Longitudes

"Barcelona / Such a beautiful horizon: Critical social infrastructure to promote art scene health resilience" sessions with BAR Tool 2018–19 participants

 29 Oct 2018
Poster produced for the 2015 seminar at the Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco. Photo: Latitudes.

Latitudes has been invited to lead three closed-door sessions with BAR Tool's 2018–19 participants Milagros Bedoya, Arash Fayez, Adëláide Feriot, Fran Glez, Céline Mathieu, Marina Salvo, Gabriella Torres-Ferrer. The sessions will take place on October 29, 2018; January 22 and March 5, 2019.

Titled "Barcelona / Such a beautiful horizon: Critical social infrastructure to promote art scene health resilience", the three-part seminar will draw on the qualitative analysis of the legacy of three meetings of the "Near Future Artworlds Curatorial Foresight Disruption Group" convened in 2015 (Vessel–MADA International Curatorial Retreat, Bari, Italy; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, USA; Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK). The invitation is to collectively instigate a collective systematic review of proposed decisive factors that underpin the psychological fitness and physical well-being of a city art scene, with Barcelona as a case study.

With a focus on developing taxonomies and diagnostics, as well as therapies and triage, this strand of BAR Tool will culminate in a series of institutional simulations and operations. Viva! Barcelona! Such a beautiful horizon!

BAR TOOL is a practice-based training program articulated around research, production and presentation processes. Conceived by BAR project in collaboration with Fundació Antoni Tàpies and Fabra i Coats – Art Factory, Barcelona.


RELATED CONTENT:

  • Cover Story—June 2018: Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group 4 June 2018
  • Sediments of the Geologic Time 4-week residency at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity 10 October 2017
  • Documentation of Latitudes' talks at the Athens Biennale summit and Tabakalera, Donostia-San Sebastián, November 2015 19 February 2016
  • 'Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group' seminar convenes in its third iteration in Birmingham's Eastside Projects, 15 November 2015 11 November 2015
  • Session with first-year participants of the MA Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts (CCA), San Francisco, 8 September 15 September 2015
  • Guest Faculty of the Thematic Residency 'Blueprint for Happiness' at The Banff Centre, Canada, 27 July–8 August 2015 16 July 2015 
  • Tutors of the 2015 International Curatorial Retreat, 9–13 May, Bari (Italy) 17 May 2015 
  • Lead Facilitators, Curating Lab 2014–Curatorial Intensive, National University of Singapore (11–14 June), symposium (14 June, 15–17h) and a field trip to Hong Kong (16–20 June) 30 May 2014
 2018, 2019, artworld, BAR project, Barcelona, independent spaces, institution, Near Future Artworlds, rethinking institutions, seminar, Spanish Art Scene, Workshop

Cover Story—June 2018: Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group

 04 Jun 2018
Latitudes' home page www.lttds.org

The June 2018 Monthly Cover Story "Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group" is now up on Latitudes' homepage.

"Sporadically convened by Latitudes, the Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group is a forum for informal dialogue about megatrends and the future of contemporary art institutions.

In order to be conducive to freedom of interaction, this by-invitation, closed-door meetings have been held under the Chatham House Rule. The list of attendees is not circulated beyond those participating in the meeting, and no documentation is made."

—> Continue reading
—> After June it 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 activities.

RELATED CONTENT:
  • Archive of Monthly Cover Stories
  • 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
  • Cover Story – December 2017: "Tabet's Tapline trajectory", 4 December 2017
  • Cover Story – November 2017: "Mining negative monuments: Ângela Ferreira, Stone Free, and The Return of the Earth", 1 November 2017
  • Cover Story – October 2017: Geologic Time at Stanley Glacier 11 October 2017
  • Cover Story – September 2017: Dark Disruption. David Mutiloa's 'Synthesis' 1 September 2017
  • Cover Story – August 2017: Walden 7; or, life in Sant Just Desvern 1 August 2017
  • Cover Story – July 2017: 4.543 billion 3 July 2017
  • Cover Story – June 2017: Month Light–Absent Forms 1 June 2017
  • Cover Story – May 2017: S is for Shale, or Stuart; W is for Waterfall, or Whipps 1 May 2017
 2015, 2018, Bari, Birmingham, cover story, curatorial writing, Kadist, Kadist Art Foundation, latitudes, looking back, Near Future Artworlds, rethinking institutions, San Francisco, seminar

