Longitudes

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

Curso "Comisariando el presente. Teoría y práctica de la exposición de arte contemporáneo" en La Casa Encendida, Madrid

El sábado 16 de noviembre, Latitudes impartirá una sesión entorno al comisariado como parte del curso "Comisariando el presente. Teoría y práctica de la exposición de arte contemporáneo" que organizan Museology y La Casa Encendida en Madrid.

El curso tendrá lugar en La Casa Encendida de Madrid cada sábado entre el 19 de Octubre y el 21 de diciembre (excepto 2, 9 y 7 de noviembre), de 10:30h a 14:00h y de 16h a 19:30h. Para los interesados, hay tiempo hasta el 4 de Octubre para inscribirse. A continuación más información sobre los módulos que lo componen y sobre los profesionales que participarán en este curso que dirigen Tania Pardo, Sergio Rubira y Alberto Sánchez Balmisa.

"Comisariando el presente" se vinculará directamente con el programa para comisarios emergentes Inéditos. Uno de sus objetivos es la realización de un proyecto de exposición que tome como punto de partida la convocatoria de este concurso. 

Número de horas: 45 h.
Precio: 120 Euros
Plazas: 30 (con selección previa a partir de una carta de motivación)


Photo: Latitudes


COMISARIANDO EL PRESENTE 
Teoría y práctica de la exposición de arte contemporáneo

La importancia que ha adquirido la figura del comisario es un fenómeno relativamente reciente. Es una consecuencia de la progresiva profesionalización experimentada por el sector del arte contemporáneo, así como del desarrollo de los museos y centros de arte que demandan especialistas que puedan hacerse cargo de la realización de exposiciones y la programación de actividades.

Como consecuencia directa del marcado interés por esta profesión que cada vez amplia más sus límites y objetivos, La Casa Encendida y la asociación cultural Museology organizan este curso que busca acercar la teoría y la práctica curatorial tanto a profesionales como a aficionados y curiosos. El programa del curso permitirá seguir el proceso de producción de una exposición desde su concepción hasta su clausura, incidiendo tanto en aspectos teóricos como prácticos. Se reflexionará sobre la propia historia del dispositivo de exposición y sus diferentes formatos y se analizarán casos de estudio específicos y trayectorias concretas.

Comisariando el presente parte del nacimiento de la exposición con los salones de los siglos XVIII y XIX y su revisión en las vanguardias, se detiene en el estudio del surgimiento de la figura del comisario y en personajes como Harald Szeemann y Seth Siegelaub o el fenómeno del bienalismo en las décadas de los 80 y 90, para pasar a reflexionar sobre el modo en el que el comisario se relaciona con las diferentes instituciones artísticas –museos, centros de arte, galerías y espacios independientes– y plantear posibles funciones del trabajo curatorial y formas de enfrentarse a él.

El curso se divide en siete módulos: Historia, Institución, Comisariado y comisarios, Comunicación, Investigación y producción, Edición y Proyecto. Cada uno será impartido por distintos profesionales con una amplia experiencia en el objeto de estudio –artistas, comisarios, críticos de arte, profesores universitarios, directores de museos– y permitirá encontrar una suma de miradas sobre la práctica del comisariado y la figura del comisario tanto desde una perspectiva histórica como actual.



Bloque I. HISTORIA


Sábado, 19 de octubre 2013  
9,30 horas. Presentación del curso.
 

10,30–14 horas. HISTORIA I

María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco es Profesora Titular de Historia del Arte en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). Entre 2002 y 2006 ejerció la docencia en la Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. Ha colaborado con la Phillips Collection de Washington DC y con el Museo Guggenheim de Nueva York, y ha comisariado exposiciones para el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, la Fundación Mapfre, la SEACEX, la Fundación César Manrique de Lanzarote, y el Centro de Arte y Naturaleza de Huesca, entre otras instituciones. Es autora de Arte y Estado en la España del siglo XX (1989), Juan Gris (1999), Juan Gris. Correspondencia y Escritos (2008). Entre sus otras publicaciones destacan Spanish Art in New York (2004) y Buscadores de belleza (2007; 2010), ambas con Cindy Mack. Ha sido editora y autora de la primera guía oficial del Museo del Prado (La Guía del Prado, 2008), y es colaboradora habitual del suplemento Cultura/s del diario La Vanguardia, de Barcelona.
 

