Longitudes

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

Participation in 'NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival of Independents', New York, 24–28 June


Latitudes will be soon participating in 'NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival of Independents' (24–28 June, 1–9pm, free entrance) an event hosted by X initiative which will bring together 38 not-for-profit centers, alternative institutions, artists’ collectives and independent enterprises from Berlin, Milan, Dublin, Lisbon, Paris, Reykjavík, Hong Kong, Rabat, Trinidad, New York, Los Angeles, etc. that contribute to the international art scene by generating a diverse cultural programme.
 
Latitudes will set up a temporary office-base camp, transposing our daily operations while presenting our publications (exhibition catalogues, guest-edited magazines, artist books and anthologies) and other paraphernalia. The office-scenario' will be conceived by the artist group The Bruce High Quality Foundation, incorporating dining furniture from the abandoned Burger King facility on Governor's Island, where they have recently shot 'Isle of the Dead', a zombie movie to be premiered in Fort Jay Theater during Creative Time’s 'This World & Nearer Ones' (opening June 27, 2–4pm) as well as in the X Initiative screening & performing area on Sunday 28th from 6pm.

During 'NO SOUL FOR SALE' Latitudes will also premiere the 8 minute film '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective', the new version of a 1969 film by Dutch Conceptual artist Jan Dibbets (1941) and the inaugural project of Portscapes, the public commission series taking place throughout 2009 in and around Maasvlate 2, the 2,000 hectare extension to the Port of Rotterdam.

Participants: Artis Contemporary Israeli Art Fund (New York and Tel Aviv), Ballroom (Marfa), BizArt/Arthub (Shanghai/Hong Kong), DISPATCH (New York), Empty Purse Publications (New York), Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado (Lisbon), FLUXspace (Philadelphia), Galerie im Regierungsviertel / Forgotten Bar Project (Berlin), Hermes und der Pfau (Stuttgart), K 48 (New York), Kadist Art Foundation (Paris), Kling&Bang (Reykjavík), L’Appartement 22 (Rabat), Latitudes (Barcelona), LAXART (Los Angeles), Light Industry (Brooklyn), Lucie Fontaine (Milan), Migrating Forms (New York), Mousse Magazine (Milan), Next Visit (Berlin), Not An Alternative (Brooklyn), Office for Contemporary Art Norway (Oslo), Participant Inc. (New York), Rhizome (New York), STARSHIP (Berlin), Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York), Studio Film Club (Trinidad), Supportico Lopez (Berlin), Surasi Kusolwong (Thailand), Swiss Institute (New York), TART (San Francisco), The Mountain School of Arts (Los Angeles), Thisisnotashop (Dublin), Transformer (Washington, D.C.), Via Farini (Milan), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), WAGE Artists (New York), White Columns (New York).

Latitudes' participation is partly supported by the Institut Ramon Llull.

X INITIATIVE, 548 West 22nd Street (former Dia Center), New York, NY 10011, USA [MAP HERE]
Opening Reception: June 23, 6-9 pm with a performance by Martin Soto Climent.
Opening Hours: June 24–28 2009, 1–9 pm. FREE ENTRANCE
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Overview of the 53rd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennial: 'Making Worlds // Fare Mondi'

53rd Venice Biennale 2009 - Giardini

Daniel Birnbaum's 'Making Worlds' felt less melancholic though still very much in keeping with his recently-curated '50 Moons of Saturn', the 2nd Turin Triennial (see post 10 November 2008). Both exhibitions shared several artists (Ulla von Brandenburg, Koo Jeong-A, Pietro Roccasalva, Spencer Finch, Ceal Floyer, Lara Favaretto, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Haegue Yang, Paul Chan, Tomás Saraceno, Wade Guyton, Keren Cytter and Rosa Barba), while Venice included several students (including Att Poomtangon) or professors (Simon Starling, Wolfgang Tillmans) from the Birnbaum-directed Staedelschule in Frankfurt, and the support of curator Jochen Volz in the artistic organisation (additional advice was provided by a team of 'correspondents': Savita Apte, Tom Eccles, Hu Fang and Maria Finders). In contrast with the 2007 biennial by Robert Storr it felt less painterly and more sculptural and with a notable lack of 'black boxes' with film and video work. 


There seemed to be however, a certain self-reflexivity with regard to the biennale context: several works referred to the winter life of the Giardini venues (Steve McQueen's film in the British Pavilion; Haegue Yang's video in the Korean Pavilion) and the challenge artists face when asked to present work for this type of event. This was most evident in Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's video in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (formerly named 'Padiglione Italia'), a touching exorcism of artistic exhaustion. During the last twenty years she has been asked to participate in the Biennale not less than five times, and she speaks about the pressure of expectation in creating something new every time.