Sediments of the Geologic Time 4-week residency at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity

 10 Oct 2017



September 11, 2017: Banff is a town located within Banff National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alberta. Elevation: 1,383 m. We'll be spending four weeks at The Banff Centre, at the foot of Sleeping Buffalo Mountain (Tunnel Mountain) overlooking the Bow Valley. 

 The programme conceived by Latitudes (Lead Faculty), and with the participation of Irish artist Sean Lynch as Guest Faculty, asked how a geologic lens might affect artistic and curatorial practice.

 Participants: Justy Phillips & Margaret Woodward (A Published Event) based in Hobart; Semâ Bekirovic, based in Amsterdam; Caitlin Chaisson based in Vancouver; Becky Forsythe, based in Reykjavik; Chloe Hodge, based in London; Shane Krepakevich, based in Toronto; Caroline Loewen, based in Calgary; Penelope Smart, based in St. John's, Newfoundland; and Camila Sposati, based in São Paulo.



Views of the Banff Centre campus from the Vistas dining centre, the trees slowly starting to turn yellow.

 

Group photo of 'Geologic Time' 10 participants and Lead Faculty – participant Penelope Smart and Guest Faculty artist Sean Lynch are camera shy.


 
The door to Latitudes' Studio 317 in Glyde Hall.



Stunning views towards the Banff Springs Hotel and Sulphur Mountain from the GH 317 studio.



'Geologic Time' dedicated section in the library.



Campus tour with local legend Jim Olver, Customer Service at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, "passionate about river canoeing, geology, ski-touring & curling!"



September 16, 2017: Hike up to Tunnel Mountain, with panoramic views of the town, the Bow and Spray River valleys, and the Banff Springs Hotel site. The Stoney people (indigenous people of Western Canada) had long called the mountain "Sleeping Buffalo", as it resembles a sleeping buffalo when viewed from the north and east. The name Tunnel Mountain was given in 1882 when a proposed route for the Canadian Pacific Railway was to be blasted through. An alternate route costing much less money was put around the mountain, but the name Tunnel Mountain remained.



September 17, 2017: (Above and below) Hoodoos Trail descends to the river and follows it east and north under the cliff face of Tunnel Mountain. We were interrupted by a herd of elk (wapiti) so decided to turn around.





September 19, 2017: Lecture by the legendary Rocky Mountains expert Ben Gadd, 71 (pictured above), one of Canada’s better-known naturalists, geologists, and mountain writers.



Some of the rock specimens brought by Ben Gadd to his lecture – including some very fetching custom cushions sewn by his wife.



Ben Gadd during his Q&A with Geologic Time participants.



Gadd holding a 170-95 million-year-old coast mountains granite.



September 20, 2017: Morning visit to the archive of the Whyte Museum in Banff, a museum that collects, preserves, and exhibits all kinds of materials related to the cultural heritage of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.



September 20, 2017: Afternoon visit to Bankhead and Lake Minnewanka ("Water of the Spirits" in Nakoda).

Bankhead is an abandoned coal mining town in Banff National Park. The mine began in 1903 and ceased operations in 1922 when it was generally understood that mining had not been profitable. In 1926, many of the town's buildings were moved to Banff and Canmore. Bankhead was located at the foot of Cascade Mountain, which contains high-grade anthracite coal deposits. The Bankhead coal mine was operated by the Pacific Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which needed the coal to fuel its steam engines.





Air powered (fireless) locomotive on display at Bankhead, Alberta.



