Longitudes

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

Report from the 2nd Canary Islands Biennial of Architecture, Art and Landscape



'Silencio' (7 March–3 May 2009), the recently-inaugurated 'exhibition phase' of the 2nd Biennial of the Canary Islands, unfolds in various venues in both capitals of the archipelago: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (with the sub-theme 'Inmersions. Landscape of Networks: Systems, Meshes and Structures') and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (with 'Scenes and Scenarios. Paradoxes of the wellbeing: The Consumption of the imaginary and the imaginery of consumption'). The exhibitions follow the 'documentary phase' that took place between the December 08 and February 09.

Directed by Canarian architect Juan Manuel Palerm Salazar, the exhibition takes as its starting point 'silence' "as the profound instant in which we can discover and analyse the noises of contemporary society". Dispersed through the many venues in Las Palmas (SEE SLIDESHOW ABOVE: INFECAR, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), CAAM San Antonio Abad, Casa de Colón, Gabinete Literario, Sala de Arte Regenta) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (SEE SLIDESHOW BELOW: Tenerife Espacio de las Artes (TEA), Espacio Cultural El Tanque, Sala de Arte Contemporáneo del Gobierno de Canarias, Museo de Bellas Artes, Sala Mac, Círculo de Bellas Artes de Tenerife and COAC Canarias), the biennial mostly spoke in architecture terms to the visitor, by means of maquettes; lightboxes filled with renderings of landscaping projects in sites including Porto, Salerno, Benidorm or Venice; slideshows in fancy flatscreens; A1-sized boards with drawings, photographs, data, etc. Each of the venues welcomed the visitor with a white board containing a seemingly complex diagram with interlinked key words (
landscape, perception, island, system, use/abuse...) that mapped out the core concepts intended to be developed throughout the sixteen venues – see image #5 of slideshow above.


The Biennial also hosts three linked exhibitions organised by external curators: "Periferia" by Rosa Olivares at CAAM (including slick photographic works from the 1990s and early 2000 by Olivares' favourites such as Montserrat Soto, Sergio Belinchón, Francesco Jodice, Gabriele Basilico...), "Coexistencias" by Orlando Britto at La Regenta (with Grego Matos, Moataz Nasr, Javier Caballero, Eberhard Bosslet and a clumsy piece by Antonio Díaz Grande including 45 portraits of people doing the slitty-eyed gesture accompanied by 100 chinese lucky cats waving their arms) and "Plain Air. Paisajes Extra-Ordinarios" by Christian Vivero-Fauné (with works by Ivan Navarro, Patrick Hamilton, Jota Castro, Graham Dolphin...).



The strength of this year's Biennial lies in nine specially commissioned works, which include the 5-screen video 'Sin Límite' (2009) by Julian Rosefeldt (though poorly installed at TEA) and the 2-screen video 'Maspalomas' (2008-9) by Dias & Riedweg (though only one screen worked at the opening), as well as a 3-screen video 'Atlántida' (2008) by Olga Mink + Scanner (images here).

The exhibition opening is followed by an impressive calendar of public programme with one or two-day seminars (15 in total), keynote presentations (9 in total, including Kengo Kuma, Peter Greenaway, James Turrell, Paolo Burgi, Mark Gisbourne), workshops, theatre performances, open-submission competitions and round tables, mostly aimed at involving the architecture practitioners and students.

RELATED LINKS

Read of the Second Biennial here (Elena Vozmediano, 'Contradicciones y confusiones de la bienal de Canarias, El Cultural, 20.03.09); here (Fietta Jarque, 'Cacofonía del Paisaje', suplemento Babelia, 21.03.09) and here (Fredy Massad, 'Buscar su lugar', ABCD, 22.03.09).

