Longitudes

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

Latitudes in Kult Magazine (#10, October 2009)

Milan-based Kult Magazine has published an article on art and ecology in their October issue written by art critic and curator Daniele Perra. In the section, Perra interviews curator Francesco Manacorda (curator of the exhibition 'Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009' on view at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, until 18 October), as well as English artist Simon Starling and selects a few ongoing exhibitions and events that analyse the relationship between art and nature.

In page 88 (see detail above) Perra mentioned Latitudes' ecology-related projects such as the 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities...' exhibition at the Fondazione Sandretto in Turin in 2008, the guest-edition of UOVO #14 in 2007 and the publication 'Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' in 2006, to introduce our participation in the forthcoming The Wånas Foundation seminar on Art and Ecology taking place on the 21 October in Knislinge, Sweden and in the symposium organised by Hinterland Projects on 26th November titled 'The evolving relationships between artists, the changing climate and new responsibilities'.

[Above: Detail of page 88 of the magazine. With thanks to Daniele Perra]
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Newsletter #16, October 2009


We have just circulated the October 2009 Newsletter #16, you may read the English version or the versión española.

Update on the Portscapes commission series: exhibition of Paulien Oltheten at Futureland and vicinity (until 30 October) and billboard-prologue to Jorge Satorre's project (see images on the 02.10.09 post) + info...

On the 21 October Latitudes will be participating in the International seminar on Art and Ecology, organised by The Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden. 


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Check also our Latitudes' at www.lttds.org/blog for further news.
Facebook fan page here
Flickr photosets here
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Portscapes news: Jorge Satorre's billboard on the A15 and Paulien Oltheten small exhibition at the visitor centre Futureland and surroundings


Placed along the A15 highway on the Maasvlakte, Jorge Satorre's billboard is the third installed as part of 'Portscapes' – joining those by Hans Schabus and Paulien Oltheten.

During the summer of 2009, Jorge Satorre was searching for, and eventually located, a large boulder – specifically one of the giant rocks carried by glaciers into The Netherlands from Scandinavia during the last Ice Age. Following the artist’s fascination with the environmental compensation projects being instigated alongside the construction of Maasvlakte 2, his project seeks to identify this rock’s precise place of origin and then return it to where it came from – an act of synthetic restitution and transnational sculptural offsetting. Satorre’s reverse geological gesture furthermore mirrors the monumental construction of the Maasvlakte 2 as a sculpting of land-form which, like the action of ice but in a far shorter time, is fundamentally altering the morphology of The Netherlands. The action is also reflected in the fact that much of the existing and future sea defense in the port area will be made from rock brought from Scandinavia. The artist’s accompanying pencil drawings offer an account of the process which incorporate both actual and imagined details, like a storyboard. A single drawing which depicts an imagined protest at the beginning of the boulder’s journey is realised as a billboard near the Futureland visitor’s centre.


A second part of his research will be presented at the Portscapes exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen from 5 February 2010.

Paulien Oltheten's videos and photographs can also be seen until mid-November 2009 in and around Futureland, the Maasvlakte visitors’ centre [MAP HERE]. From there, visitors can set off with a route description to the locations on the Maasvlakte where other work can be seen.

Locations and some images of Oltheten's mini-billboards:


The public domain and human behaviour is the starting point for the work of Paulien Oltheten (1982), though she has described her approach as closer to that of an anthropologist rather than artist. With her still and video cameras, she generally searches with apparent casualness for moments when there is contact between people, objects and public space. On the Maasvlakte, Oltheten was faced with the fact that the familiar frame of reference of natural elements, such as trees, bushes and people, was almost completely lacking. Oltheten decided to make use of this alienation by arranging meetings with people. This resulted in a series of photographs and two short video pieces. These stagings mostly take place in locations on the Maasvlakte that will disappear or be displaced during the coming years. The photographs and videos are sometimes variations on the theme of ‘one becomes two’, referring to the Maasvlakte, of which there will later be two.

Futureland is on Europaweg 909, 3199 LC Maasvlakte, Rotterdam (Havennummer 8213). It is across the road from the E.ON power plant. Open Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm and on Sunday 11am-5pm. Entry is free. Map here.


Portscapes is a series of public art commissions initiated by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice and support from SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amterdam) and curated by Latitudes. www.portscapes.nl

[Photos of Jorge Satorre's board by Ben Wind; Photos of Paulien Oltheten's by the artist and Ben Wind.]
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Sala Rekalde de Bilbao

Desde el blog de 'Sala Rekalde: arte contemporáneo y responsabilidad pública' siguiendo al comunicado enviado el 21 Abril, donde se expresaba la preocupación por el cese de la directora de la sala Rekalde.

