Designed by Rotterdam-based design studio Ben Laloua/Didier Pascal, the multi-part publication box includes a miscellany of contributions by the artists, a cahier with texts on the projects (it can be downloaded from here), the prologue publication presented with the launch of the project in February 2009 and a DVD with 'behind the scenes' footage with interviews with 'Portscapes' artists Lara Almarcegui, Bik van der Pol, Jan Dibbets, Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Ilana Halperin, Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller, Paulien Oltheten, Jorge Satorre and Hans Schabus.







DVD with 'behind the scenes' footage and interviews with 'Portscapes' artists – these can also be seen online on Latitudes' YouTube Channel.



The limited edition contains the film '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009) produced by Jan Dibbets for 'Portscapes'.




The publications can be purchased at the Museum Boijmans’s shop, or can be ordered from SKOR by emailing [email protected] or calling +31(0)20 672 25 25. The standard edition costs €12.50 and the limited edition €50.

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Publisher: Port of Rotterdam Authority and SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space, Amsterdam)
Publication date: 5 February 2010
Graphic design Portscapes: Ben Laloua/Didier Pascal with Marius Hofstede, Rotterdam.
Design various artists contributions: Edauw Design, Koudekerk aan den Rijn
Format: 33x27cm, box (green for the standard edition, white for the limited-edition)
Weight: c.900g
Print run: 800 copies of which 100 are limited editions
Project texts: Latitudes and Theo Tegelaers

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'Portscapes' was 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 – the extension to Europe's largest seaport and industrial area by 20%. + info

PinchukArtCentre has invited Latitudes as one of a number of international non-profit arts organisations acting as platform partners, who will support the Prize by communicating with artists and arts professionals in their regions.

We just opened a Latitudes' YouTube Channel with ten 'behind the scenes' videos from 'Portscapes', the evolving series of art projects presented and produced throughout 2009 in and around the port of Rotterdam. The videos present short interviews with the artists (Lara Almarcegui, Jan Dibbets (part 1 and part 2), Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Ilana Halperin, Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller, Paulien Oltheten, Jorge Satorre, Hans Schabus) and an introduction to the project by SKOR curator Theo Tegelaers and Ria Haagsma, Senior Communications advisor of the Port of Rotterdam Authority.

Latitudes' YouTube Channel also includes documentation of an action with Lawrence Weiner in the context of his 2008 Fundació Suñol exhibition 'THE CREST OF A WAVE' as well as Ignasi Aballí whitewashing a window for his exhibition 'Something, or nothing' in the Suitcase Art Projects, Beijing.

The inaugural Portscapes project took place a year ago on Sunday 8 February with the filming of a new version of Jan Dibbets' 12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective, newly titled 6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective.

Dibbets realised the original version of this classic work on the Dutch coast near Zandvoort in February 1969 and this 'second attempt' (the artist rejects the notion of a ‘remake’) was shot forty years later to the month, in February 2009 on a beach that will disappear with the construction of Maasvlakte 2. The eight minute film was premiered in the FutureLand visitor centre every Sunday during June 2009 and was screened on loop in New York, during Latitudes' participation in the non-profit festival 'No Soul for Sale' (24–28 June).

6 Hours Tide Object... records the drawing of a trapezoid shape in the sand during low tide using a bulldozer which drives back and forth along the beach. The shape consequently appears as a rectangular ‘frame’ in the resultant film due to the angle of perspective distortion in being shot from an elevated platform. Subsequently, the incoming tide washes it away. A formalistic reflection on geometry, representational illusion and the camera-’eye’, Dibbets reasserts the freshness of this fleeting filmed action with no hint of nostalgia. Within the context of the development of Maasvlakte 2 the work allows our fresh interpretations: concerning the physical modification of Dutch coastline, or new perspectives of construction, destruction and change, for example.

Watch the 'making of' by Olaf Schuur.
6 Hours Tide Object... was produced in the context of 'Portscapes', an accumulative series of ten new commissions by initiated by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice and financial support from SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) curated by Latitudes, Barcelona.

An exhibition is currently on view at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen with the resulting works realised throughout 2009. On view until 25 April 2010 - free entrance.

Marjolijn Dijkman, 'Here be dragons' (2009), image presented on a billboard. The second part of her project, the film 'Surviving New Island' (2009–10) will be premiered during the exhibition.