Elsewhere in Venice the Biennial threatened to be overshadowed by the opening of François Pinault’s über-collection hosted in the recently renovated Punta della Dogana (the former customs house). The spectacular triangular building has undergone a speedy renovation by Japanese architect Tadao Ando (see video here) and the inaugural exhibition's sombre atmosphere is much in contrast to the über-kitch displays at Palazzo Grassi.

53rd Venice Biennale 2009 - Arsenale

Without trying to be at all comprehensive (with almost one million square feet of exhibition space, more than ninety artists, seventy-seven national contributions, forty-four collateral events that seem increasingly impossible) here are some highlights in no particular order of the Giardini (see first slideshow with 107 images) and Arsenale (slideshow above with 52 images):

Roman Ondák’s 'Loop' contribution in the Czech/Slovak pavilion: a walk-through pavilion with a path running from the entrance to the back door that has been landscaped with exactly the same greenery that exists in the Giardini – it was executed with such precision that some visitors asked the artist if his work was the pavilion building itself as they could not find the 'art' anywhere.

Haegue Yang's 'Condensation' (Korea Pavilion) atmospheric assemblage of Venetian blinds, lamps or bulbs, scent atomizers, infrared motion detectors and crochet.

'The Collectors' in the Nordic and Danish pavilions, taken over by artists invited by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset which included exquisit works by Pepe Espaliú's ('Carrying Project') and Simon Fujiwara.

Lara Favaretto's 'Momentary Monument (Swamp)' at the Giardini delle Vergini as well as the three minute man-horse-motorbike film by David Bestué & Marc Vives, which together with their 'Acciones en casa' presented in the Arsenale, gave one of the only humorous notes in the exhibition.

Finally the biennial at last has a decent cafeteria! Tobias Rehberger was given the Golden Lion for the Best Artist for his neo-pop environment. It could well have been recognised along with another new facility previously in dire need of a revamp: the bookstore, which was designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija and hosted a comprehensive collection of monographs and catalogues.


Eventi Collaterali - 54th Venice Biennale, 2011

Off-Giardini (Eventi Collaterali) highlights 

(slideshow above with 33 images):

Joao Maria Gusmao & Pedro Paiva's 'Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air' (Portugal) which included five 16mm films, a mixture of humour and magical realism (a sunset with three suns, a man lifting a bucket filled with water by grasping the water...). Truly great.

Teresa Margolles (Mexico) showing 'What else can we talk about?'. An traumatised and almost empty Palazzo Rota Ivancich highlighted the many Mexicans who have recently died in a violent manner. Margolles and her collaborators gathered blankets with blood and mud where victims fell. That mud and that same blood is slowly moistened in the ground floor and later used to mop the main floor. A decadent palazzo in almost complete silence combines personal dramas and national sorrow. As the artist put it 'we live in a country that cries' (La Jornada, 10 June). This, perhaps alongside Taiwan ('Foreign Affairs'), was by far the most self-critical national representation.


At Isola di Certosa: 'Animated Scene' by Irish artist John Gerrard: an amazing three-screen real time computer-generated projection of the American West: a reconstruction of a 1935 Texas dust storm, a year in the life of an automated pig production facility in the Great Sothern Plains and a man blacking out the facade of a white silo in Kansas – see images here.

Disappointments:

The Golden Lion for Best National Participation going to Bruce Nauman's 'Topological Gardens'. Yes, indeed a great artist but partly agreeing with Harry Bellet and Philippe Dagen from Le Monde: 'a retrospective without any new work is far away from the very principle of the Biennale: to reveal the present'. It also presented very familiar work from the 1960s until today from museums and private collections. His presentation did however come more to life in IUAV Tolentini and Ca'Foscari yet the need to cram three venues seems questionable.

Steve McQueen's ticketed entry to the British pavilion, showing a double-screen film portraying the off-season of the Giardini during the winter months: insects silently making their way through the vegetation, rain drops, Venetian bells ringing in the mist, greyhounds scavenging a trash-scattered Giardini, gay cruising in the small hours of the night. One cannot argue against the evident beauty of the piece, yet its impact quickly wore off.

Miquel Barceló representing Spain: not only because the choice of the project didn't follow any semblance of a democratic or juried selection (as did the Catalan Pavilion) but also the frankly flatfooted delivery: a hagiographic mini-retrospective complete with reading area.