16,30-19,30 horas. HISTORIA II

Olga Fernández López es Profesora del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid y en el Royal College of Art de Londres. Ha sido vicecoordinadora del Máster de Historia del Arte Contemporáneo y Cultura Visual de la UAM, UCM y Museo Reina Sofía. En sus clases aborda la expansión de los formatos comisariales y sus investigaciones se centran en la especificidad del medio expositivo y sus posibilidades críticas. Entre 2001 y 2006 fue Conservadora Jefe y Jefa de Investigación y Educación del Museo Patio Herreriano de Valladolid. Ha comisariado, entre otras, exposiciones de Dora García, Jesús Palomino y Jordi Colomer. Entre sus publicaciones en torno a la práctica comisarial destacan los artículos “Comisariado y exposiciones: perspectivas historiográficas” (Exitbook, nº 17, 2012), “El fin del cubo blanco. Releyendo a Brian O’Doherty”, (Papeles de Cultura Contemporánea, nº 15, 2012), “Travesía site-specific: Institucionalidad e imaginación” (Matadero, Madrid, 2011), “Just What is it That Makes 'Curating' so Different, so Appealing” (oncurating.org). Ha codirigido el curso Colonialismo, Comisariado y Arte Contemporáneo, (UNIA-CAAC, 2012).


Bloque II. INSTITUCIÓN Y CRÍTICA


Sábado, 26 de octubre
10.30–14 horas. INSTITUCIÓN I

Glòria Picazo es Directora del Centre d’Art La Panera, Lleida, desde 2003. Licenciada en Historia del Arte por la Universidad de Barcelona. Crítica de arte y comisaria de exposiciones. Ha colaborado con museos como el capc Musée d’art contemporain de Burdeos y el MACBA de Barcelona. Imparte regularmente clases de arte contemporáneo y comisariado de exposiciones en las siguientes universidades: Universidad de Barcelona, Universidad Internacional de Catalunya de Barcelona, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia y Universidad de Zaragoza. Ha comisariado muestras como Gina Pane (Palau de la Virreina de Barcelona y Salas de la Diputación de Huesca), Orientalismos y Nómadas y Bibliófilos en el Koldo Mitxelena de San Sebastián y El instante eterno en el EACC de Castellón, así como Paisajes después de la batalla y Mediterráneo(s), en el Centre d’Art la Panera, entre otras. Ha colaborado en las siguientes publicaciones: Transversal, L’Avenç, EXIT Express y EXIT Book.

16,30-19,30 horas. INSTITUCIÓN II

Sergio Rubira es Profesor Asociado de Historia del Arte en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Es secretario académico del Máster en Historia del Arte Contemporáneo y Cultura Visual, UAM, UCM y Museo Reina Sofía. Imparte la asignatura del Crítica de arte en el Máster de Periodismo Cultural del CEU-San Pablo. Ha sido Redactor Jefe de EXIT Express (2003-2005); Director Adjunto de las tres revistas EXIT (2006-2009) y en la actualidad es Editor Adjunto de EXIT y co-director de FLUOR. Es colaborador de El Cultural de El Mundo. Ha sido co-director de las Jornadas de Estudio de la Imagen de la Comunidad de Madrid (2005-2009) y de las Jornadas Arte español contemporáneo realizadas entre la Fundación Helga de Alvear, La Casa Encendida y el MAC Gas Natural Unión Fenosa (2012-13). Desde 1999, forma parte de la oficina curatorial y agencia de producción RMS La Asociación, con la que ha desarrollado proyectos como Para todas las edades (AECID, 2012-13); Sexy Books (Matadero, Madrid, 2012); Contextos en desuso (Centre d’Art La Panera, Lleida, 2012); Sur le dandysme aujourd’hui (CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, 2010); Entornos próximos (ARTIUM, Vitoria, 2008); NIT_CASM: Madrit! Entresijos y gallinejas (Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona, 2007), y puso en marcha RMS, El Espacio (Madrid, 2010-12). Entre sus comisariados fuera de RMS La Asociación se incluyen: imaginar_historiar, con Mónica Portillo (CA2M, Móstoles, 2009); y La mirada a estratos, con Estrella de Diego (Museo de Zamora, 2003). www.rms.com.es