Más información en
http://www.rekaldeadhesiones.com


29/09/09

Estimad@ amig@,


Nos tomamos la libertad de responder con este mail a tu apoyo al texto del 21 de abril de 2009 (www.rekaldeadhesiones.com) con el que exponíamos nuestra preocupación ante una serie de decisiones políticas con respecto a la Sala Rekalde de Bilbao. Lo hacemos ahora, en la confianza de contar con tu interés y porque es cuando algunas de las consecuencias de aquellas decisiones empiezan a hacerse efectivas.

La carta de apoyo convocó la adhesión de 647 personas relacionadas con la realidad del arte contemporáneo desde un gran número de países. Fue publicada en prensa y enviada a los representantes de los diferentes partidos políticos integrantes de la Comisión de Cultura de las Juntas Generales de Bizkaia, encargada de evaluar la situación.

Si bien las primeras reacciones por parte de la Diputada de Cultura de la Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, responsable de la sala Rekalde, parecían responder positivamente a través de pronunciamientos en la prensa a nuestra demanda de refrendar el programa realizado por la sala, es sólo ahora que se hace pública la conclusión real del problema:

El cese de la directora de su cargo ha supuesto su vuelta al puesto de comisaria que ocupaba antes de su designación y que es el puesto que han venido ocupando las sucesivas responsables de la programación de la sala. La situación administrativa creada supone en la práctica que Leire Vergara, responsable del programa desde 2006, y ajena al cese decretado en abril, ha sido despedida de su puesto. Es clara la incoherencia en la que incurre la Diputada de Cultura, Miren Josune Ariztondo, que ha mostrado a través de los medios y ante la Comisión de Cultura de las Juntas Generales de Bizkaia su respaldo al programa realizado, pero que cesa por supuesta razón administrativa a quien es responsable de ese programa.

En su momento, distintas agrupaciones de profesionales (entre otros, la Asociación de directores de Arte Contemporáneo de España, el Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo y el Consejo de Críticos de Artes visuales) exigieron a la Diputada de Cultura que aplicara las recomendaciones del Documento de Buenas Prácticas en museos y centros de arte firmado por distintas agrupaciones profesionales y el Ministerio de Cultura. La Diputada de Cultura no ha anunciado, hasta la fecha, concurso público alguno para cubrir la dirección artística de la sala Rekalde. Entendemos, de acuerdo con las citadas agrupaciones, que la sala Rekalde ha adquirido una posición entre las instituciones artísticas en la que no se puede permitir prescindir de un procedimiento estimado como básico por la totalidad de los agentes e instituciones del sector.

En nuestro anterior escrito, quisimos dejar fuera de toda duda el contrastado valor que ha tenido el programa de la sala Rekalde. Ahora que incluso quienes han causado esta situación han reconocido públicamente este valor, sólo nos queda pedir que se tomen decisiones en consecuencia y que se evite la irresponsabilidad de dilapidar el prestigio internacional que Rekalde ha conseguido en estos años. Quienes hemos valorado este hecho somos además conscientes de la dificultad y la fragilidad de tales logros, sólo posibles en situaciones de confianza mutua entre los agentes del arte y los gestores de la cultura. Tras tantas equivocadas decisiones, esta confianza no puede darse ya por hecha. Seguiremos atentos a las consecuencias de este proceso con gran preocupación y determinación.

Te haremos saber si surge alguna iniciativa pública de respuesta a esta situación e intentaremos mantenerte al corriente de la conclusión de este lamentable proceso.

Otra vez gracias y un saludo,

Peio Aguirre, José Ramón Amondarain, Ricardo Antón, Xabier Arakistain, Ibon Aranberri, Aimar Arriola, Txomin Badiola, Haizea Barcenilla, Daniel Castillejo, Guadalupe Echevarría, Miren Eraso, Santiago Eraso, Inazio Escudero, Oier Etxeberria, Jon Mikel Euba, Esther Ferrer, Charo Garaigorta, Iñaki Garmendia, Beatriz Herráez, Eduardo Hurtado, Fernando Illana, Iñaki Imaz, Pello Irazu, Miren Jaio, Iratxe Jaio/Klaas van Gorkum, Abigail Lazkoz, Maider López, Asier Mendizabal, Juan Luis Moraza, Ignacio Múgica, María Mur, Isabel de Naverán, Itziar Okariz, Lucía Onzain, Moisés Pérez de Albeniz, Sergio Prego, María Ptqk, Josu Rekalde, Natxo Rodríguez, Arturo f. Rodríguez, Xabier Sáenz de Gorbea, Xabier Salaberria, Azucena Vieites

–ENG-

Dear friend,

By means of this email we are taking the liberty of responding to your support for the text of April 21st 2009 (www.rekaldeadhesiones.com), in which we expressed our concern over a series of political decisions concerning the Sala Rekalde of Bilbao. We are doing so now as we trust in your interest in this question, and because some of the consequences of those decisions are beginning to come into effect.