(Above) Rhubarb grows out of jet-black anthracite: high-grade coal formed 100 million years ago. At its peak in 1911, the Bankhead mine that once stood on this site at the base of Cascade Mountain employed 480 men. Its tunnels produced half a million tonnes of coal that year, destined for the furnaces of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Miners came mostly from Poland, Italy, Britain, and Russia, while a group of 90 Chinese men were brought to Canada to sort rock from coal for minimal wages. Unwelcome in the town, they set up on the far side of the slag heaps, where they made a shanty town from scrap wood. They also created a kitchen garden, where they cultivated, among other plants, the hardy rhubarb that still thrives today.

 Apart from it being forbidden to remove plants from what has been a part of Banff National Park since its designation in 1930, the whole site is contaminated with dioxins from waste oil. So no crumble today.



'Wave Sound' (2017) piece by Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore commissioned by @landmarksreperes2017



Rocky Mountains beauty by Lake Minnewanka.



A Jeff Wall-esque shot of the group by Lake Minnewanka.



September 21, 2017: (Above and below) Geology tour around campus with Jim Olver (Director of Customer Service, Banff Centre) "reading" the campus, its formations and fossils. Olver has worked at the Banff Centre for 35 years.





(Above) A well rounded composite rock and (below) finding rocks around campus.


September 23, 2017: (below and following six) Stunning Bow Lake hike with independent curator and BICI resident, Heidi Rabben.













September 24, 2017: (Below) Visual Arts + Digital department excursion to Lake Louise, named 'Lake of the Little Fishes' by the Stoney Nakota First Nations people.

Lake Louise's impressive emerald colour of the water is due to the silt-like rock flour continually being carried into the lake by melt-water from the surrounding glaciers. The tiny and uniform particles become suspended in the water, refracting blue and green wavelengths of light.









September 25, 2017: (Below) Monday weekly meeting and afternoon group seminar led by Caroline Loewen, Shane Krepakevich and Semâ Bekirovic around Don McKay's essay “Ediacaran & Anthropocene: poetry as a reader of deep time” inducing imaginative speculation through geopoetry. Guest Faculty Sean Lynch arrives from Ireland.





September 26, 2017: (Below) Afternoon lecture by "Geologic Time" Guest Faculty Sean Lynch on the value of conversations, Bardic traditions, stone-carvers James and John O'Shea, and fried chicken.





September 27, 2017: (Below) 1:1 sessions with Sean Lynch and a bit of time to dig into the library and read the beautifully written book "The Writing of Stones" by Roger Caillois (1970) with an introduction by Marguerite Yourcenar: "Those fusions, pressures, ruptures, imprints of matter in matter have left traces inside and out which sometimes almost exactly resemble writing and which actually do transcribe events from millions of years ago."




September 28, 2017: Evening seminar in the Banff Upper Hot Springs, elevated at 1,585 meters it's the highest hot water bathing in Canada.



September 29, 2017: (Below) "Geologic Time" hike to the Stanley Glacier in the Kootenay National Park in British Columbia, led by guides Rona Schneberger and Jane Whitney. At the base of Mount Stanley, we turned over some rocks and found 505-million-year-old Burgess Shale trilobites, soft-body fossils from the Eldon formation.





















September 30, 2017: Second screening night led by Sean Lynch.
 
October 2, 2017: (Below) Final week of the programme. Last Monday weekly meeting, this time under the snow. Third and final afternoon workshop led by 'Geologic timers' Becky Forsythe, Caitlin Chaisson and Chloe Hodge around Hito Steyerl's text "In Free Fall: A Thought Experiment on vertical perspective" (e-flux journal #24, April 2011).






October 3 and 4, 2017: Final 1:1 conversations with participants, and open studios by the Independent artists.
 
October 5, 2017, 5—7pm: (photos below) The Open event ofGeologic Time in the library, followed by a visit to Illuminations, "a participative artwork experience by Sarah Fuller, Moment Factory and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity".

The closing event of Geologic Time was conceived as a two-hour infiltration into the pages, shelves, and display possibilities of The Banff Centre library. Featuring storytelling, documentation, annotation, sculpture, video, conversation and other live situations, the event presented some sediments of the ten participants’ ongoing research and lithic collaborations. Pdf of the event programme here.