Bloque III. COMISARIADO Y COMISARIOS

Sábado, 16 de noviembre
10.30–14 horas. COMISARIADO I


Tania Pardo es comisaria independiente. Ha sido comisaria en MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León y responsable de Programación del espacio Laboratorio 987 (2005-2010) y Directora de Proyectos de la Fundación Santander 2016 (2009-2010). Entre sus comisariados recientes se incluyen: Sin heroísmos, por favor (Iván Argote-Teresa Solar Abboud-Sara Ramo), CA2M (Madrid, 2012); Narraçoes Fragmentadas, Galería Liebre (Madrid, 2012); Imágenes del Norte (Taxio Ardanaz y Ignacio Navas), Raquel Ponce (Madrid, 2013). Ha sido la comisaria invitada al programa EN CASA (2011-2012) de La Casa Encendida donde ha desarrollado los siguientes proyectos No School de Antonio Ballester Moreno; Vuelva usted mañana de Julio Falagán; De mi casa a La Casa de Fermín Jiménez Landa; Out of the Blue de Alejandra Freymann y Lo nuestro: From Me to You de Kiko Pérez. Ha co-dirigido las Jornadas Arte Contemporáneo Español (Fundación Helga de Alvear / La Casa Encendida y Museo Unión FENOSA). Ha sido Directora Artística de la sección ARTE INFILTRADO del Festival MULAFEST (j2012). Comisarió en ARCO 2013 el programa ARCOmadrid Collect On Line. Actualmente dirige el proyecto de visionado de porfolios CAFÉ DOSSIER organizado por el Ministerio de Cultura y el proyecto de red curatorial y fotografía sobre el colectivo NOPHOTO. Ha publicado en diversos medios especializados y colabora en el suplemento Babelia de El País.

16,30-19,30 horas. COMISARIADO II

Latitudes es una oficina curatorial independiente iniciada en abril de 2005 por Max Andrews y Mariana Cánepa Luna, que trabaja en un contexto internacional desde y en Barcelona, España.
Latitudes inicia y desarrolla proyectos de arte contemporáneo en asociación con instituciones y colabora con artistas en producciones que abarcan varias formas de organización y escala: géneros de display; proyectos editoriales; modos de reunir, organizar y programar; así como contextos teóricos e interpretativos. Entre sus proyectos se incluyen: 'Lawrence Weiner – La cresta de una ola', Fundació Suñol, Barcelona (2008); 'Portscapes', serie de diez proyectos en el espacio público del Puerto de Rotterdam, Países Bajos (2009) y la participación en las dos ediciones 'No Soul For Sale: A Festival of Independents' (X Initiative, Nueva York, 2009, y Tate Modern, Londres, 2010). Latitudes fue una de las organizaciones asociadas en la exposición 'The Last Newspaper' en el New Museum, Nueva York (2010–11) y fueron comisarios invitados de 'Amikejo', la temporada 2011 del Laboratorio 987, el espacio proyectual del MUSAC, León. En el 2012 comisariarion 'The Dutch Assembly', un programa de treinta eventos con la participación de instituciones y artistas de los Países Bajos convocados en ocasión de ARCOmadrid 2012. Recientemente, Latitudes inició el proyecto 'Incidentes de viaje' en México DF (2012) y Hong Kong (2013) en el cual artistas desarrollan visitas guiadas de un día. www.lttds.org

Bloque IV. COMUNICACIÓN Y PÚBLICOS.