The letter of support was signed by 647 people related to the reality of contemporary art from a great number of countries. It was published in the press and sent to the representatives of the different political parties who form part of the Cultural Commission of the Representative Assembly of Biscay, which was responsible for evaluating the situation.

While the first reactions, in statements to the press, by the Representative for Culture of the Provincial Council of Biscay, responsible for the Sala Rekalde, seemed to respond positively to our demand for endorsement of the programme developed by the Sala Rekalde, it is only now that the real conclusion of the question is being made public:

The dismissal of the Director from her post has meant her return to the curatorial position she held before her appointment, a position that has been occupied successively by the persons responsible for designing the Sala Rekalde’s programme. The administrative situation created has in practice meant that Leire Vergara, who has been responsible for the programme since 2006 and who has no connection with the dismissal decreed in April, has been dismissed from her position. What is clear is the inconsistency of Miren Josune Ariztondo, the Representative for Culture: after expressing, in the press and before the Cultural Commission of the Representative Assembly of Biscay, her support for the programme developed, she has dismissed the person responsible for that programme for a supposedly administrative reason.

At their time, different professional groups (amongst them the Association of Directors of Spanish Contemporary Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Council of Visual Art Critics) demanded that the Representative for Culture should apply the recommendations of the Document of Good Practices in Museums and Art Centres, signed by different professional groups and the Ministry of Culture. To date, the Representative for Culture has not announced any open public competition to fill the position of artistic director of the Sala Rekalde. We understand, together with the abovementioned groups, that the Sala Rekalde has acquired a position amongst the artistic institutions in which it is not permissible to dispense with a procedure considered as basic by all the agents and institutions of the sector.

In our earlier communication, we wished to leave beyond all doubt the proven value of the programme of the Sala Rekalde. Now that even those who brought about this situation have publicly recognised this value, all we can do is ask that they take decisions accordingly and avoid the irresponsibility of squandering the international prestige that Rekalde has won in recent years. Such achievements are difficult and fragile, and are only possible in situations of mutual trust between the agents of art and the managers of culture. In the wake of so many erroneous decisions, this trust can no longer be taken for granted. We will continue to monitor the consequences of this process with great concern and determination.

We will let you know if any public initiative arises in response to this situation, and we will try to keep you informed about the conclusion of this lamentable process.

Thank you once again, and best wishes,
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Catalogue essays: Henrik Håkansson, Museo Rufino Tamayo; Haegue Yang, Artsonje Center / samuso

Two recent catalogue essays by Latitudes' Max Andrews:

Henrik Håkansson - Museo Tamayo catalogue

• ‘Untitled (You Are Good For Me Because You Destroy Me)’, Henrik Håkansson: Novelas de la selva / The Jungle Novels, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, 2009 (Spanish and English)

Haegue Yang – Samuso publication

• ‘Towards Haegue Yang’s ‘Blind Rooms’’, Haegue Yang, Artsonje Center / samuso, Seoul, 2009 (Korean) & forthcoming in Symmetric Inequality: Haegue Yang, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, 2009 (Spanish, Basque and English)

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Presentación de la web www.plataformacuratorial.es durante las segundas jornadas de 'Producir, Exponer, Interpretar...', Matadero Madrid

 
Presentada durante las segundas jornadas de 'PRODUCIR, EXPONER, INTERPRETAR. Estrategias y conflictos en la práctica curatorial', Matadero, Madrid, 25-27 Septiembre 2009) la web www.plataformacuratorial.es recoge resumenes de las presentaciones de la primera parte de estas jornadas que tuvo lugar en MUSAC (Mayo 2009), textos, links de interés, comentarios en formato twitter sobre las segundas jornadas, fotografías, etc. También existe una página en facebook.

Abajo imágenes de las jornadas.