Caitlin Chaisson has been researching a former experimental farm station in Agassiz, British Columbia, and a forgotten centennial time capsule buried under a granite marker there. Caitlin also presented a cut-and-paste station on the table next to the photocopier, and a display for the tall vitrine just behind it. If you plan on attending the Agassiz Fall Fair and Corn Festival around September 14, 2018, Caitlin will be there, lending an extra hand in the rocky relay that is the shape of time. Pickles may be involved. 

Meanwhile read her reflections on her "Geologic Time" experience.


Also on the main floor, Chloe Hodge made an arrangement of book spreads and purloined texts on a large desk on the side of the library that faces Sulphur Mountain. From 1956–1981 the latter peak was the site of a high altitude geophysical laboratory, a Cosmic Ray Station. Chloe’s presentation filters the macro-perspective enabled by this buoyant micro-history through into a speculative research-workshop around freefall, the loss of perspective, and groundlessness. 



Becky Forsythe has been making plans for a future exhibition inspired by the artist and naturalist known as Petra, who spent decades collecting stones and minerals from the mountains in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland. Camila Sposati has been reflecting on the various “extractions” of a residency and exhibition that took place in the Amazon in 2004, gradually turning them into a script for a play. Becky and Camila are collaborating for this event on a procedural work using the library photocopier on the main floor (Receding Agate and Rhodochrosite). On the upper floor, they present two further collaborations via the media of “chairs and view” – Looking at the mountains and The mountain at my back – that recontextualize the interior space with respect to vistas of Mt Bourgeau, the Massive Range, Pilot Mountain, and so on.


Chloe is also one of eight 'Geologic Time' narrators whose readings can be heard through speakers on the main floor. What we are hearing are excerpts from Lost Rocks (2017–21), a growing library of short fiction books commissioned by Justy Phillips & Margaret Woodward (A Published Event). Described by the Hobart-based duo as “an accumulative event of mineralogical, metaphysical and metallurgical telling”, the books that have come into the world to date have been incorporated into the library’s holdings alongside a glossary and can be found in the geology section upstairs.



Caroline Loewen has put together documentation at the top of the stairs, along the narrow “bar”. Caroline delves deep into the story of sandstone in Alberta, a rock that gained widespread favour for building and decorative use following Calgary’s Great Fire of 1886. The black-and-brown Rundle Rock that was once quarried at the base of Banff-Centre-neighbour Mount Rundle and was used extensively in creating the Banff Springs Hotel also joins a conversation that anticipates an exhibition scheduled for next summer at Lougheed House in Calgary. (The same Lougheed dynasty lends its name to the Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Building (JPL), the Banff Centre’s media headquarters.) 



For these two hours in the library Semâ Bekirovic employed a number of external hard drives to act as pedestals for small stones. How many terabytes can a hunk of rock hold? What fragments of data detritus, chunks and grains of documents, broken off images, or weathered files, might be read and written, stored or retrieved? We might ponder this as we stand by the “bar” looking towards Sulphur Mountain. 


An audio narration drafted by Penelope Smart was also heard on the upper floor via a Bluetooth speaker in the stacks, near “memoirs and narrative”. Here, an image of the exquisite marble bust by Giovanni Strazza animated Penny’s writing during the last weeks. It came to St.John’s, Newfoundland, in 1856. Ring the bell to the right of the main door of the Presentation Convent adjoining the Basilica in St.John’s and maybe one of the sisters will let you see it.


Shane Krepakevich has been prototyping an exhibition display system, or running a 1:1 scale artist-run research institute, in his studio overlooking Mike MacDonald’s butterfly garden. Shane has been thinking about design impulses, transparency, support structures, and the refraction of light through glass, sometimes during the hours he has spent sanding and polishing a series of bronze paperweights, or prospecting the library for textual gems. For the library presentation, Shane made 8.5"×11" arrangements of found sentences, printed them, and then squirrelled them away inside selected library books, alongside images he has photocopied for his display system project.



A number of commemorative posters by Latitudes are presented in the meeting room upstairs. These mark some of the excursions and talks that have formed a part of the last weeks through the motif of the human hand as a geologic scale device. 