Click here to watch a 30' documentary broadcasted on the Spanish TVE 2's programme
Metrópolis on 30.03.09
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Artículo sobre Simon Fujiwara en 'Descubrir el Arte'...la versión íntegra

En ocasión del 10º aniversario de la popular revista 'Descubrir el Arte', Rafael Doctor (director del MUSAC, León, hasta hace poco) invitó a 10 comisarios, incluyendo Latitudes, a escribir un perfil de 750 palabras de un 'artista emergente' de su elección.

Tres meses después de enviar nuestro texto sobre el trabajo del artista inglés Simon Fujiwara, y sin haber tenido contacto alguno con el/la editor de la revista, la hemos comprado y comprobado que el texto publicado ha sido reducido más de un 50% sin nuestro conocimiento y/o consentimiento. Hubiésemos estado más que dispuestos a reducir su longitud si hubiese sido necesario con el fin de lograr coherencia y evitar sacrificar partes fundamentales del texto que han sido eliminadas sin más. Desafortunadamente, el texto resultante no refleja ni el profundo trabajo narrativo de Simon ni nuestra labor como escritores, sin olvidar el respeto a los derechos de autor.

A continuación presentamos las dos versiones: el texto original (no publicado) y la versión que aparece en la revista. Asimismo, podeis descargar el texto completo con imágenes en nuestro archivo de textos (en español o inglés).

Como 'happy ending', nos complace anunciar que Simon Fujiwara es uno de los tres artistas que hemos invitado a la exposición 'Provenances' que inaugurará el 14 de Mayo en Umberto di Marino, Nápoles. Más detalles aquí.



 
Simon Fujiwara

Abarcando varios formatos – performances/conferencias, publicaciones ficticias y colecciones de diversos artículos y objetos – los recientes proyectos del artista berlinés Simon Fujiwara (1982) se forman a partir de la recolección de evidencias más o menos plausibles. Cada una de ellas desentierra un mito implícito de los orígenes humanos y una arqueología sexual explícita, tejiendo un conjunto de narraciones que nos llevan desde el pasado común de los hombres, hasta al tiempo reciente y personal de Fujiwara y su historia familiar. Hijo de madre británica y padre japonés, el artista ha desarrollado una práctica artística entorno a su propio origen y a la cuidadosamente construida frontera límite entre la etología, el erotismo, la arquitectura y lo ancestral, mediante la escritura y re-escritura de historias, biografías y cuentos porno gay que tienen la misma credibilidad y artesanía que un tratado paleontológico.


The Museum of Incest (El museo del incesto) (2007–) es un proyecto que gira entorno al yacimiento la Garganta de Olduvai, en el norte de Tanzania, a menudo referido como la 'cuna de la humanidad' debido a su importancia para la comprensión de los orígenes del hombre. La Garganta ha dejado al descubierto algunos de los primeros restos de homínidos de más de 2 millones de años de antigüedad, y mediante el análisis de sucesivos depósitos se ha podido estudiar la evolución del hombre moderno. Fujiwara ha tomado este significativo emplazamiento para ubicar un museo ficticio dedicado a un tema poco prometedor: las prácticas incestuosas. Dividido en tres escenas – 'Antiguo', 'Moderno' y 'Edad Media' (donde una serie de actores interpretan los últimos días de Sodoma y Gomorra) – y completado por una galería subterránea y un café, el absurdo edificio propone lo ancestral y la sexualización de la familia como los temas centrales para la educación y el entretenimiento del visitante, mediante unas instalaciones que estimularián la economía local. El pícaro museo de Fujiwara es deliberadamente espúreo, una atracción museística donde la identidad y la sexualidad se mantienen ambiguos.

