paintings 2011–2016’ (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2016) and "Lara Almarcegui. Béton" (SilvanaEditoriale, 2019).


PUBLICS library is located at Sturenkatu 37-41 4b 00550 Helsinki.

Latitudes' publications available at PUBLICS Library (bibliography online):

Joan Morey: COLLAPSE
Various locations, Barcelona
September 2018–January 2019
Exhibition guide/programme guide, opuscule, poster

4.543 billion. The matter of matter
CAPC musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux
June 2017–January 2018
Exhibition guide & symposium guide

Amikejo
Catalogue of the exhibition series, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), León
April 2012

United Alternative Energies
Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller
Catalogue of the exhibition, Aarhus Art Building, Centre for Contemporary Art, Århus
January 2012

Campus
Catalogue of the project, Espai Cultural Caja Madrid, Barcelona
July 2011
Also available online.

Portscapes
Catalogue of the commission series and exhibition 'Portscapes', Port of Rotterdam / Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
February 2010

Martí Anson, Mataró Chauffeur Service
Catalogue of the project, 'No Soul For Sale', Tate Modern, London
January 2011

The Last Newspaper
Catalogue of the exhibition 'The Last Newspaper', New Museum, New York
October–December 2010

Lawrence Weiner: THE CREST OF A WAVE
Booklet of the exhibition, Fundació Suñol, Barcelona
October 2008

Simon Fujiwara: The Incest Museum–A Guide
Artist book, 'Provenances', Umberto di Marino Arte Contemporaneo, Naples
May 2009

Ignasi Aballí: 没有，有 Nothing, or Something
Catalogue of the exhibition, Suitcase Art Projects, Beijing
July 2009

Ecology, Luxury & Degradation
UOVO #14
Summer 2007

Greenwashing. Ambiente: Pericoli, Promesse e Perplessità 
(Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities)
Catalogue of the exhibition, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
February 2008


→ RELATED CONTENT
 2019, Amikejo, editorial, FAQs, Greenwashing, Helsinki, Lara Almarcegui, latitudes, Library, Mariana Cánepa Luna, Martí Anson, Max Andrews, Portscapes, publications, PUBLICS, Rasmus Nilausen, UOVO

Participants of the 2019 EXPO CHICAGO/Red Bull Arts Global Curatorial Initiative, Chicago and Detroit, 18–23 September 2019

 09 Sep 2019

Photo: Latitudes. 

Latitudes has been invited to join EXPO CHICAGO’s Curatorial Exchange programme. This year their visitor programme has been expanded with the introduction of the Red Bull Arts Global Curatorial Initiative, taking place surrounding the eighth annual exposition between September 18–23, 2019. 

The 2019 Curatorial Exchange will bring ten curators working in countries including Brazil (supported by Red Bull Arts Detroit), Canada (supported by the Consulate General of Canada in Chicago), Denmark (supported by the Ministry of Culture of Denmark and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark), Italy (supported by the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago), the Netherlands (supported by the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York) and Spain (supported by Red Bull Arts Detroit).

Participants:

Iben Bach Elmstrøm, independent curator, Copenhagen (Denmark).
Marcella Beccaria, Chief Curator and Curator of Collections Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Rivoli, Torino (Italy)
Zippora Elders, Curator and Artistic Director, Kunstfort Vijfhuizen (the Netherlands)
Bas Hendrikx, Artistic Director, Kunsthalle Amsterdam, Amsterdam (the Netherlands)
Jaimie Isaac, Curator of Indigenous and Contemporary Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery (Canada)
Sarah Robayo Sheridan, Curator, Art Museum at University of Toronto (Canada)
María Inés Rodríguez, Curator-at-Large, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) (Brazil)
Julia Paoli, Director of Exhibitions & Programs, Mercer Union, Toronto (Canada)
Roberta Tenconi, PirelliHangarBicocca Curator (Italy)
Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna, Latitudes Co-Founders, Barcelona (Spain).