Finally, if we ever need reminding about the mystery and power of geological formations, 'Picnic at Hanging Rock', the 1975 Australian film directed by Peter Weir, was screened on a monitor on the upper floor.

Special thanks to Mark Black, Brandy Dahrouge, Peta Rake, and Angela Schenstead. 

 October 6, 2017: Exit interviews, pack up, and departures.

'Geologic Time' participants: Justy Phillips & Margaret Woodward (A Published Event), based in Hobart; Semâ Bekirovic, based in Amsterdam; Caitlin Chaisson based in Vancouver; Becky Forsythe, based in Reykjavik; Chloe Hodge, based in London; Shane Krepakevich, based in Toronto; Caroline Loewen, based in Calgary; Penelope Smart, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland; and Camila Sposati, based in Sao Paulo.

'Geologic Time' was a residency programme of the Banff International Curatorial Institute (BICI), organised by the Banff Centre for Art and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. The 2017 residency took place between September 11–October 6 within the framework of the group exhibition 4.543 billion. The matter of matter curated by Latitudes at CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France, on view until January 7, 2018.


RELATED CONTENT:
 2017, 4543 billion, CAPC Bordeaux, curatorial writing, display, fieldwork, geologic time, mentoring, residency, seminar, The Banff Center, tutoría

"Geologic Time" thematic residency programme at the Banff Centre for Art and Creativity in Alberta, Canada

 16 Jun 2017
Julius von Schoppe (1795–1868), Illustration of giant stone near the Rauenschen Mountains near Furstenwalde, 1827, Lithograph, von Tempeltey.

Between September 11 and October 6, 2017, ten artists, researchers, writers and curators from around the world will ponder geological formations and stratigraphy, minerals, and resource extraction to speculate about a more expansive, slower and longer-term view of art, exhibitions, and institutions. The spectacular Rocky Mountains will not only be the backdrop, but the active participants.

Through fieldwork, seminars, and independent study, 'Geologic Time' participants will be “thinking with” geology (beyond the depiction of landscape) as a potential way to consider non-conventional, deep-time perspectives on curating, exhibition making, programming, and fieldwork within contemporary art. 

Lead faculty: Latitudes  
Guest Faculty: Sean Lynch

"Geologic Time" is a thematic residency programme of the Banff International Curatorial Institute, Visual + Digital Arts organised by the Banff Centre for Art and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. Within the framework of the residency Latitudes curated the group exhibition "4.543 billion. The matter of matter" at the CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France, on view until January 7, 2018.   


View of the Banff Centre campus. Photo: Latitudes.

RELATED CONTENT:

  • "4.543 billion. The matter of matter" in pictures.
  • Guest Faculty of the Thematic Residency 'Blueprint for Happiness' at The Banff Centre, Canada, 27 July–8 August 2015 16 July 2015
  • Cover Story – April 2017: Banff Geologic Time 3 April 2017
  • Cover Story – December 2016: Ten years ago – Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook 5 December 2016 
  • Cover Story – May 2016: Material histories – spilling the beans at the CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux 10 May 2016.
  • Second research trip to Bordeaux 16 July 2016 
 2017, 4543 billion, CAPC Bordeaux, Curatorial Practice, curatorial writing, deep time, Faculty, fieldwork, research, residency, Sean Lynch, seminar, The Banff Center, Workshop

Cover Story – April 2017: "Banff Geologic Time"

 03 Apr 2017
The April 2017 Monthly Cover Story "Banff Geologic Time" is now up on www.lttds.org – after April it will be archived here.  

"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent a great deal of time worrying about stones. Not least, he was troubled by a giant 700-tonne granite rock that lay near the otherwise flat land near Berlin. What on earth was this alien to the region’s geology doing there? Goethe’s realisation that the strange mineral object must have been displaced by glaciers helped instigate the theory of ice ages and deep time. Stone provokes us to recalibrate our concept of the past and our place in the world. Rock is radical." Continue reading by clicking the grey bar underneath the image.

