Longitudes

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

Entrevista a Ethel Baraona Pohl, segunda en la serie #OpenCurating, beca de investigación BCN Producció 2012


 Retrato de Ethel Baraona Pohl. Foto: Marcelo Isarrualde.

"Alguien dijo 'Adhocracia'?" es la segunda entrevista de la serie #OpenCurating (leer la primera entrevista 'Beyond Interface' aquí). En esta ocasión Latitudes entrevista a Ethel Baraona Pohl, arquitecta, co-fundadora de la editorial dpr-barcelona y blogera afincada en Barcelona, y actual miembro del equipo curatorial de 'Adhocracy', exposición de la primera Istanbul Design Biennial, que inaugura el próximo 13 de octubre.

Ethel Baraona Pohl desarrolla su trabajo profesional vinculada a varias publicaciones de arquitectura y diseño. Colabora en blogs y revistas, entre los que se incluye Domus, Quaderns y MAS Context, entre otros. Ha sido invitada a presentar su trabajo en eventos como Postópolis! DF y el festival internacional de arquitectura Eme3. Co-fundadora de la editorial independiente dpr-barcelona junto con César Reyes Nájera, sus proyectos, digitales e impresos, subvierten los límites de las publicaciones convencionales, acercándose a aquellos que son probablemente los títulos de la arquitectura y el diseño en el futuro.  



ACERCA DE #OPENCURATING

  
Partiendo de las preocupaciones exploradas por Latitudes durante el proyecto editorial realizado durante 'The Last Newspaper' (New Museum, Nueva York, 2010), y basándose en las prácticas emergentes del denominado 'periodismo abierto' (Open Journalism) – que trata de mejorar la colaboración y utilizar la habilidad de cualquier persona para publicar y compartir – #OpenCurating es un proyecto de investigación que indaga cómo los proyectos de arte contemporáneo pueden funcionar más allá del tradicional formato 'exposición y catálogo'. #OpenCurating se enfoca en las nuevas formas de interacción entre los públicos – sean seguidores en red o visitantes físicos – con obras de arte, su producción, exhibición y su contexto discursivo.

El proyecto se estructura a partir de tres elementos: una serie de diez entrevistas a comisarios, artistas, periodistas y expertos online publicada en una edición digital gratuita, una discusión en Twitter moderada por el hashtag #OpenCurating y por último, un evento que tendrá lugar en Barcelona (fecha por determinar).
 
#OpenCurating es el proyecto ganador de la primera convocatoria BCN Producció 2012 en la categoría de investigación, otorgada por el Institut de Cultura de Barcelona.

Síguenos en Twitter: #OpenCurating
 







Content partner: Walker Art Center

 




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Inauguración de 'Incidentes de viaje' & 'Proyectos 2005–2012' en La Sucursal, Casa del Lago, México DF, 27 de septiembre 19:30h



Alongside 'Projects 2005–2012' – a visual index of the thirty projects of Latitudes realized since 2005 – Latitudes has originated 'Incidents of Travel' from its temporary office in Casa del Lago's La Sucursal. Artists Minerva Cuevas, Tania Pérez Córdova, Jerónimo Hagerman, Diego Berruecos, and Terence Gower have been invited to develop day-long tours for Latitudes, articulating the city and their artistic practice through routes and waypoints in the metropolitan area. Documented and mapped in La Sucursal, the project aims to explore the chartered itinerary as a format of artistic encounter with the capacity to bypass the convention of the studio visit through highly specific views of the city. 

Minerva observing the murals by Marion Greenwood at the Mercado Abelardo L. Rodríguez.

 View from Minerva's studio roof (Torre Latinoamericana on the horizon).

Browsing the 'Mexican Art Section' at a bookstore on Calle Donceles.

The route proposed by Minerva Cuevas focused on the concept of the public and its socio-economic associations. The tour began in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, continued to the Tepito and Lagunilla neighbourhoods, and from there visited nearby markets, public squares in the historic centre of Mexico City. It concluded with a visit to the Torre Latinoamericana, a symbol of modernity of the city in the 1950s. Throughout the course of the journey, rural elements that constitutes an integral part of the city are highlighted.

  Exploring Insurgentes with Tania Pérez Córdova and photographer Eunice Adorno.

 Browsing Av. Insurgentes's lottery stands, copy & pawn shops, wedding outlets, tacos stands...

View of nearly collapsing 19 floor "Canadá" building on Av. Insurgentes.

The tour proposed by Tania Pérez Córdova traced the route of a stretch of Avenida de los Insurgentes – the longest avenue of Mexico City which extends from the Mexico-Pachuca to the Mexico-Cuernavaca highways. The tour focused on certain points up and down this thoroughfare, becoming a mental journey with the daily commute of the artist as its starting point.
Av. Universidad 1601. When Miguel de la Madrid left the Mexican Presidency in 1988, this apartment block was fitted with angled concrete blinds in order to block residents' views of his garden and house across the road.


Tacos of maciza (like pulled pork) and chicharrón (fried pork rind) made by Don Tomás at El Venadito, Avenida Universidad near the corner of Miguel Angel de Quevedo.


Murals and canvases on "Freud, the revolution and its elements" by Vlady at the Biblioteca Nacional Lerdo de Tejada. The library gathers the archive of the Secretaria de Hacienda y Crédito Público. Its collection is one of the most important archives in Latin America dating from the 18th Century onwards and focusing on economics.  