Conceived as a two-part professionalisation and cultural immersion programme, the Red Bull Arts Global Curatorial Initiative provides 2–4 of the invited curators the opportunity to participate in EXPO CHICAGO’s 2019 Curatorial Exchange programme, followed by the opportunity to visit Detroit (September 21-23) and engage the city’s artists, galleries and institutions in an effort to foster dialogue between global cultures and the greater Midwest.

→ RELATED CONTENT: 
 2019, art fairs, curatorial intensive, curators, field trip, invitational programme, latitudes, travel, visitor programmes

‘Thinking like a drainage basin’ essay in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Lara Almarcegui. Béton’

 08 Apr 2019

(Above and below) Installation views of the exhibition ‘Béton’ by Lara Almarcegui at the CAIRN centre d'art, Digne-les-Bains, 2019. All photos: François-Xavier Emery.

Lara Almarcegui's exhibition ‘Béton’ opened on April 5 at CAIRN Centre d'art, in Digne-les-Bains, France, and will be on view until June 30th, 2019.

 Latitudes has collaborated in the bilingual catalogue ‘Lara Almarcegui. Béton’ (French/English) recently published by Silvana Editoriale on the occasion the exhibition, with the new essay ‘Thinking like a drainage basin’. The publication includes an introduction by Giulia Pagnetti (curator of the exhibition and director of CAIRN Centre d'art), a second essay titled ‘Lara Almarcegui's building sites’ by Natacha Pugnet, and a conversation between the artist and Winfried Dallmann (Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø) titled ‘Earth Calculation’.



As Latitudes' writes in the essay (...) ‘As part of her most recent project for CAIRN Centre d’art, Almarcegui has produced ‘Roches et Materiaux du Bassin de la Bléone’ (2019), an inventory of the different types of geological matter comprising the entire drainage basin of the Bléone river from its source near Prads-Haute-Bléone to its confluence with the Durance at Chateau-Arnaux, a terrain of some 906 km2.

In discussing how storytelling might integrate with environmental science, anthropologist Julie Cruikshank poses the rhetorical question, “are glaciers ‘good to think with’?”[1] She suggests that glaciers and glacial stories be allowed to disrupt and exceed conceptual fields and dominant frameworks of knowledge. Ecologist Aldo Leopold coined the term “to think like a mountain” in his 1949 book ‘A Sand County Almanac’, proposing that history could be narrated, or indeed art could be made, from the point of view of non-human actors. Are drainage basins good to think with? What might it entail to think like the rocks and topological forms that funnel water into a river in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département in southeastern France?’



‘Lara Almarcegui. Béton’
April 2019, 48 pages, 24 x 17 cm
Texts by Natacha Pugnet, Latitudes and an interview between the artist and Winfried Dallmann. 
French/English 
Published by Silvana Editoriale
March 2019
Edited by CAIRN centre d'art
ISBN 9788836640904
Purchase here for 10 Euros.

RELATED CONTENT:
  • Writing archive on Latitudes' website;
  • Review – ‘Domènec. Y la tierra será el paraíso', adn galería, Barcelona, frieze.com, 13 March 2019
  • Opinion – ‘Frank Zappa’s Genre-Defying ‘Civilization Phaze III’’, frieze, January-February 2019, Issue 200, and frieze.com, 14 January 2019
  • Review – ‘Te toca a tí’ [It's your turn], Espai d'art contemporani de Castelló, art-agenda, 7 January 2019
  • art-agenda review of Frieze week 2018 15 October 2018. 
  • Catalogue essay – ‘The Kørner Problem’, in the monograph ‘John Kørner', ed. by Maria Nipper. Published by Roulette Russe, 2017. 19 February 2018
 2019, catalogue, curatorial writing, Ecology, Essay, France, Geology, Lara Almarcegui, latitudes, writing

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

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Founded in 2005 by Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna, Latitudes is a curatorial office based in Barcelona, Spain, that works internationally across contemporary art practices.

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Latitudes
2005—2020