Italian Pavilion in the Arsenale curated by Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli: an embarrassingly poor exhibition, doing no justice to the tremendous artistic talent in the host country.

The sudden cancellation of Emily Jacir's project 'Stazione' for the Palestinian Pavilion (to display the names of each vaporetto station along the Grand Canal in Arabic alongside the Italian). It would have been a telling reference to the cross-cultural exchange between Venice and the Arab world and a great addition to the very little public-space work produced for this Biennale.

'In-Finitum' at the Palazzo Fortuny included some great works (include those by Anselmo, and a room with Lucio Fontana) although the exhibition felt much less compelling than 2007's 'Artempo: Where time becomes art'. This year it seems to include more 1950s-1970s work, more monochromes (Gutai group, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Ryman, James Turrell, Mark Rothko, Hiroshi Sugimoto...) and did not exactly run with the concept of 'the infinite'. The strength of this curatorial exercise lies in widening the timeframe while building a link between Fortuny's legacy and 'anonymous' work (e.g. Egyptian ancient sculpture) with contemporary works (on this occasion John Gerrard, Michael Borremans, Berlinde Bruyckere et. al.), which failed to spark this time.



53rd International Art Exhibition: Making Worlds // Fare Mondi // Bantin Duniyan // Weltenmachen // Construire des Mondes // Fazer Mundos
Artistic director: Daniel Birnbaum
Giardini della Biennale / Arsenale

Open 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Giardini closed on Mondays / Arsenale closed on Tuesdays
http://www.labiennale.org
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Redesigned Portscapes website + images of Maasvlakte 2 under construction


Below is the new website design of Portscapes (www.portscapes.com), an accummulative series of newly commissioned projects curated by Latitudes in and around Maasvlakte 2, the extension of the Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, throughout 2009. (+ info) If you would like to receive Portscapes newsletters, please subscribe here.

Following the news on the extension process of the Port of Rotterdam, which will become the Maasvlakte 2, the Port has just announced that after months of dredging vessels spraying sand (‘rainbowing’) 3km away from the present coast line (see image above) the first bulldozers are driving around on an island in the North Sea to make sure that the sand is distributed correctly amongst the islands (see image below). Slideshow of aerial images of the rising island here.

[Images (top to bottom): Portscapes website; Photo: Eric Bakker; Photo: Ben Wind. All photos © Port of Rotterdam Authority; Thanks to Ria Haagsma and Sjaak Pope.]
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Screening of Jan Dibbets' film '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective', every Sunday between 14 June and 5 July, FutureLand, Rotterdam



We are pleased to announce the presentation of Jan Dibbets' film '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009) which will take place on Sunday 14 June, in FutureLand, the visitor centre of the Port of Rotterdam Authority [Map here]. 


Jan Dibbets, '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009), 8 min video, film still. Courtesy of the artist, Port of Rotterdam Authority and SKOR.

The screening of '6 Hours Tide Object...' will take place on Sunday 14 June and will be repeated on Sunday 21 June, Sunday 28 June and Sunday 5 July at 13.00, 13.30, 14.00, 14.30 and at 15.00 (a special screening preceded by the 'The Making of...').


Jan Dibbets, '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009), 8 min video, film still. Courtesy of the artist, Port of Rotterdam Authority and SKOR.

First realised in February 1969 as part of Gerry Schum's seminal Fernsehgalerie I ‘Land Art’ series of films screened on German TV, the 2009 realisation of '12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' was filmed forty years later to the month (see our 10 February post with production stills), on the beach of the Maasvlakte. The resulting film titled '6 Hours Tide Object...' is the first project of Portscapes, an accumulative series of newly commissioned projects that will take place throughout 2009 alongside the construction of Maasvlakte 2.

For more details on the screenings please check www.portscapes.com | www.portscapes.nl

 
Jan Dibbets, '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009), 8 min video, film still. Courtesy of the artist, Port of Rotterdam Authority and SKOR.

If you would like to receive Portscapes' newsletters, please subscribe here.

FutureLand is situated on the edge of the current Maasvlakte, in Europaweg 902 (500m from the Routiers restaurant). Free admission.

Portscapes
is commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice and financial support from SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and is curated by Latitudes.


Jan Dibbets, '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009), 8 min video, film still. Courtesy of the artist, Port of Rotterdam Authority and SKOR.