Diego Berruecos's tour encompassed several points in the city where he found the raw material for his ongoing investigation PRI: Genealogy of a Party. The itinerary takes in the Hemeroteca of the UNAM, where he photocopied obituaries relating to the 2007 sudden death Monica Pretelini, wife of the then governor of the State of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto. From there, brunch was enjoyed at El Venadito, which, according to the artist, "serves the best carnitas tacos in the city". This is a regular spot for the artist and is next to a major building in his research, which inspired one of the most interesting branches of his artistic genealogy: the series 'Architecture of Power'. This building is located in front of the home of the recently deceased Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, 52nd president of Mexico. Finally, a visit to the Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada and the Library of Congress, and end at El Sella restaurant "which serves the best chamorro in the city".


Estación de metro La Raza - Túnel de las ciencias: a metro transfer turned into an educational experience.


 Unidad Habitacional el Rosario: a 1972 condominium with its characteristic cube-shapped 'zotehuelas' (windowless cantilevered kitchen patios).


Torres de Satélite - a 1958 collaboration between architect Luis Barragán and sculptor Mathias Goeritz in Ciudad Satélite, northern part of Naucalpan, Mexico City.

Terence Gower's tour, 'Urban Models (Zacatenco to Tlalnepantla)' looked at universalist urbanism models in the northern sectors of Mexico City. The tour started at the 1963 campus of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, an expression of order and building technology that perhaps hadn't quite arrived in Mexico at the time of its construction. The tour next visited two housing complexes: Unidad Habitacional El Rosario was from the post-war building boom that produced complexes like Tlatelolco, employing the urbanistic principals of density and land-use of Le Corbusier and the Athens Charter. The second, the Unidad Habitacional de San Buenaventura, is a recent "cookie-cutter" style private development in which identical houses are built in rows that blanket the landscape. Similar to the Politécnico scheme, these recent developments are attempts at imposing order on the chaos of Mexico City. Finally the tour visits Satélite, a low-density suburban-US style development that has generated its own unique culture. Lunch was at Solo Veracruz es Bello, and concluded with a visit to Metro La Raza.


"Copa de oro" and ivy in Casa Barragán, México.

 Colourful trajineras in Xochimilco take tourists and city residents alongside the 170km canals and chinampas (artificial islands, a vestige of Xochimilco's pre-Hispanic past).

 Black lava flow, lush greenery, concrete and red crushed tezontle at the incredible Espacio Escultórico at the UNAM. A 1978-1980 collaborative work by Federico Silva, Mathias Goeritz, Helen Escobedo, Manuel Felguérez, Hersúa y Sebastián.

Jerónimo Hagerman's visit delved into some situations, phenomena or cases in which he finds a particular, intense and emotional relationship between Mexico City, its inhabitants, with the outdoors, the wilderness and the nonhuman nature. The tour visited public and private spaces of different kinds, starting with the house-studio of architect Luis Barragán, followed by a tree invaded by ivy in colonia Polanco, the Espacio Escultórico of the UNAM, and a food tour around the chinampas (artificial islands) in Xochimilco. The day ended with a drink at Bellini, the WTC revolving restaurant which offers panoramic views of the city and a night visit to the Mercado de Jamaica.

All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org
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'Projects 2005–2012 / Incidents of Travel', La Sucursal, Casa del Lago, Mexico D.F., México, 27 September–5 November 2012

 Casa del Lago. Photo: Fabiola Iza

| UK |

Opening: Thursday 27 September, 19.30h

Latitudes has been invited to participate in La Sucursal (The Branch), one of the programme strands of Casa del Lago for which self-organised, self-funded or non-profit organisations temporarily move their offices to Casa del Lago in order to expose the cultural strategies of such forms of organisation.

Alongside 'Projects 2005–2012' – a visual index of the thirty projects realized since 2005Latitudes will originate 'Incidents of Travel' from its temporary office in La Sucursal. Artists  Minerva Cuevas, Tania Pérez Córdova, Jerónimo Hagerman, Diego Berruecos, and Terence Gower will develop day-long tours for Latitudes, articulating the city and their artistic practice through routes and waypoints in the metropolitan area. Documented and mapped in La Sucursal, the project aims to explore the chartered itinerary as a format of artistic encounter with the capacity to bypass the convention of the studio visit through highly specific views of the city.



Casa del Lago. Photo: Fabiola Iza

| ES | 

Inauguración: Jueves, 27 de septiembre, 19.30h

Latitudes ha sido invitada a participar en La Sucursal, una de las cinco plataformas que estructuran la programación de Casa del Lago en la que iniciativas autoorganizadas o sin fines de lucro, utilizan el espacio de Casa del Lago como una sucursal de operaciones, una suerte de oficina temporal, con el fin de exponer sus propias estructuras de organización. 

Junto a 'Proyectos 2005-2012' – un índice visual de treinta proyectos realizados desde el 2005Latitudes realizará el proyecto "Incidentes de viaje" desde su oficina temporal en La Sucursal. Los artistas Minerva Cuevas, Tania Pérez Córdova, Jerónimo Hagerman, Diego Berruecos y Terence Gower, desarrollarán tours de un día de duración para Latitudes, articulando su práctica artística y la ciudad a través de rutas y puntos de interés en el área metropolitana. Documentado y cartografiado en La Sucursal, el proyecto tiene como objetivo explorar la idea de itinerario como un formato de encuentro y eludir la convencional visita de estudio a través de puntos específicos de la ciudad.