 
Tras un viaje a Tanzania en 2007, Fujiwara produjo Ancestral Grave Dig – A Site Survey for the Museum of Incest (Excavación de una tumba ancestral – Estudio del emplazamiento para el Museo del Incesto), una instalación que parecía imitar el escenario de una conferencia interrumpida o de un archivo disfuncional que parecía encontrarse medio terminado o que había sido parcialmente vandalizado. Diapositivas de la supuesta expedición se dispersaban por el suelo o se proyectaban sobre una pantalla y varias vitrinas contenían artículos ilegítimos etiquetados desordenadamente ('fragmentos no utilizados por nuestros antepasados homínidos'). Mapas, dibujos, recortes de periódico que destacan titulares como 'Cráneo de 600,000 años de antigüedad es desenterrado' y resbaladizas pistas (una piel de plátano) se presentan junto a la maqueta del polémico museo. La propuesta de la forma del museo en sí (tres ámbitos esféricos interrelacionados) se tomó como si se tratase de un acto creativo endogámico, a partir de un diseño concebido por el padre del artista para una pecera.Fujiwara presentó una visita guiada al museo como parte de una instalación que realizó en la galería Limoncello en Londres, en abril de 2008. Detallando su inspiración para la disposición del museo a través de un pase de diapositivas complementado con fotografías familiares, la presentación tuvo lugar enfrente de una reproducción de un mural que representa una escena familiar, otro de los diseños de su padre. Complicando aún más este extenso proyecto, el artista ha publicado un texto en forma de diario supuestamente escrito por el renombrado arqueólogo Louis Leakey (quien descubrió la importancia de la Garganta de Olduvai entorno a 1950), en las que el trauma de la revelación de los orígenes de la humanidad parecía precipitar conflictos incestuosos.

The Erotics Project
(El proyecto de la erótica) (en curso) es en su mayoría textual, parte de la imaginación del artista sobre la vida de sus padres durante los años setenta, antes de que él naciese, como dos extranjeros que dirigían un hotel turístico cerca de Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Costa Brava) durante los últimos años de la dictadura franquista. Esto es lo que sabemos con certeza. Sin embargo, Fujiwara ha convertido esta realidad en el escenario de una serie de cuentos basados en hechos reales que ha publicado en la revista erótico-homosexual Straight to Hell Magazine: The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Act. Ambientado en el contexto de la supresión sexual, militar, social y política forzada por el régimen franquista, 'Paquito: Egg White Jack-Off', por ejemplo, relata las exploraciones eróticas entorno a los ingredientes de la famosa tortilla que se cocinaba en el Hotel Munber – famosa entre turistas y militares – mientras que fantasea entorno a Paquito, la 'mano ingeniosa de la cocina'.

Recientemente el comisario y crítico Nicolas Bourriaud, en ampliación a las reflexiones por Peter Osbourne y otros, ha declarado que en lugar de tratar la historia como un catálogo o un repertorio como se hizo en el Posmodernismo, uno de los ejes principales del arte actual tiene que ver con "el pasado definido a través de territorio y uso, articulado en y a través del espacio"1. En la producción de un arte que despliega signos, historias y lugares, y articulada a través de diversos modos y secuencias, Fujiwara parece ejemplar de este modo de pensamiento a través de la arquitectura y del erotismo: el pasado no es asimilado en el presente como un hecho, sino que se despliega como una ficción.

– Latitudes (Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna)

[1] Nicolas Bourriaud, entrevista con Aude Launay, O2, número 47, Otoño 2008, p. 43.

A continuación el (altamente editado) texto como aparece publicado en 'Descubrir el Arte', Marzo 2009, pág. 72 (haz click sobre la imagen para ampliar su contenido).



[Imágenes (de arriba a abajo): Instalación de Museum of Incest: A Site Survey (2008, Frankfurt am Main); detalle vitrina de la misma instalación; instalación de Welcome to the Museum of Incest: A guided Tour (2008, Limoncello Gallery, London). Cortesía del artista]
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Latitudes reviews MACBA's 'Universal Archive', Frieze #121, March 2009


The forthcoming issue of Frieze magazine (Issue 121, March 2009) includes a review by Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna on MACBA's exhibition 'Universal Archive' (23 October 2008–6 January 2009). 