We remind artists, researchers, cultural writers and curators interested in slower and longer-term view of art, exhibitions, and their institutions (as well as rocks of course!) that the call for the Banff thematic residency programme "Geologic Time" (September 11–October 6, 2017) led by Latitudes and artists Sean Lynch as Guest Faculty, is open until May 24 (11:59pm MST).




Cover Stories' are published on a monthly basis on Latitudes' homepage and feature past, present or forthcoming projects, research, writing, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects or field trips related to our curatorial activities, and are archived here.

Related content:
 2017, 4543 billion, Canada, cover story, curatorial writing, fieldwork, residency, Sean Lynch, seminar, slowing down, teaching, The Banff Center, visiting lecturer

Documentation of Latitudes' talks at the Athens Biennale summit and Tabakalera, Donostia-San Sebastián, November 2015

 19 Feb 2016

Latitudes in the international Summit 'Synapse 1' at New Rex of the National Theatre of Greece. 'Session II: Rethinking Institutions', November 18, 2015. Photo: Athens Biennale.

Documentation of two recent presentations by Latitudes in Athens and Donostia–San Sebastián is now online. 

Entitled Omonoia (‘concord’ in Greek), the Athens Biennale 2015–17 is directed by Massimiliano Mollona and will grow over the next two years with the help of anthropologists, researchers, activists, academics, artists and civic organisations. In November 2016, Omonoia launched with the summit Synapse 1: Introducing a laboratory for production post-2011. Latitudes participated in the “Rethinking Institutions” session alongside Maria Hlavajova (founder and artistic director of BAK, Utrecht); political economist Leo Panitch; Emily Pethick, director of The Showroom, London; Documenta 14 Artistic Director Adam Szymczyk; public services expert Hilary Wainwright, and Amalia Zepou, Athens Vice Mayor for Civil Society and Municipality Decentralization. 

By way of introduced we discussed the “Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group”, the forum for megatrends and the future of institutions of contemporary art that has taken place in May 2015 at the Vessel / MADA (Monash Art Design and Architecture) 2015 International Curatorial Retreat in Bari, Italy; in August at Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, and in November at Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK. We followed this with some geological speculation that in “digging deeper” both literally and figuratively, we perhaps find new institutional models. How do we think about artworks and institutions in terms of tens of thousands of years, for example.

See the video here (in English).


Public lecture organised by consonni as part of LaPublika. Tabakalera, Donostia–San Sebastián. Wednesday, November 11, 2015. Photo: Consonni.

Also in November, Latitudes led the workshop “Beyond The Roundabout, or How Public Is Public Art?” for consonni/LaPublika at Tabakalera. As part of this Latitudes gave a public lecture. The workshop addressed the work of artists who conceptualize or actualize their works against a backdrop of vast stretches of time or topological change. In the public lecture we made various transects through our curatorial projects determined by the public sphere, raw materials and their transformation. “From the zinc which led to an Esperanto micro-nation, to the air of a Beijing shopping centre, or the dead trees of printed news, Latitudes will join some traits and ideas around ‘human resources’, extractive modernity, obsolescence and the carbon cycle.” 

Hear the audio here (in Spanish). 

Related content: 
       2016, Athens Biennale, Near Future Artworlds, public art, report, rethinking institutions, seminar, video documentation

      'Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group' seminar convenes in its third iteration in Birmingham's Eastside Projects, 15 November 2015

       11 Nov 2015
      Façade of Eastside Projects in Birmingham.

      Latitudes       will lead a day-long session on November 15, one of the two-day self-reflective evaluation sessions that the Extra Special People (ESP) Associate scheme programme of Eastside Projects is organising under the title "Re-Imagining ESP II".

      Taking place during the weekend of the 14–15 November in Birmingham, UK, these two sessions are aimed at stimulating a conversation amongst the current members of the practice-led peer support network ESP in order to explore the possibility of them becoming active participants and even producers instead of receivers of predefined formats and contents.

      This will be the third iteration of the 'Near-Future Artworlds...' meetings (following those in Bari and San Francisco) – a forum for informal dialogue about megatrends and the future of contemporary art institutions.  