+ info 


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'Beyond Interface', first interview of the #OpenCurating series, BCN Producció 2012 research grant, 2012

Photo: Courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.


'Beyond Interface' is the first interview of Latitudes' #OpenCurating project, which was awarded the first BCN Producció 2012 Research Grant. The inaugural interview was conducted with three key figures involved in the website of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, which is also the #OpenCurating content partner.

 
#OpenCurating interview with Robin Dowden, Nate Solas and Paul Schmelzer from the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Robin Dowden (Director of New Media Initiatives), Nate Solas (Senior New Media Developer) and Paul Schmelzer (Web Editor), discuss the museum's new websitewalkerart.org – relaunched in December 2011 following a two-year conceptual reboot and complete redesign. Styled as an online newspaper, the new site heralds a paradigmatic shift for innovative museum websites in creating an online platform with an emphasis on publishing while placing itself at the centre of generating conversations around content from both inside and outside the Walker’s activities. 




ABOUT #OPENCURATING

Drawing on the emerging practices of so-called 'Open Journalism' – which seek to better collaborate with and use the ability of anyone to publish and share#OpenCurating is a research project that investigates how contemporary art projects may function beyond the traditional format of exhibition-and-catalogue. #OpenCurating is concerned with new forms of interaction between publics – whether online followers or physical visitors – with artworks and their production, display and discursive context.

The project is articulated around a series of ten new interviews with curators, artists, journalists and online strategists published as a free digital edition, a Twitter discussion moderated around the hashtag #OpenCurating and a finissage event in Barcelona (date TBA).

#OpenCurating was awarded the first BCN Producció 2012 Research Grant of the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona. 









Content partners: Walker Art Center

 



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Latitudes to facilitate the Nature Addicts Fund Travelling Academy, 11–15 September 2012, organised within the Maybe Education and Public Programs of dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel

 Photo: Latitudes

[English]

Latitudes has been invited to facilitate the working sessions of the first Nature Addicts Fund Travelling Academy to be held between 11–15 September 2012, coinciding with the last week of dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel.

Fifteen European artists have been selected by the fund to discuss their work, participate in performances and guided tours by dOCUMENTA (13) artists Maria Thereza Alves, Toril Johannessen and Claire Pentecost, and attend the two-day conference On Seeds and Multispecies Intra-Action: Disowning Life on September 10 and September 15, organised within the Maybe Education and Public Programs of dOCUMENTA (13).

The artists participating in this iteration of the Nature Addicts Fund Travelling Academy are (in alphabetical order): Ackroyd/Harvey, UK; Geir Backe Altern, N; Linus Ersson, SW; Aurélien Gamboni, FR/CH; Fernando Garcia Dory, ES; Mustafa Kaplan, TU; Zissis Kotionis, GR; Julia Mandle, USA/NL; Clare Patey, UK; Erik Samakh, FR; Asa Sonjasdotter, SW/D; Elisa Strinna, IT; Mette Ingvarsten, DK.

 
 Friedrichsplatz, Kassel. Photo: Latitudes.
[Español]

Latitudes ha sido invitada a facilitar los encuentros de la primera Nature Addict Fund Traveling Academy que tendrá lugar entre el 11 y 15 de septiembre 2012, coincidiendo con la clausura de dOCUMENTA (13) en Kassel.

Quince artistas han sido seleccionados por la fundación para presentar su trabajo, participar en performances y visitas guiadas por las artistas participantes en dOCUMENTA (13) Maria Thereza Alves, Toril Johannessen y Claire Pentecost, así como asistir a los dos días de la conferencia On Seeds and Multispecies Intra-Action: Disowning Life que tendrá lugar el 10 septiembre y 15 septiembre, organizada por el Maybe Education and Public Programs de dOCUMENTA (13).

Lxs artistas participantes en esta edición de la Nature Addicts Fund Travelling Academy son (en orden alfabético): Ackroyd/Harvey, UK; Geir Backe Altern, N; Linus Ersson, SW; Aurélien Gamboni, FR/CH; Fernando Garcia Dory, ES; Mustafa Kaplan, TU; Zissis Kotionis, GR; Julia Mandle, USA/NL; Clare Patey, UK; Erik Samakh, FR; Asa Sonjasdotter, SW/D; Elisa Strinna, IT; Mette Ingvarsten, DK.


All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
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Latitudes participates in the "Readers Circle: 100 Notes–100 Thoughts" programme organised by the Maybe Education and Public Programs of dOCUMENTA (13)


| UK |

On September 9th at 19h, Latitudes will be participating in the "Readers Circle: 100 Notes - 100 Thoughts" programme organised within the Maybe Education and Public Programs of dOCUMENTA (13), for which they will be reading the publication "No. 008: Lawrence Weiner – IF IN FACT THERE IS A CONTEXT" (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2011).


| ES |

El domingo 9 septiembre a las 19h, Latitudes participará en el "Readers Circle: 100 Notes - 100 Thoughts" programme organizado como parte del Maybe Education and Public Programs de dOCUMENTA (13), durante el cual leerán la publicación "No. 008: Lawrence Weiner – IF IN FACT THERE IS A CONTEXT" (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2011).