Below a short extract:

"Of the blockbuster cultural initiatives that have been inspired and hosted by the Catalan capital in 2008, no two could be further apart than Woody Allen’s dismaying Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) and the MACBA exhibition ‘Universal Archive: The Condition of the Document and the Modern Photographic Utopia’, a hugely ambitious genealogy of the documentary form of photography (co-produced and touring to the Museu Colecção Berardo-Arte Moderna e Contemporãnea, Lisbon). While Allen’s facile vision of Barcelona and the ‘flamboyant artist’ character of his male lead (played by Javier Bardem) demonstrated the ‘Olé!’ version of the city’s self-branding, ‘Universal Archive’ was difficult to digest by comparison. The exhibition, which comprised some 2,000 photographs, presented a tough and awkward depiction of the grittier sides of the city and uncompromisingly explored the often-unglamorous role of the artist–documentarian within it. 



The exhibition’s wonderfully unwieldy scale and its dizzying categorization refused benign consumption. Both its strength and its weakness lay in the fact that it was really three projects under one roof, covering a time span from 1850 to the present day. Even three visits did not truly do the show justice, but its exhausting extent nevertheless perfectly complemented the archival strategies it presented, as if its densely-installed two floors – encompassing legions of framed prints and closely-packed vitrines and several digital slideshows – were inspired by a labyrinthine Borgesian tale. For many visitors, the stamina required to experience it could have been off-putting. There are only so many images of shift workers, tract housing, farmland or grain silos that one can absorb. Yet, attempting to embrace such immense amounts of data – whether Timothy H. O’Sullivan’s territorial surveys of the USA in the 1860s and ’70s, August Sander’s collective portrait of the German people in the late 1920s, or the Mass-Observation movement in Britain from 1937 until the early 1950s – provided the exhilarating, if relentless, basis for the whole project."

...Continue reading on Frieze online.

[Image above: Cover of Frieze's issue 121; Image below: Pere Català Pic, 'Fotomuntatge sobre el Barri Gòtic per a la societat d'Atracció de Forasters de Barcelona', 1935. Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona – Arxiu Fotogràfic.]
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Lawrence Weiner's "A CLOTH OF COTTON..." as an action in Barcelona, October 2008


Latitudes' project ‘THE CREST OF A WAVE’ by Lawrence Weiner opened at the Fundació Suñol in Barcelona on 8 October 2008.

The project was divided in four parts – the presentation of an ephemeral sculpture (1) (sugar packets distributed throughout Barcelona), a wall installation (2) and a sound work (3) exhibited at Nivell Zero space of Fundació Suñol, and an action (4), now photo and video documented. The latter was a physical manifestation of the statement common to each part: "A CLOTH OF COTTON WRAPPED AROUND A HORSESHOE OF IRON TOSSED UPON THE CREST OF A WAVE", i.e. an iron horseshoe was wrapped in cotton cloth (here typical Catalan material used for 'farcells'/cloth bundles) and was tossed upon a wave’s crest.


The action took place on the 'rompeolas' of the Barcelona port/ferry terminal on 6 October 2008. Horseshoes were thrown in waves by Lawrence Weiner, Sergi Aguilar (artist and director of Fundació Suñol), and Latitudes (Mariana Cánepa Luna and Max Andrews). 


Video shot by Xavier de Luca, and edited by bang!bang!
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Charla con Doryun Chong, 18 Febrero 19.30h, Librería La Central c/Mallorca, 237 (Barcelona)


Miércoles 18 de febrero, 19.30h
Charla con Doryun Chong, Comisario Asociado, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA

Librería La Central | c/ Mallorca, 237 (MAP) | 08008 Barcelona |

Tickets*: 4€, se adquirieren en la caja de La Central

Doryun hablará sobre algunos de sus proyectos en el Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, y sobre lo que implica trabajar en una institución multidisciplinaria desde el medio-oeste geográfico de los Estados Unidos.