[Fotos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org]
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Segunda parte de las jornadas 'PRODUCIR, EXPONER, INTERPRETAR. Estrategias y conflictos en la práctica curatorial', Matadero, Madrid, 25-27 Septiembre 2009

Pablo Helguera 'Artoons' published in ArtWold Salon's blog http://www.artworldsalon.com/blog

Entre 25, 26 y 27 de septiembre 2009 Latitudes participará en las segundas jornadas de 'PRODUCIR, EXPONER, INTERPRETAR (Estrategias y conflictos en la práctica curatorial)', cuya primera parte tuvo lugar en MUSAC, León, 22–24 de mayo. 

'PRODUCIR, EXPONER, INTERPRETAR' es un encuentro nacional de comisarios de arte contemporáneo, vinculados generacionalmente, cuyo objetivo es, por un lado incentivar la creación de redes sociales entre profesionales del sector; y por otro lado, poner de relieve una serie de cuestiones en torno a la práctica curatorial.

Participan: David Arlandis / Javier Marroquí (Comisarios independientes, Valencia); David Armengol (Comisario independiente, Barcelona); María Bella (Comisaria de Intermediae, Madrid); Álex Brahim (Comisario independiente, Barcelona); Amanda Cuesta (Comisaria independiente, Barcelona); Beatriz Herráez (Comisaria, Centro Cultural Montehermoso Kulturunea, Vitoria); Latitudes (Comisarios independientes, Barcelona); Iván López Munuera (Comisario independiente, Madrid); Manuela Moscoso (Comisaria independiente, Madrid); RMS La Asociación (Comisarios independientes, Madrid); Manuel Segade (Departamento de exposiciones, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela); Virginia Torrente (Doméstico, comisaria independiente, Madrid); Leire Vergara (Comisaria independiente, Bilbao).

Véase curriculum de los participantes aquí.

Dirigen: Tania Pardo (Comisaria MUSAC); Manuela Villa (Responsable de contenidos de Matadero Madrid y Coordinadora general de La noche en blanco).

Matadero Madrid
Paseo de la Chopera 14, 28045, Madrid
T: 915 177 309
[email protected]
www.mataderomadrid.com
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Portscapes News: Launch of Ilana Halperin's 45 min-long audio field guide ‘A Brief History of Mobile Landmass’

The two first images are courtesy of Ben Wind, rest of images courtesy of the artist.


As her contribution to ‘Portscapes’, New York-born Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin has created a spoken-word narrative in Dutch and English for visitors to the port. Available at the visitor centre Futureland (map here) and online (www.portscapes.nl) from September 18 until 2013, ‘A Brief History of Mobile Landmass’ is an audio field guide inspired by a perception of Maasvlakte 2 in terms of formidable geophysical phenomena and a geological sense of time.



The artist has assembled a compelling narrative of fragments which draws on fact, fiction and personal fieldwork – as well as site surveys by volcanologists, geologists and the experts involved in the construction of Maasvlakte 2. It offers echoes, speculations and interpretations surrounding both the artificial and natural processes whereby new land is created. Recalling Jules Verne’s ‘Voyages Extraordinaires’, this 'book on tape' couples a wealth of scientific information with wonder and vivid descriptions.

Halperin is your guide through a landscape with tales of newborn islands, otherworldly Hawaiian magma and the fire deity Pele, a Rotterdam ‘lava flow’ or the ‘industrial volcanoes’ of its port. To paraphrase Mark Twain’s astonished account of the eruption of Kilauea in 1866: “Here is room for the imagination to work!”.



'Portscapes' is an accumulative series of newly commissioned projects taking place throughout 2009 alongside the construction of Rotterdam's [51° 55' N 4° 29' E] Maasvlakte 2 (MV2) – an extension to Europe's largest seaport and industrial area which will be realised between 2008 and 2013 by reclaiming a 2,000-hectare area of reclaimed land (see images here) that will extend the Port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest seaport and industrial area by 20%.

Portscapes is commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice and support from SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and is curated by the Barcelona-based curatorial office Latitudes.
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Performance 'The Museum of Incest' de Simon Fujiwara, sábado 19 Septiembre a las 19h en Hangar, Barcelona


19 de septiembre 2009, 19h
Hangar, Barcelona 
La performance será en inglés con subtítulos en castellano. Entrada gratuita

Vena (por la) anuncia su primer evento de la temporada: la performance 'The Museum of Incest: A Guided Tour' (El Museo del Incesto: una visita guiada) del artista británico afincado en Berlin/Londres Simon Fujiwara. El evento está organizado por Vena (por la) en colaboración con Hangar en el contexto de 'Hangar Obert'.