"Lawrence Weiner – If in Fact There Is a Context" (2011)
by Lawrence Weiner
Series: dOCUMENTA (13): 100 Notizen - 100 Gedanken No. 008
English, 24 pp., 10.60 x 14.90 cm, softcover
ISBN 978-3-7757-2857-7
Buy here

All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)

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dOCUMENTA (13) artists and Latitudes

dOCUMENTA (13) continues in Kassel until 16 September 2012. Over the years we've had the pleasure to work with many of the featured artists in various ways, from commissions to symposia, to interviews. Here's a partial view of dOCUMENTA (13) through the projects of Latitudes.

Amy Balkin's work in the Friedericianum documents her attempt to have the world's atmosphere added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Latitudes presented an earlier iteration of this work, Public Smog (2004-ongoing), in Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin in 2008. She also contributed to Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook with her This is the Public Domain Project (2003–ongoing).



Amy Balkin's 'The is the Public Domain', in Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook. Photo: Robert Justamante. Courtesy: Latitudes.


Both Greenwashing and Land, Art also included the work of Maria Thereza Alves (whose work about Lake Chalco in Mexico City is included in the Ottoneum), the latter with the text 'No Brazil Without Us' by Alves, together with another dOCUMENTA (13) artist, Jimmie Durham. Latitudes also presented Alves' work 'The Sun' (2006, 5'03") in the 2008 film programme ‘A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art's Expanded Field 1968–2008', which began at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City and toured to eight more venues between April and October 2008. The film features the story of Viganella in the Italian Alps, a small village surrounded by a steep valley that does not allow any direct sunlight during the winter months. Viganella's 200 inhabitants decided to place a large computer-operated mirror at a strategic angle on the south-facing slope on the mountainside in order to reflect the sun on the village’s main piazza.

Mariana Castillo Deball – as uqbar, with Irene Kopelman – was one of the four exhibitions in Latitudes' 2009 series Amikejo at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), León, Spain: "a psychedelic chiral ecosystem, featuring hanging papier-mâché epiphyte sculptures and ... fables among non-humans and drawings of hybrid creatures”. Castillo Deball was also part of our film programme What are we going to do after we’ve done what we’re going to do next?, for The Uncertainty Principle, at MACBA, Barcelona in June 2009, a project which functioned as a 'trailer' for Sequelism Part 3: Possible, Probable, or Preferable Futures, the exhibition we curated with Nav Haq at Arnolfini, Bristol, 18 July–20 September 2009. Both the latter projects featured Castillo Deball's Nowhere was Tomorrow (2007) her film which weaves the stories of a defunct accelerating ageing machine, a sprawling fig tree and the remains of a Roman bath in Serbia. 


Mariana Castillo Deball, 'It rises or falls depending on whether you're coming or going. If you are leaving, it's uphill; but as you arrive it's downhill', 2006. 'Extraordinary Rendition', NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona, 22 March – 19 May 2007. Photo: Robert Justamante. Courtesy: Latitudes.

Extraordinary Rendition, which took place at NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona, 22 March–19 May 2007, included Castillo Deball's installation It rises or falls... (2006) in which she revisited a popular legend around the looting and transportation of the colossal stone statue of Tláloc to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City in a series of lithographs. These were presented in parallel with a selection of audio interviews with antique dealers in Amsterdam and Barcelona, who discussed their profession's role in the creation of value, and the uncertainties of the market. Roman Ondák, whose work appears in the Neue Galerie at dOCUMENTA (13) was also part of Extraordinary Rendition with the work Untitled (Traffic), 2001, as was Natascha Sadr Haghighian (whose work in Kassel can be found on a slope of the Karlsaue park), here with the short video Embargo Embargo (2003) and the sound installation Elsewhere 3 (2005/7).

Mario Garcia Torres's film Abandoned and Forgotten Land Works That Are Not Necessarily Meant To Be Seen As Art (2004) was – alongside Francis Alÿs – a part of the Latitudes' film programme A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art's Expanded Field 1968–2008, which premiered at the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico, in April 2008, before a seven-venue tour in Europe. Judith Hopf & Deborah Schamoni's Hospital Bone Dance (2005) was part of X, Y, etc.! a video programme made for Artissima 15 in 2008 which was motivated by the methodological project of Charles Fort, while an article about Emily Jacir by Greg Barton featured in The Last Newspaper (The Last Express).

Renata Lucas's work at dOCUMENTA (13) imagines a fictional monument underneath Kassel. She was one of the four artist tutors who led a week-long workshop during Campus, the unaccredited art school directed by Latitudes for the Espai Cultural Caja Madrid Barcelona in summer 2011.


'Emergencies and Risk' seminar at the Sharjah Biennial 8 symposium. Michael Rakowitz with Susi Platt (Architecture for Humanity's leading post-Tsunami reconstruction designer, Sri Lanka) and Mehdi Sabet (Associate Professor, Architecture & Interior Design, School of Architecture and Design, AUS). Photo: Latitudes.

Michael Rakowitz
led a seminar on 'Emergencies and Risk' as part of the three-day symposium Latitudes organized for the 8th Sharjah Biennial, the United Arab Emirates in April 2007. An interview with Rakowitz by MoMA Ps1 curator Peter Eleey – entitled 'We Sell Iraqi Dates' – featured in UOVO/14 Ecology, Luxury & Degradation, which Latitudes guest edited in summer 2007. (UOVO/14 also includes an article by dOCUMENTA (13) Core Agent Chus Martínez on Arturas Raila).