'Portscapes'
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
30 January–25 April 2010. Reception: Friday 5 February, 8pm.
Free entrance
Project website: www.portscapes.nl
Projects chronology: http://www.dipity.com/latitudes/PORTSCAPES
 
Works by Lara Almarcegui (Spain/Netherlands), Bik van der Pol (Netherlands), Jan Dibbets (Netherlands), Marjolijn Dijkman (Netherlands), Fucking Good Art (Netherlands), Ilana Halperin (US/Scotland), Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller (Switzerland), Paulien Oltheten (Netherlands), Jorge Satorre (Mexico), Hans Schabus (Austria), as well as work by the website collaborators Maria Barnas (poetry) and Markus Miessen (interviews).

'Portscapes' will present the results of works commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam realised throughout 2009 by 10 (inter)national artists on the occasion of the beginning of the construction of Maasvlakte 2 – the 2,000-hectare land supplementation project to extend Rotterdam's port, Europe's largest seaport and industrial area. 'Portscapes' has encompassed new projects of various scales under the leitmotif itineraries and destinations – artist-led tours, film screenings, billboards and the production of film and photographic works, audio-guides, radio broadcast and field guides. + info...

The films by Rotterdam-based artists Bik van der Pol and Marjolijn Dijkman, 'Facts on the Ground' (2009–10) and 'Surviving New Land' (2009–10) respectively, will be presented for the first time coinciding with the exhibition.

Overtreders W, the designers of the exhibition, have created semi-transparent display structures for the museum’s Richard Serra Hall, using industrial materials based on the format of cargo containers.

A catalogue (€12,50) and a special-edition catalogue (€50) designed by Ben Laloua/Didier Pascal is co-published by SKOR and the Port of Rotterdam Authority on the occasion of the exhibition. The special-edition includes filmed interviews with the artists as well as the DVD of '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009), the film produced by Jan Dibbets for 'Portscapes'. Publication available at the Museum Boijmans's shop or can be ordered via SKOR by writing to [email protected] or calling +31(0)20 672 25 25


Press enquiries: Nienke van Beers, Tel: +31(0)20- 672 25 25, [email protected]

www.LTTDS.org

-Redesigned and wider navigation interface with a drop down menu replacing the previous floating menu bar | Interfaz rediseñada, amplia navegación con un menú desplegable que sustituye a la barra de menú

-Full integration with Latitudes' flickr photos – all website galleries are now embedded from flickr. Improved 'Newsletter archive' and 'Press' pages | Integración completa de las galerías de fotos con los álbums en flickr. Nuevo diseño del archivo newsletters y de la página prensa

-Streamlined 'Projects' navigation – 'Conferences, Talks and Residencies' have been moved out of 'Projects' into an expanded 'About' section | Mejora de la sección 'Proyectos': 'Conferencias, charlas y residencias' se han movido a una nueva y ampliada sección bajo 'Acerca de'

- iPhone/Touch/Android enabled, and for the technical or typographically minded, the website now features embedded webfonts for titles! – to see these, you'll need at least Firefox 3.5; IE 4; Safari 3.1; or Chrome 3 | La nueva web es compatible con la navegación en iPhone, Touch o Android, y para los más técnicos o amantes de la tipografía hemos integrado webfonts en los títulos (para verlo necesitarás Firefox 3.5, IE 4, Safari 3.1 o Chrome 3).

Jorge Satorre's project for Portscapes had its beginnings in the eastern part of the Netherlands with a 3-tonne gneissic granite rock from the Svecofennian age, approximately 1.9 billion years ago. Following the artist’s fascination with the environmental compensation practices being instigated alongside the construction of Maasvlakte 2, his project consisted of returning the rock to where it once came from in Sweden – an act of synthetic restitution and transnational sculptural offsetting. 

The boulder has now found a permanent home at the Wanås Foundation, near Knislinge in southern Sweden [1]. The boulder was transported from Erica, in the northeast of The Netherlands, to Knislinge at the beginning of January (see report on the Swedish newspaper Kristianstadsbladet).


 
Not insignificantly, the celebrated Land art work 'Broken Circle' (1971) by Robert Smithson, sited in a working quarry near Emmen, incorporates such a seemingly immovable boulder at its centre. Satorre’s reverse geological gesture is also reflected in the fact that much of the existing and future sea defence in the port area will be made from rock brought from Scandinavia. The artist offers an account of the process through drawings, which incorporates both actual and imagined details. One such detail depicts an imagined protest at the beginning of the boulder’s homeward journey – see post 2 October 2009.


Jorge Satorre's project was produced in the context of 'Portscapes', an accumulative series of newly commissioned projects produced in the context of the 2,000-hectare extension to the Port of Rotterdam, the project Maasvlakte 2.

An exhibition with 'Portscapes' projects will be on view at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam between 30 January and 25 April 2010 (Reception: Friday 5 February, 20h).

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