Doryun Chong (Korea, 1973) es Comisario Asociado de Artes Visuales en el Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, donde ha trabajado desde el 2003. Las exposiciones que ha co-comisariado en el Walker incluyen: "House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective" (2005), "Brave New Worlds" (2007) y "Tetsumi Kudo: Garden of Metamorphosis" (2008). También en el Walker, Chong ha desarrollado residencias de artistas y proyectos expositivos con varios artistas entre los que se incluyen: Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Rirkrit Tiravanija y Catherine Sullivan. Actualmente está trabajando en la organización de una residencia y exposición de la artista Haegue Yang (Korea/Berlin). Doryun fue uno de los comisarios de la Busan Biennale, Busan, Sur Korea en el 2006.

Charla del ciclo de Vena (porla) programada en colaboración con Latitudes | www.lttds.org
Más info: http://venablog.wordpress.com/charlas

Agradecimientos: La Central e YProductions


El equipo de Vena (por la) y Latitudes organiza esta serie de charlas sin ánimo de lucro. La compra de tu ticket se invierte íntegramente en la realización de futuras presentaciones. Gracias por tu colaboración. 

 
 
Imágenes de la presentación tomadas por Latitudes:



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Production of Jan Dibbets '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009) in pictures and the press

Production of Jan Dibbets '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009). Photo: Paloma Polo. Courtesy of the artist and SKOR.

This past Sunday 8 February started very early for Latitudes – we were on the beach of the Maasvlakte, Rotterdam, before first light with cameraman Fijko van Leeuwen in readiness for the filming of the new 2009 version (forty years later to the month) of Jan Dibbets' 1969 '12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (see previous post here). The resulting film, titled '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' is the first of Portscapes projects, commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam in collaboration with SKOR and curated by Latitudes.

Production of Jan Dibbets '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009). Photo: Paloma Polo. Courtesy of the artist and SKOR.

Soon after Dibbets and Theo Tegelaers from SKOR arrived and, with bulldozer driver Jan Vader at the ready and van Leeuwen up on the hydraulic lift, the 'square' was marked out and the camera was ready to roll.

Production of Jan Dibbets '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009). Photo: Freek van Aarkel. Courtesy of the artist and SKOR.
 
A bus with special guests and press arrived just in time to see the beginning of the raking action, and after a brief hail storm, the tide rose rapidly on cue around 12.30 to inundate the 'perspective correction'. A spectacular morning on the Dutch coast! Many thanks to everyone involved.

Production of Jan Dibbets '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009). Photo: Latitudes. Courtesy of the artist and SKOR.

Critic Rutger Pontzen wrote about the event in the Dutch paper De Volkskrant and Ruud van Haastrecht's article appeared in Trouw (articles below). Also see features in Schuttevaer, BM/DeStem and Metropolis M.

NRC Handelsblad published a good "making of" slideshow here.


The event was photographed for the Port of Rotterdam by Freek van Arkel and for SKOR by Paloma Polo. Our big thanks to both!

More on Latitudes website including details of the screenings of the resultant film (in Summer 09 – see post here).

You may see the 'making of' film here (part 1) and here (part 2).
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Beginning of 'Portscapes': Jan Dibbets' 1969–2009 "12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective"

Production stills of Jan Dibbets '12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective', produced by Gerry Schum for the series 'Land Art' in 1969. Courtesy Jan Dibbets.

'Portscapes' is an accumulative series of artists’ projects that will take place throughout 2009 alongside the construction of ‘Maasvlakte 2’, a 2,000 hectare area of reclaimed land that will extend the Port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest seaport and industrial area. Projects of variable scales will be experienced through itineraries and destinations, comprising artist-designed tours, performances, interventions, screenings and mobile seminars, for example.