Lawrence Weiner's work for dOCUMENTA (13) is inscribed on the glass wall in the Rotunda of the Fridericianum "brain". In 2008, Latitudes presented a new project with Weiner in Barcelona's Fundació Suñol entitled THE CREST OF A WAVE. On 9 September 2012, 7pm, Latitudes will be reading Weiner's "008: Lawrence Weiner: IF IN FACT THERE IS A CONTEXT" as part of dOCUMENTA (13) "Readers’ Circle: 100 Notes–100 Thoughts".


  Gustav Metzger's RAF/ Reduce Art Flights. Photo: Latitudes.

Gustav Metzger's RAF/ Reduce Art Flights project was implemented and presented as part of Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin in 2008, and later included in the 2009 exhibition 'Gustav Metzger, Decades 1959–2009' at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Serpentine Gallery curator Sophie O'Brien wrote this feature on Metzger for Latitudes' project The Last Newspaper (The Last Monitor). 

During The Dutch Assembly at ARCOmadrid 2012, Kunstverein Amsterdam's 'KV Auction' event was hosted by Gabriel Lester, whose Music for Department Stores (2012) can be found (or rather listened to) in Kassel's Kaufhaus. Lester has a further work in the vast Karlsaue Park – Transition 2012 (2012) – which also hosts the work of Maria Loboda. Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, at Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, Belgium, 25 February–16 April 2011 included Loboda as one of its five artists. She presented two works which incorporated printed fabric patterns inspired by the designs of Sonia Delaunay, Lotte Frömmel-Fochler and Mitzi Friedmann-Otten. Furthermore, The Dutch Assembly at ARCOmadrid 2012 also featured Rabih Mroué as the guest of BAK, Utrecht.


Tue Greenfort, Untitled, installation of 3 transparent-sided Eurobins outside the exit ramp of Frieze Art Fair, Regents Park, London, October 2008. Photo: Latitudes

Also in the Karlsaue Park is The Worldly House, a multispecies archive project put together by Tue Greenfort. Latitudes collaborated with Greenfort on several occasions, notably for a public-realm commission in London in conjunction with the Royal Society of Arts, and through contributions to the magazine UOVO/14, the exhibition Greenwashing, and the publication Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook. The latter two projects also included works by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. (And in addition, dOCUMENTA (13) artists Francis Alÿs, Brian Jungen and Natascha Sadr Haghighian also featured in Land, Art.)

Haris Epaminonda and Daniel Gustav Cramer's work at dOCUMENTA (13) take over two floors and the attic of an office building behind the Hauptbahnhof. 'The Garden of Forking Paths', which Latitudes presented at Maisterravalbuena, Madrid, 28 May–31 July 2009, featured the duo's The Infinite Library (2007–ongoing), a seemingly arbitrary archive of spliced publications. Elsewhere in the Hauptbahnhof 'constellation' Lara Favaretto's Momentary Monument IV (2012) comprised a dramatic mass of scrap metal. Mariana Cánepa Luna's interview with Favaretto was published in UOVO 16, January 2008 (pdf here). Haegue Yang was the subject of an interview by Doryun Chong in UOVO/14, Ecology, Luxury & Degradation.


Haegue Yang on the cover of 'The Last Star-Ledger' as part of 'The Last Newspaper', New Museum, New York, 2010. Photo: Latitudes
Yang was also our cover star for The Last Newspaper's The Last Star-Ledger, as well as presenting a major installation as part of Sequelism Part 3: Possible, Probable, or Preferable Futures, Arnolfini, Bristol. (You can download a pdf of Max Andrews's 2009 essay for 'Towards Haegue Yang’s Blind Rooms', published in Haegue Yang. Symmetric Inequality / Desigualdad Simétrica, Sala Rekalde, in English or Español. Sticking with writings, you can check out Andrews's essay on Dora García for Frieze here).


Ines Schaber, Picture Mining. In The Last Newspaper's The Last Gazette, 2010. Photo: Joel Stillman.

Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri – as eXplo – spoke at the symposium Latitudes put together for 'Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change', Sharjah Biennial 8, United Arab Emirates, in April 2007. Last but not least, Ines Schaber's work at dOCUMENTA (13) explores the history of the former monastery, workhouse, and correctional facility at Breitenau. For The Last Newspaper's The Last Gazette, Schaber presented Picture Mining, her research into Lewis Hine in the context of the Corbis archive, housed in a former mine in Pennsylvania.

Read our report dOCUMENTA (13), with photos and critics' comments. Full photo tour here.



All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (unless credited otherwise in the caption)

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Latitudes' "out of office" photo album 2011–2012

This is the fourth year (see 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 posts) we say goodbye to the 2011–12 season with an 'out of office' post with some unseen and 'behind the scenes' moments lived in the past 11 months. 

Happy holidays/felices vacaciones readers! More Latitudes' via Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LTTDS) and Twitter (@LTTDS). 

– Latitudes | www.lttds.org


22 September 2011: Back to the future. transferring the mp3 file of the new anthem commissioned by Fermín Jiménez Landa onto a cassette. Images of their show here.

21 September 2011: Lee Welch and Fermín Jiménez Landa talk about their show to MUSAC's staff.

21 September 2011: Newly framed works by Lee Welch (top left) and photos by Fermín Jiménez Landa (right).

22 September 2011: Watching concrete dry (Lee Welch and Fermín Jiménez Landa's exhibition plinths/border marks).

23 September 2011: Final rehearsal of La Cena band in the Laboratorio 987 space. Opening performance of 'Himno Nacional' here.

 Permission to parade through the streets and squares of León's centre on the 24th September.