Film credits:

 
Jan Dibbets '6 hours tide object with correction of perspective', 1969-2009, Maasvlakte beach, Rotterdam

Camera: Fijko van Leeuwen
Montage: Rutger Hesseling
Recording: 8 February 2009
Film duration: 8 minutes

Film commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam, www.maasvlakte2.com with advice and financial support from SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space), www.skor.nl

This project was realised as part of 'Portscapes' a series of newly commissioned art projects realised alongside the construction of Maasvlakte 2, the extension to the Port of Rotterdam. 'Portscapes' is curated by Latitudes, www.lttds.org

With thanks to Jan Vader, Jan Willem Stoof and PUMA Extension Project Organisation Maasvlakte
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Newsletter #13 June 2009 | Junio 2009

We have just circulated our #13 newsletter (read English version or Versión española). If you would like to subscribe to our mailing list please fill your data on this contact form (see left) and choose one language. If you would like to read previous newsletters, click here.

In June we are presenting the film programme 'What are we going to do after we’ve done what we’re doing to do next?' in the context of 'The Uncertainty Principle', Capella MACBA, Barcelona (1–7 June, 11–17.30h, closed tuesdays) with films by Jordan Wolfson, Mariana Castillo Deball, Neil Cummings & Marysia Lewandowska, Chris Marker and Marjolijn Dijkman.


We are also participating in 'NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival of Independents, a four day festival where over 30 independent centers, alternative institutions, artists’ collectives and independent enterprises from around the world present their activities (see list of participants here). The festival will take place in X initiative's spaces in 548 West 22nd Street, New York (24–28 June, 1–9pm. Opening: 23 June, 6–9pm with a performance by Martin Soto Climent. Free admission.)
+ info...
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Group exhibition 'The Garden of Forking Paths', MAISTERRAVALBUENA, Madrid, until 18 July

We have uploaded installation images [PHOTO GALLERY] of the group exhibition The Garden of Forking Paths, which opened last Thursday at MAISTERRAVALBUENA in Madrid and presents the work of Eric Bell & Kristoffer Frick; The Infinite Library (Daniel Gustav Cramer & Haris Epaminonda); huber.huber; Leslie Hewitt & Matt Keegan and Nashashibi/Skaer.

The exhibition considers
duality, simultaneity, saturation and proliferation. The exhibition pursues, on the one hand, the implications of two individuals working together as a single author-function and, on the other, operates alongside artwork concerned with the reproducibility of images. In part a hermeneutical maze – itself curated and hosted by duos (Latitudes and MAISTERRAVALBUENA, respectively) The Garden of Forking Paths highlights a condition where decisions and imagery are at least twice mediated.

The duos of the exhibition are each composed of different personal and professional dynamics – the artists are variously exclusive collaborators, related by birth, occasional accomplices, couples in life, and so on. Distinct from both generalised collaborative practice and the notion of the singular artistic genius, the duos’ model of creative production implies a constant state of questioning and a mistrust of consistency that is nevertheless a formalised partnership. Comprising works using editorial, photographic, sculptural, procedural, collage and appropriation techniques, The Garden of Forking Paths is concerned with such conditions in the context of the synthesis, modulation and reuse of images over time. + info...

Press release in Spanish and English the documentation archive.

See a slideshow of huber.huber's works in the exhibition here.

MAISTERRAVALBUENA
Doctor Fourquet 1
28012 Madrid  
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 10-14;15.30-19.30; Sat 10-18pm 

[All photos: Latitudes]
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Slideshows of two projects: 'Provenances' at Umberto di Marino and 'Nothing, or Something' at SUITCASE Art Projects Beijing


We have updated our web and uploaded images of two recent projects: 'Provenances' an exhibition at Umberto di Marino, Naples, and 'Nothing or Something', SUITCASE Art Projects, Beijing:

'Provenances' [PHOTO GALLERY] opened on May 14th at Umberto di Marino, Naples, and is composed of three specially-commissioned solo presentations by Erick Beltrán, Simon Fujiwara and Jordi Mitjà. The exhibition reflects on the heritage industry and the museumification of history, as well as the creation, transmission and fidelity of cultural worth. On view until 14 September+ info

UMBERTO DI MARINO 
Via Alabardieri 1
Piazza dei Martiri
80121 Napoli, ITALY
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 15–20h



Ignasi Aballí's new project [photo gallery here] for the eight windows of SUITCASE Art Projects responds to the retail context of the Yintai Centre as well as an artistic history of absence, nothingness and invisibility. + info

Suitcase Art Projects
Park Life, Beijing Yintai Centre, No. 2 Jianwai Dajie, 
Chaoyang District, Beijing, CHINA 
Opening Hours: 10am–10pm, Monday–Sunday