'Portscapes' will be launched during Art Rotterdam (5–8 February 2009). A prologue publication designed by Ben Laloua / Didier Pascal will be available at Portscapes' booth with contributions by Jorge Satorre, Paulien Oltheten, Maria Barnas and Erick Wesselo amongst others. Images of the publication:


'Portscapes' prologue publication designed by Ben Laloua / Didier Pascal

Events during Art Rotterdam week include:


* Thursday 5 February: tour for press and invited guests around the port and presentations by Portscapes artists Marjolijn Dijkman and Ilana Halperin as well as Theo Tegelaers from SKOR and Latitudes.

* Sunday 8 February (weather permitting) : the inaugural project will take place with the filming of an event-sculpture by the Dutch Conceptual artist Jan Dibbets. First realised in February 1969 as part of Gerry Schum's seminal 'Land Art' series of films screened on German TV, the 2009 realisation of '12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' will be filmed forty years later to the month on the beach of the Maasvlakte.


 The artists currently developing proposals are: Lara Almarcegui, Bik van der Pol, Jan Dibbets, Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Cyprien Gaillard, Ilana Halperin, Roman Keller & Christina Hemauer, Paulien Oltheten, Michael Rakowitz, Jorge Satorre, Hans Schabus and Jun Yang.

More info: www.portscapes.nl (UK/NL) and Latitudes' web.

'Portscapes' is commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority advised by SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and is curated by Latitudes.
   

Art Rotterdam (5–8 February) takes place at the Cruise Terminal in Wilheminakade 699, 3072 AP Rotterdam (MAP). Opening hours: Thursday 5 & Friday 6: 13–18h; Saturday 7 & Sunday 8: 11–19h.
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Text on the film programme 'Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel: Land Art’s Expanded Field, 1968–2008', Art&Co #5 (Winter 2009)

Coinciding with the conclusion of the screenings of the film programme 'A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel: Land Art’s Expanded Field, 1968–2008' last October, Latitudes was asked to write a text on the films for Art&Co, which has just been published in their Winter 09 issue num. 5 – see the pages above (click on the image to zoom in on the text).




Following is an excerpt of the original text (over 2,000 words):

"(...) Latitudes developed the film programme 'A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel: Land Art’s Expanded Field, 1968–2008' at the invitation of the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City. Premiering there in April 2008 as part of the Tamayo’s 'Panorámica' series, 'A Stake in the Mud...' has since toured to several venues throughout Europe within an auditorium-based screening format, presenting historical works alongside those produced in the last six years.

What were the possibilities for augmenting preordained definitions of so-called Land Art through relation with contemporary practices, and social and environmental ecologies? Though the cycle had its germination in our work on a publication – 'Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' (2006) – the dimension of film clearly proposed additional sets of concerns. The title of the programme was drawn from the words of Robert Smithson in which he speculates on the site and film of perhaps the most renowned – and certainly most photogenic – of the works associated with Land Art, 'Spiral Jetty' (1970). It attempts to surmise the programme’s dual concern with sheer materiality and physical processes together with the lacunae of filmic representation. Where artists’ use of film or video might appear as a solution to the problem of how to represent something that would otherwise be inaccessible (an intervention in a remote area, for example) or otherwise ephemeral, it apparently creates another – what, or where, does the artwork consist of? Accordingly, what is the status of each film: informal artefact, ‘making of’ movie, documentary, autonomous fiction or something else?


(...)Accordingly, the programme enhanced several ‘Smithsonian’ dialogues across time but rarely was the magnetism openly declared or intentional. Included in part two of the programme, 'Zênite invertido/Inverted Zenith' (2005) by Brazilian artist Thiago Rocha Pitta portrayed a mesmerising vortex of water in a metal vessel which slowly diminishes in volume before a steady resurgence. The work supports a tacit mythical connection to Spiral Jetty and its own narratives of mirroring and reversal, but also to the cosmic whirlpools evoked in Edgar Allan Poe’s tale ‘A Descent into the Maelström’. A concern with remoteness, together with the powerful allure of specific sites, threaded throughout the cycle. The itinerary took in the sewers of New York City and Vienna (through works by Gordon Matta-Clark and Hans Schabus), the deserts of the US (Mario Garcia Torres or Walter De Maria), high mountain zones (Ibon Aranberri, Maria Thereza Alves), as well as the paradisiac beaches of Taveuni (Nikolaj Recke), for example. Territorial sculptural acts (Barry Flanagan or Walter de Maria, for example) were encountered, as well as displacements more legible as social or political actions (in the work by Francis Alÿs). Absurd gestures (Damián Ortega) met touristic views of natural phenomena (Nancy Holt & Smithson) while perspectival experiments (Jan Dibbets) greeted ecological remarks (Donna Conlon)."