  24 September 2011: Fermín Jiménez Landa (camera) Lee Welch (video recording) the "Himno Nacional" 'pasacalles' parade around the streets of León.

 12 October 2011: Finding 'The Last Newspaper' displayed at Walter König's bookstore while browsing for nice books during Frieze Art Fair, London.

13 November 2011: Jorge Satorre fixing one of the posters of the show, before we take off to discuss his and Erick Beltráns' project 'Modelling Standard', an interview that was published in the February issue of Atlántica magazine.

January 2012: Testing, testing... 'The Dutch Assembly' programme is available for smartphones.

 18 January: "Café con...Latitudes". Informal talk with Hangar artists-in-residence. Photo: Hangar. Latitudes have been part of Hangar's Programming Committee between 2010–13.

31 January 2012: Premis GAC 2012 award ceremony at MACBA's atrium. Mariana Cánepa of Latitudes' was part of this year's jury.

2 February 2012: "...y desde el 'backstage'" (leer aquí) de Vanessa Graell en el suplemento 'Tendències', El Mundo.

6 February 2012: Demonstration to pressure politicians to change their minds about stopping the plan for the Canòdrom to be the future Centre of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. The windows were whitewashed as it is done with unused facilities.

Artists whitewashing the Canòdrom windows. 

 12 February 2012: "Mataró Chauffeur Service" mangled at Matadero, Madrid.

13 February 2012, ARCOmadrid: Installed vinyls and posters for each of the The Dutch Assembly hourly talks, readings, artists' presentations, performances, book launches, in conversations and screenings throughout the five days of the fair. See the list here (and some audio recordings). Download full programme details here.

'The Dutch Assembly' was well connected.

13 February 2012: The Dutch Assembly 'Superstructure' space by Jasper Niens and Thijs Ewalts. In the picture, choir performance 'Care' by Rory Pilgrim, presented by De Hallen, Haarlem.

16 February 2012: Latitudes introducing Ann Demeester, Director De Appel, and Nathalie Hartjes, coordinator of the Gallerist Programme at De Appel, presented a round table discussion with (left to right): Jeanine Hofland (Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam), Rebeca Blanchard (NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona) and Helga de Alvear (Helga de Alvear, Madrid) around the profession of the gallerist. Photo: Haco de Ridder.

Álvaro Calleja profiles The Dutch Assembly: "Un Puente entre dos naciones'/'a bridge between two nations" en el  ABCDArco, 16 February 2012.

February: At last...Lara Almarcegui's monograph is here! Edited by Latitudes. 

 16 March: Good morning Sharjah! Part one of the March Meeting report here.

Sharjah lunch with curator and 'El Cultural' critic, Javier Hontoria.

17 March: Latitudes' presentation on residencies (for artists and curators) during Sharjah's fifth March Meeting, which focused on 'Working with Artists and Audiences on Commissions and Residencies'. Latitudes' panel titled "Minding the Gap: the Critical Role of Smaller Organisations" had presentations by Hu Fang (Vitamin Creative Space, China) and Daniella Rose King (MASS Alexandria, Egypt), and was chaired by Samar Martha (ArtSchool Palestine, Palestine). More photos here. Photo: Posted during the conference on the Twitter account of @lamyaalsuwaidi

Glitzy souvenirs from Dubai, anyone? See more images of Dubai's trip.

 23 March 2012: Last day in the Emirates. Visiting Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, one of the world's largest mosques. Read more on our trip to the Emirates on the blog (part 1, part 2 and part 3). 

 29 March (29M): General Strike in Spain. Many more demonstrations to come...

22 April: One of this year's exhibitions highlights: Xavier Le Roy's "Retrospective" at Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona. On the finissage, children almost stole the show joining performers.


Here, father (performer) and son, perform together at the finissage.

10 April 2012: The happy moment of receiving copies of Amikejo, a book we have been working on most of last winter. See images of the book here.

31 May: Manifesta 9 curator Cuauhtémoc Medina with artist Jeremy Deller. See Latitudes' photo report of Manifesta 9.

31 May: With Lara Almarcegui while she explains her work included in Manifesta 9, Genk. (see more pictures of Manifesta 9, here).

2 June: Visit the drielandenpunt for a remote book launch. This is the apex of the triangle-shaped borders of what was Amikejo.

2 June: Friends that come to a booklaunch in a remote place, the drielandenpunt ("Three-Country Point") in Dutch, or Dreiländereck ("Three-Country Corner") in German, or Trois Frontières ("Three Borders") in French." More images here. Photo: Klaas van Gorkum

 6 June 2012: Welcome to Germany! Brussels–Kassel train journey. A little German snack at Köln's Hauptbahnhof.

 6 June: A German, a Dane and an English man meet and greet in a square. (gallerist Johann König, artist Tue Greenfort and Max Andrews' of Latitudes in Friedrichtplatz, Kassel). See Latitudes' documenta (13) photo report here.

7 June: Launch of Maria Loboda's book at Karlsaue Park with music, smoke, and a pyramid of ice with 750 litres of champagne. See Latitudes' documenta (13) photo report here.

9 June: "Spain is dead" sign posted opposite Kassel's Fridericianum the day Spanish Ministry of Economy De Guindos, announced the financial "bailout".

8 June 2012: Chance meeting with Mr Weiner and Mr Weiner's tote bag in Kassel, good memories of our 2008 'The Crest of a Wave'.