      The first meeting in Bari broadly addressed to what degree organisational forms of art institutions are embracing or resisting similar transformations through various curatorial/editorial prototypes and prognosticative use-case scenarios. With an emphasis on cross-pollination between design thinking and curatorial thinking, the second meeting in San Francisco broached, among other things, the notion of the post-disciplinary, and the question of appropriate speeds or periodicities institutions should follow. 

      Poster produced for the seminar by Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco.

      In Birmingham, the session will collectively imagine a ‘What if?’ – a post-apocalyptic scenario in which an art ecology has to be regrown from the ground up. What would be most urgent in terms of organisation, facilities, tools? The second part of the meeting will involve a practical exercise modeled to prototype initiatives that might be best suited to Birmingham’s real or imagined artistic, economic and social context.

      In order to be conducive to freedom of interaction, these meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule. This allows participants to express personal views, to listen, reflect and gather insights with a clear distinction from the position of their employers and/or the policies of any associated organization. Participation is expected, but there will be no resolutions issued, no votes are undertaken, and no policy statements proposed.

      Archive photo of ESP activity. Courtesy: Eastside Projects.

      Extra Special People (ESP)       is a practice-led peer support network organised by Eastside Projects that "works with artists, designers, curators and writers to support the development of work, ideas, connections and careers through a programme of events, opportunities, and projects. Members become active contributors to a practice-led peer support network and benefit from Eastside Projects’ experience of the contemporary art world and regional, national and international contacts."

      Eastside Projects is an "internationally renowned centre of excellence based in a free public gallery imagined and organized by artists, in partnership with Birmingham City University." Eastside Projects is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, supported by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Breakthrough Fund 2010-14, and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

      Eastside Projects
      86 Heath Mill Lane
      Birmingham B9 4AR
      0121-771-1778
      www.eastsideprojects.org
      www.extraspecialpeople.org


      RELATED CONTENT:
      –
      This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
      All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
      Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
       2015, Birmingham, evaluation, fieldwork, latitudes, Near Future Artworlds, prototyping, rethinking institutions, seminar, Workshop

      Session with first year participants of the MA Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts (CCA), San Francisco, 8 September

       15 Sep 2015
      Photo: Arash Fayed.  

      On September 8, 2015, Latitudes led a 3h session with the participants of the first year of the MA in Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco. This was our last day as residents at the Kadist Art Foundation.

       As a mode of introduction we presented a range of projects we have worked on and referred to the closed-door seminar ‘The Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group’, we had led a week earlier with the participation of colleagues and art professionals – an informal dialogue about the future of contemporary art institutions, and more particularly concerned with programming speeds, institutional scale, and periodicity. 

      For the second part of the evening, we split the group in three and asked them to prepare descriptions of hypothetical art organisations and to reflect on urban/ non-urban contexts and mission statements. 

      RELATED CONTENT:
      –
      This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
      All photos:       Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
      Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
       2015, curating, Curatorial Practice, Kadist Art Foundation, Near Future Artworlds, research, residency, seminar, teaching, Workshop

      Lunchtime Art Forum and seminar with PhD candidates in Curatorial Practice, MADA | Monash Art Design & Architecture, Melbourne, 14 May 2014

       06 May 2014
      Announcement on MADA | Monash University Art Design & Architecture's website.
      | UK |

      Lunchtime Art Forum: Latitudes (Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna)
      14 May 2014
      12:30h
      Lecture Theatre G1.04, MADA | Monash Art Design & Architecture
      900 Dandenong Road / Caulfield East / Victoria 3145 / Australia
      Free entry / all welcome

      
On May 14 Latitudes will present an overview of the projects they have commissioned, participated in or self-initiated as curators, such as the series of new public projects Portscapes (Port of Rotterdam, 2009), the two iterations of No Soul for Sale: A Festival of Independents (New York in 2009 and London in 2010), or the exhibition series Amikejo (MUSAC, León, Spain, 2011).