Simon Fujiwara durante su performance presentada el 14 mayo 2009 durante la inauguración de la exposición ‘Provenances’ en Umberto di Marino, Napoli, comisariada  Latitudes. Foto: Danilo Donzelli.

'The Museum of Incest' (El Museo del Incesto) es un proyecto que se manifiesta en tres partes: como una instalación, una performance-lecture (véanse imágenes arriba) y como publicación. La performance consiste en un tour a través del edificio de un museo ficticio que representa la historia alternativa a los orígenes del hombre a través de prácticas incestuosas. El tour se acompaña de diapositivas, un mural y artefactos provenientes de los yacimientos arqueológicos de la Garganta de Olduvai en Tanzania, conocida también como 'cuna de la humanidad' por descubrise allí restos de los primeros homínidos.

Presentación del ‘Museum of Incest’ de Simon Fujiwara dentro de la exposición ‘Provenances’ en Umberto di Marino, Napoli, comisariada  Latitudes. Fotos: Danilo Donzelli.



En ocasión de la exposición 'Provenances' en Nápoles, Latitudes editó la publicación 'The Museum of Incest. A Guided Tour' publicada por Archive Books (Turin/Berlin) (imágenes a continuación), que se podrá adquirir por 6 Euros una vez finalizada la performance.

'The Museum of Incest. A Guided Tour' publicada por Archive Books. Fotos: Latitudes.

Simon Fujiwara (1982, Londres, Inglaterra. Vive en Berlin y Londres). Recientemente ha sido artista en residencia del MAK Center for Art & Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles (2008–9) y ha participado en 'Office of Real Time Activity', Royal College of Art, Londres (Marzo 2009); 'Provenances', Umberto di Marino, Nápoles (comisariada por Latitudes - imágenes aquí) (Mayo–Septiembre 2009) y 'The Collectors', Danish and Nordic Pavilions, 53rd Biennale di Venezia. Próximamente presentará el 'The Museum of Incest' en Frieze Art Fair (sección Frame), Londres, con Galerie Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt.

A continuación imágenes de la performance en Hangar:



+ info:

– Texto "Simon Fujiwara_ES.pdf" en el archivo de textos de Latitudes (pdfs en Español e Inglés)
Artículo sobre 'Provenances', 3 Junio, La Repubblica (italiano)
Entrevista que se ha publicado en la revista italiana Kult Magazine de Septiembre, realizada por Daniele Perra (pdf italiano)
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Three new 'Portscapes' projects: Fucking Good Art, Paulien Oltheten and Ilana Halperin


Three new 'Portscapes' projects: Fucking Good Art's broadcasting from their 'base camp' in Maasvlakte until 21 September; Paulien Oltheten billboard and forthcoming exhibition at Futureland and Ilana Halperin's scripted audio field guide available in English and Dutch from 18 September 2009

Project website: www.portscapes.nl

More info on this projects here

Rotterdam-based artists Rob Hamelijnck and Nienke Terpsma, editors of the printed and online magazine FUCKING GOOD ART, have been living and working in a ‘base camp’ on the Maasvlakte from 20th August and will be there until end of September producing Portscapes ON AIR – Station Maasvlakte. (+ info...)

On 14 August 2009 a billboard by Amsterdam-based artist PAULIEN OLTHETEN was placed along the A15 on the Maasvlakte. Oltheten made use of the lack of reference of natural elements, such as trees, bushes and people by arranging meetings. These stagings mostly take place in locations on the Maasvlakte that will soon disappear or be displaced and often involve variations of the theme ‘one becomes two’, referring to the Maasvlakte, of which there will later be two. (+ info...)

As her contribution to Portscapes, New York-born Glasgow-based artist ILANA HALPERIN has created an audio field guide available online and on MP3 players which visitors will be able to pick up at Futureland (map here) and experience through wandering the nearby area of the port edge. ‘A Brief History of Mobile Landmass’ is inspired by a perception of Maasvlakte 2 in terms of formidable geophysical phenomena and a geological sense of time. (+ info...)

Audioguide available online and at Futureland (map here) from 18 September 2009 until 2013. Narrated in English and Dutch. Duration: 45 min.



'Portscapes' is an accumulative series of art commissions taking 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 by 20%. Projects varied in size and scale will be produced under the leitmotif itineraries and destinations comprising tours, audioguides, performances, radio programmes, interventions, for example. (+ info...)

Artists involved in Portscapes: 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. Website collaborators: Maria Barnas (poetry) and Markus Miessen (interviews).

Read more on completed projects and on projects in production.

'Portscapes' press coverage here. To receive Portscapes news sign up here.

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