15 June: Visiting lecturers, Máster en Arte, Museología y Crítica Contemporáneas, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. The session was preceded by an evening conference at CGAC on "The Curatorial Contract: Analogies and Case Studies". Photo: Pedro de Llano.

 16 June: Almejas, berberechos and cold beer in Santiago de Compostela. Galicia calidade! 

 19 July: iPad-photo-documenting Haegue Yang's piece produced for "Sense and Sustainability", Urdabai Arte 2012.

  A tangle of 2012 press and work passes.

All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the caption of the photo). 

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Report from Urdaibai: commission series 'Sense and Sustainability', Urdaibai Arte 2012

All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org 

The commission series "Sense and Sustainability", curated by Alberto Sánchez Balmisa within the framework of Urdaibai Arte 2012, and organized by the Fundación 2012 Fundazioa, was launched on 19 July (info here – in Spanish) and will remain open to the public until 23 September. It comprises ten installations developed by artists: Lara Almarcegui (Zaragoza, Spain, 1972), Liam Gillick (Aylesbury, UK, 1964), Carlos Irijalba (Pamplona, 1979), Gunilla Klingberg (Stockholm, Sweden, 1966), Maider López (Donostia, Spain, 1975), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (México DF, México, 1967), Renata Lucas (Ribeirão Preto, Brasil, 1971), Oscar Tuazon (Tacoma, USA, 1975), Pieter Vermeersch (Kortrijk, Belgium, 1973) and Haegue Yang (Seoul, South Korea, 1971).

Launch of the project in the Playa de Laga. Left to right: Gunilla Klingberg, Haegue Yang, Maider Lopez, Alberto Sánchez Balmisa, Blanca Urgell (Consejera de Cultura), Renata Lucas, Carlos Irijalba and Lara Almarcegui.

The works are produced for and presented in different locations around the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve (in the Basque Country), including urban, industrial and natural spaces.

Below images of the works as we visited them, starting with Gunilla Klingberg's "A Sign in Space" at Playa de Laga, Ibarrangelua, a tide-depending 'drawing' performance that takes place on the beach on the following days: 19, 20, 30, 31st of July; 1, 2, 14, 15, 16, 30 and 31st of August and 14, 15th of September.
Gunilla Klingberg's "A Sign in Space" at Playa de Laga, Ibarrangelua.

 
Haegue Yang, "Tectonic Texture", Cantera de Andrabide, Gautegiz-Arteaga.

 Following an excerpt from the text "Stack of evidence: Haegue Yang" included in the publication "Sentido y Sostenibilidad – Reading" written by Max Andrews' of Latitudes (you can download the full text from Latitudes' writing archive).

"Yang’s project, for Urdaibai – entitled 'Tectonic Texture' – has its beginnings and the bulk of its physical and metaphorical investment in what is perhaps the most traditional of raw materials for artistic decoration and representation: stone. In particular she became interested in the characteristic stones of the Urdaibai region – including grey limestone and Rojo Ereño, which has been quarried in the region since at least Roman times. The latter, also known as Rojo Bilbao, is technically a recrystallised limestone which is a deep meaty red colour with whorls of grey and white which are the fossilised remains of rudists, bivalves which were the major reef builders of the tropical seas of the Cretaceous. Yang proposed a stack in which 80 cm square slabs of Rojo Ereño are alternated with slabs of grey limestone. Additionally, a mason from Urdaibai was commissioned to carve the top surface – a square sandstone plate, also from the region – with a combination of his own raised geometric designs and a series of engraved handprints like impressions left in wet concrete. The five handprints are intended to encourage people to touch the form and initiate a direct contact with the materiality of the stone. 'Tectonic Texture' is installed one of the few Ereño marble quarries in the region which has not been completely abandoned and is surrounded by the stagger-cut cliff faces where millennia of excavations have cut down below the forested surface. The sculptural material of which it is comprised originated from the same quarry. The depth of the quarry witnesses the vast displacement of rock that has taken place, and the steady transposition of a section of landscape which itself originated as ocean life approximately 100 million years ago into symbolic and cultural forms – buildings facades, altars and monuments distributed throughout the Basque country and beyond.

Yang’s work is a kind of non-sculpture – perhaps closer to a memorial or a secular shrine – which connects to a highly-specific local labour tradition, through the apparent paradox of a representation of stone that is itself stone. Its form might also suggest that it is a kind of column or pedestal for an invisible form on top of it – an expectant platform articulated through the reorganisation of the excess symbolic value found in the anthropogenic landscape where it stands. The location of the quarry is somewhat hidden within the landscape of the Urdaibai biosphere reserve, and approaching the work in its context evokes a quasi-mystical feeling despite that fact the area bears the scars of modern industry. With
'Tectonic Texture', Yang was particularly interested in this strange collision of industrial exploitation and managed nature inherent in the site, as well as the Urdaibai region’s pride in its ecological fecundity as a new kind of resource with political dimensions."  
 
Haegue Yang, "Tectonic Texture", Cantera de Andrabide, Gautegiz-Arteaga. Views of the marble quarry where Yang's piece is installed.

Oscar Tuazon, "Birds" is on the way up to San Pedro Atxarre from the district of Garteiz and Akorda, Ibarrangelua. It consists of a bench of Marquina stone with a radio system broadcasting live (Radio3) within a remote and highly environmentally-protected area.