'Mono Lake' (1968/2004) by Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt is one of the films included in the first part of the programme which we just learned was acquired in 2007 by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. Here is an acquisition entry on the piece (in Spanish). 

The full article is available for download from Latitudes' writing archive here.

Further documentation such as hand programmes, press reviews, adverts, etc. here; Photodocumentation of the screenings here.


Art&Co is a bilingual Spanish/English quarterly magazine published by the Asociación Amigos de ARCO


Editorial Director: Ángela Molina
Contact: [email protected] or (+34) 917 225 102
More info
: http://www.arco.ifema.es (see 'Publications')
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Gustav Metzger's RAF / Reduce Art Flights campaign initiative changes URL to www.reduceartflights.lttds.org


The website established for RAF / Reduce Art Flights in conjunction with the Latitudes-curated group exhibition 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities' can now be found at a sub-domain of our site www.reduceartflights.lttds.org. The previous URL (reduceartflights.com) is no longer in operation.

The content is the same however, the main feature being a 12-minute interview with Gustav Metzger, initiator of the campaign, conducted by Emma Ridgway (now curator at RSA Arts & Ecology) as well the catalogue entry text by Max Andrews of Latitudes.

Page of the exhibition catalogue. Purchase the book via Motto.
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Fischli & Weiss premiere their new film 'Parts of a Film with a Rat and a Bear' at the Teatro Arsenale, Milan


As enthusiasts of Peter Fischli & David Weiss' peerless work, we are excited to hear about their upcoming film premiere in Milan: 'Parts of a Film with a Rat and a Bear' (2008). The piece, produced by the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, was filmed in the same venue, the spectacular 17th Century Palazzo Litta, that hosted the Trussardi's leg of the artists' survey show 'Flowers & Questions' last February.

In the first two films of their famed 'rat and bear' saga ('The Point of Least Resistance' (1981) & 'The Right Way' (1983)) the artists explore exhibitions, Los Angeles' streets, or the bucolic mountains, dark forests and treacherous ravines of the Swiss Alps, wearing costumes of a giant bear and a rat. With no real aim in mind, the bear and the rat bungle along in folk tales of their own devising – these films are both monumental and intimate, serious and hilarious.



In the new 3-screen film 'Parts of a Film with a Rat and a Bear' (2008), the animals "return to cubhood and wander through the stuccoed, frescoed halls of Palazzo Litta, playing with the bizarre sculptures and peculiar images that inhabit them. Through constant flashbacks and visions of the future, the two look at their own reflected images, encounter themselves in old age, and play with their ancestors in youth, in a constant reversal of roles that seems inspired as much by '2001: A Space Odyssey' as by Grimms’ fairy tales." [1]

Premiere of 'Parts of a Film with a Rat and a Bear' by Peter Fischli & David Weiss

16 February 2009, 6.30pm
Teatro Arsenale
Via Cesare Correnti, 11 / Milan, Italy
Open daily 10 am to 8 pm, from 16 to 22 February 2009
Free admission

Clips from 'The Right Way' and 'The Point of Least Resistance' below:




[1] As described in the Press Release (link here)

Images: Peter Fischli / David Weiss, 'Parts of a Film with a Rat and a Bear', 2008
Video stills - 3 HDV-Videos
Produced by Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan
© The Artists. Courtesy Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; Monika Sprüth & Philomene Magers, Berlin/London; Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.
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