      The lecture will be followed by an afternoon seminar with candidates from the       Curatorial Practice PhD [download course pdf] during which Latitudes       will present two of its recent projects that are the basis of ongoing research since 2010. Firstly, its involvement as a partner organisation of The Last Newspaper exhibition at the New Museum, New York (2010–11) and secondly, its self-initiated research #OpenCurating (2012–13) formed by ten published interviews with curators, artists and editors that focused on digital strategies, new forms of interaction between publics with artworks, and their production, display and discursive context. To conclude, Latitudes will moderate a debate around the responses to four of the interviews.

      This lecture is framed within Latitudes's Visiting Curators Programme residency at Gertrude Contemporar until June 7th.

      Related content: 

      Visiting Curator Program, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 12 May–7 June 2014 (28 April 2014) 


      | ES |

      Lunchtime Art Forum: Latitudes (Max Andrews y Mariana Cánepa Luna)
      14 mayo 2014
      12:30h
      Lecture Theatre G1.04, MADA | Monash Art Design & Architecture
      900 Dandenong Road / Caulfield East / Victoria 3145 / Australia
      Entrada libre

      El 14 de Mayo Latitudes presentará varios de los proyectos que se le han comisionado, en los que ha participado o ha iniciado de motu proprio como comisarios, tales como la serie de nuevos proyectos en el espacio público Portscapes (Port of Rotterdam, 2009), las dos iteraciones de No Soul for Sale: A Festival of Independents (Nueva York en 2009 y Londres en 2010), o el ciclo expositivo Amikejo (MUSAC, León, 2011).

      La conferencia será complementará con un seminario con los candidatos del doctorado en       Curatorial Practice [descargar pdf del curso] durante el cual Latitudes       presentará dos de sus proyectos que forman la base de su investigación en curso desde 2010. En primer lugar, su participación como organización asociada en la exposición The Last Newspaper en el New Museum, Nueva York (2010–11) y en segundo lugar, la investigación #OpenCurating (2012–13) formada por diez entrevistas publicadas online con comisarios, artistas y editores, enfocadas en el análisis de las estrategias digitales y las nuevas formas de interacción entre los públicos y las obras de arte, su producción, exhibición y su contexto discursivo. A continuación Latitudes moderará un debate en torno a los contenidos de cuatro de las entrevistas de #OpenCurating.  

      La conferencia se enmarca dentro de la residencia como parte del Visiting Curators Programme en Gertrude Contemporary, del que Latitudes participa hasta el 7 de junio.

      Contenido relacionado:
       
      Visiting Curator Program, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 12 May–7 June 2014 (28 abril 2014)
       –

      This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. 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.
       #OpenCurating, 2014, Curatorial Practice, latitudes, Lecture, Melbourne, seminar, The Last Newspaper

      Visiting Curator Program, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 12 May–7 June 2014

       28 Apr 2014
      Courtesy: Gertrude Contemporary.

      Latitudes has been invited to participate in Gertrude Contemporary's Visiting Curator Program between 12 May and 7 June.
       
      The Visiting Curator Program is an initiative in which three international curators are invited to Australia each year. During the residency (between two weeks up to two months) the invited curator is hosted in Gertrude's Studio 18 and Gertrude Contemporary facilitates a series of studio visits and meetings with artists and Australian peers within the contemporary arts sector. The residencies receive support from Arts Victoria International or the Australia Council for the Arts. 

      As part of the residency, Latitudes has been invited to present their work at MADA | Monash University of Art Design & Architecture. The talk will be followed by an afternoon closed-door seminar with candidates from Curatorial Practice PhD [download course pdf] and other guests, during which Latitudes will lead a discussion concentrating on their #OpenCurating research which manifested in 10 freely published interviews with artists, curators and editors investigating new forms of interaction between publics with artworks and their production, display and discursive context.

      Residency in partnership with MADA | Monash University of Art Design & Architecture, as part of Gertrude Contemporary’s Visiting Curator Program.

      Follow us on our twitter and the archived posts on storify.


      Courtesy: Gertrude Contemporary.
      –

      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.
       #OpenCurating, 2014, latitudes, Lecture, Melbourne, research, residency, seminar, studio visit

      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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