Liam Gillick, "Faceted Revision Structure (Es una clase muy pobre de memoria que sólo funciona hacia atrás)", Fábrica de Astra, Gernika-Lumo. The remodelling project of this future production centre is still undergoing, and will be presented with a finissage at the end of the project.


Pieter Vermeersch, "Untitled" in the Polígono Industrial, Gernika-Lumo. As the artist has written, these two paitings "represent a mental landscape as a subjective mirror of my experience in this region."

Renata Lucas, "El Visitante", Calle de Santa Clara, Gernika-Lumo. The project involved the planting of a Sibipiruna (Caesalpinia Peltophoroides), a tree native from the artist's birthplace, Brazil, in close proximity to Gernika's oak tree.
 
 Renata Lucas presenting her work placed in front of Gernika's oak tree.


Lara Almarcegui, "Materiales de la montaña Peña Forua", at the Antiguos Hornos de Cal, Barrio de Atxondoa de Forua. The piece consists in the calculation of the weight of the Peña Forua mountain, an active quarry, and the display of its materials in the wall of an old lime kiln.

Following an excerpt from the text included in the publication "Sentido y Sostenibilidad – Reading" written by Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes (you can download the full text from Latitudes' writing archive).

"(...) (Almarcegui's) contribution to the series consisted in nothing less than the calculation of the weight of a mountain, and the display in list form of its geological composition. The Atxondo mountain is covered by Cantabrian holm oak and was known to be mostly composed of limestone, with small percentages of clay and sandstone. Once a more detailed geological analysis was concluded, a complex series of calculations took place in collaboration with geographers and speleologists which followed a 3D modelling of the mountain using the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) technique. This calculated physical volume using algorithms and mathematical formula. The final numbers were then broken down into a simple list of each of the materials which comprised the mountain followed by their weights. This list of geological composition is finally displayed within the site itself, on the wall of an old lime kiln in a nearby abandoned quarry, so that the visitor can firstly observe the staggering mountain, navigate its perimeter, before later reading its geological composition expressed in numbers. During the difficult pre-process to the final form of the work, Almarcegui and her collaborators faced two particular challenges. Firstly, the decision as to where Atxondo actually begins and ends. Secondly, the difficulty of calculating volume in a geographical site that has many internal and external chasms and caves.  

Almarcegui deliberately chose to focus her contribution in a site of continuous change. The mountain is being eaten away through the actions of an active quarry, Forua, which is dynamited in order to extract limestone, a sedimentary rock mainly used as a building material or as aggregate for the base of roads. Some of the limestone is processed directly on site where it is turned into gravel and then taken to a facility 5 km away near Gernika which processes it into concrete. It is in this process that we can appreciate a destruction and construction cycle as it loops: the mountain becomes limestone which becomes construction material. During her investigations, Almarcegui discovered that the quarry is now exploited less frequently due to the “brick crisis”. The building sector is one of the hardest hit industries in the current Spanish recession, and the raw materials are simply no longer in high demand. The effects of the economy are therefore clearly translatable into the terms of landscape and ecology: the mountain's transformation and the pace of its destruction, goes hand in hand with the growing or bursting bubble of the construction industry."

 Almarcegui presenting her project to visitors that joined the public presentation.
View of Lara Almarcegui's site in the old lime kiln of Atxondoa, Forua - also via photosynth.

Carlos Irijalba, "High Tides", Refuge in Paresi, Busturia. Irijalba's installation in this former Republican school is an investigation of a physical terrain: the result of a geotechnical drilling that Irijalba undertook on the parking lot of the former weapon factory of Astra in Gernika. 
View of Mundaka from the Refugio in Paresi, where Carlos Irijalba's work is displayed.

Maider López, "In Situ", Nine different locations around Urdaibai. Below the coordinates in front of Mundaka's Town Hall, designating where to find the yellow tiles the artist has placed which indicate daily movements, crossings, activities that happen in the area.
López (standing on right) placed a yellow tile in the market in Gernika, where Rosario (standing on left) goes daily to sell products from her farmhouse. The rest of the stalls are only joining once a week on Monday mornings.
Another of Maider López points of encounter: this is the only fountain in Gernika with drinkable water and therefore becomes a busy hub for neighbours as they fill their bottles.
 The tile marks the journey made by a boat that connects Mundaka with Laida, saving people from having to make the 24km drive.

We are missing images (our camera collapsed! but managed to rescue a photo we took with a phone) of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's "Regar corazonadas", placed in the Centro de Biodiversidad de Euskadi-Torre Madariaga (Busturia). The piece consisted in an interactive hose located in the garden of Torre Madariaga. The hose has a sensor attached to the sprinkler which detects the pulse and makes the water flow following the heartbeat of the person handling it. The Biodiversity Center is also the info point from where to take a map and guide (includes GPS locations) to find the projects, and also screens a 'making of' video of the project.



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Newsletter #45 – Summer 2012


Newsletter #45
http://mad.ly/c60ad2 (in English) 
http://mad.ly/32fed2 (en Español)

Latitudes' current and forthcoming projects:

#OpenCurating, BCN Producció 2012 Research Grant, throughout 2012 + info...

Facilitators of the second Nature Addicts Fund Travelling Academy, 11–15 September, Kassel. Organised within the Maybe Education and Public Programs of dOCUMENTA (13). + info...

'Projects 2005–2012 / Incidents of Travel', in La Sucursal, Casa del Lago, Mexico City, Mexico, 27 September–5 November 2012. + info...

2005–12 Newsletters here.
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