Please join us on Thursday 28th May 20h, at the opening of 'The Garden of Forking Paths', a group exhibition at Maisterravalbuena, Madrid. The exhibition brings together the work of Eric Bell & Kristoffer Frick; The Infinite Library (Daniel Gustav Cramer & Haris Epaminonda); huber.huber; Leslie Hewitt & Matt Keegan and Nashashibi/Skaer, five artist-duos to consider duality, simultaneity, saturation and proliferation. On view until 18 July 2009. + info

MAISTERRAVALBUENA
 
Doctor Fourquet 1
28012 Madrid
Opening: Mon-Fri 10-14;15.30-19.30; Sat 10-18pm

[Photos: Simon Fujiwara, 'The Museum of Incest', installation at 'Provenances', Courtesy of teh artist. Photo: Simon Fujiwara; Visitors seeing 'Scenic Views' by Ignasi Aballí and Daniel Gustav Gramer & Haris Epaminonda 'Book #7: Walther Haage, 'Das praktische Kakteenbuch in Farben', Neumann Verlag, Radebeul, 1966 & Tibor Déry, 'Der Balaton', Druckerei Kosuth, Budapest, 1968' Courtesy the artists. Below: huber.huber, 'Mikrouniversum und andere kleine Systeme IV', 2009. Courtesy the artists.]
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2009 Cartier Award winner: Jordan Wolfson


Frieze has announced the 2009 Cartier Award winner: New Yorker Jordan Wolfson (New York, 1980. Lives in New York and Berlin). The 2008 winner was Cuban artist Wilfredo Prieto, see Latitudes' post here and artist profile here).

In 2006 Latitudes collaborated with Wolfson in the production of the sound piece 'Day' (2006) for an exhibition in Barcelona. In 2008 his film 'Landscape for Fire' was exhibited in different venues as part of the touring film programme 'A Stake in the Mud, a Hole in the Reel. Land Art's Expanded Field 1968–2008' (Museo Tamayo, Mexico City and other venues, April–October 2008) and will soon present the film 'Untitled (the nothing)' (2005–9, 4mins) as part of the cinema, performance and lectures programme 'The Uncertainty Principle' at Capella MACBA.

R
ead more about Jordan Wolfson: download a 2006 interview in the writing archive and a May 2005 exhibition review in Frieze Magazine here.

[Image: Jordan Wolfson, still of 'Perfect Lover' (2007). Courtesy of the artist, Johann König, Berlin, and T293, Napoli]
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Simon Fujiwara, Frame, Frieze Art Fair 2009, London

Simon Fujiwara, installation view of 'Museum of Incest: A Site Survey' (2008).

Frieze Art Fair, London (15–18 October 2009), has just announced part of their 2009 programme (+ info...). Galerie Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt, will be part of Frame, a newly introduced section dedicated to solo artist presentations. The gallery will present 'The Museum of Incest' by Simon Fujiwara, a version of which will soon be exhibited as part of 'Provenances' a Latitudes-curated exhibition at Umberto di Marino, Naples. + info...

'Provenances' opens Thursday 14 May, 20h. On the opening evening, the artist will present the lecture-performance 'The Museum of Incest: A Guided Tour' (starting 20.30h). For the occasion a guide of the museum has been published by Archive Books (in English with Italian translation). The guide is the first publication by Turin/Berlin-based publishing house Archive Books (formerly known as The Bookmakers Ed.).

Fujiwara (1982, London, UK. Lives in Berlin and London) has recently been artist in residence at the MAK Center for Art & Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles (2008–9) and participated in the exhibition 'Office of Real Time Activity', curated by graduating students of the MA Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London (2009). Forthcoming projects include: 'The Collectors', Danish and Nordic Pavilions, 53rd Biennale di Venezia.

Read more about Simon Fujiwara: Download a profile text from Latitudes' writing archive (pdfs in Spanish and English).
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Newsletter #12, May 2009


Newsletter #12 is out!

If you would like to read it, please click here for English version or here for Spanish version.

In our forthcoming Newsletter #13 (June–July 09) we will inform you about a video programme to be screened daily at Capella MACBA (1–7 June); our participation in the festival of independent and non-profit art organisations in New York hosted by the X initiative (24–28 June) and the exhibition 'Sequelism. Episode 3: Possible, Probable, or Preferable Futures', to open at Arnolfini, Bristol on 17 July.

In the current issue of frieze (Issue 123, May 2009) you will find a review by Max Andrews on the 2nd Canary Islands Biennial of Architecture – read short report and images of the exhibition in our 8 March 2009 post.

You can also follow us on facebook.
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