Sábado, 23 de noviembre
10.30–14 horas. COMUNICACIÓN I


Pablo Martínezes responsable de Educación y Actividades Públicas del CA2M y profesor asociado de Historia del Arte. Facultad de Bellas Artes de la UCM. Trabajó entre 2002 y 2004 en el departamento de educación del Museo Patio Herreriano de Arte Contemporáneo Español y desde el año 2004 hasta el 2009 fue coordinador de los Programas Públicos del departamento de educación del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Ha participado en numerosos foros nacionales e internacionales sobre educación y arte contemporáneo (Maestría en curaduría de la Universidad Nacional de México, Jornadas DEAC, La Recoleta de Buenos Aires, Thyssen Bornemisza, Musac, Kiasma…) y ha publicado en numerosas revistas y publicaciones. Ha disfrutado de estancias e intercambios profesionales en el Bronx Museum of the Arts de Nueva York y Tate Britain y Liverpool y ha desarrollado proyectos conjuntos financiados por la Unión Europea con Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Centre Georges Pompidou y Kiasma. Es miembro de Las Lindes, grupo de investigación y acción sobre educación, arte y prácticas culturales. Ha comisariado numerosos ciclos de cine y dirigido cursos, jornadas y talleres vinculados con la creación contemporánea. Ha codirigido las XIX y XX Jornadas de Estudio de la Imagen con Vincent Meessen y recientemente ha co-editado junto a Yayo Aznar Arte Actual. Lecturas para un espectador inquieto.
 

16,30-19,30 horas. COMUNICACIÓN II

Bea Espejo es crítica de arte y responsable de la sección de arte de El Cultural, suplemento del periódico El Mundo. Ha escrito para catálogos y revistas especializadas y ha comisariado exposiciones. También ha trabajado en la edición de publicaciones y ha impartido cursos de crítica de arte. De 2002 a 2008 fue colaboradora habitual del suplemento Cultura/s de La Vanguardia. De 2002 a 2007 formó parte del equipo de la Galería Estrany-de la Mota (Barcelona) y de 2007 a 2008 del de Urroz Proyectos (Madrid).

Bloque V. INVESTIGACIÓN Y PRODUCCIÓN

Sábado, 30 de noviembre

10.30–14 horas. INVESTIGACIÓN I

Cabello/Carceller (Helena Cabello/Ana Carceller) comienzan a trabajar conjuntamente a principios de los años 90. Desde entonces compaginan el desarrollo de sus proyectos artísticos con la investigación, la escritura y el comisariado. Su trabajo parte de la deslocalización del sujeto contemporáneo y del cuestionamiento de las políticas de la representación. Una selección de las exposiciones colectivas incluye: Genealogías feministas, MUSAC (León); Ficciones y Realidades, MMOMA (Moscú); BB4 Bucharest Biennale: On Producing Possibilities; Bienal Latinoamericana de Artes Visuales, Curitiba (Brasil); Nuevas Historias. New View of Spanish Photography, Stenersen Museum (Oslo) e itinerancias; re.act feminism. A Performing Archive, Akademie der Künste Berlín e itinerancias; The Screen Eye or The New Image, Casino Luxembourg; Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum, Nueva York, o Cooling Out, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork (Irlanda). Entre sus últimas individuales destacan: MicroPolíticas, MicroPoéticas, Sala La Patriótica/CCEBA, Buenos Aires; Off Escena; Si yo fuera…, Matadero Madrid; Archivo: Drag Modelos, Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona, y CAAM, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; Suite Rivolta, Galería Elba Benítez, Madrid, o A/O (Caso Céspedes), CAAC de Sevilla. Conjuntamente han comisariado exposiciones como: Permiso para hacer la Revolución, Off Limits, Madrid, 2012; Presupuesto: 6 euros. Prácticas artísticas y precariedad, Off Limits, Madrid, 2010 y Supermarket Art Fair, Kulturhuset, Estocolmo, 2012, o Zona F. Una exploración sobre los espacios habitados por los discursos feministas en el arte contemporáneo, EACC, Castellón, 2000.
 

16,30-19,30 horas. INVESTIGACIÓN II

Eva González-Sancho ha sido directora y comisaria del Frac Bourgogne (Dijon, Francia) entre 2003 y 2011 y de Etablissement d'en face projects (Bruselas, Bélgica) de 1998 a 2003, así como profesora de Historia de las exposiciones en la Universidad de Metz de 2001 a 2004. Actualmente forma parte del equipo curatorial de Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) 2013. Sus intereses han girado principalmente en torno a las numerosas cuestiones que plantea el espacio público, así como en torno a la percepción y a la función del espacio, como muestran las exposiciones que ha comisariado tanto en Francia como en otros países, con artistas como Guillaume Leblon, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Lara Almarcegui, Jonas Dahlberg, Katrin Sigurdardottir, Knut Åsdam, Peter Downsbrough, Gaylen Gerber, Rita McBride, Koenraad Dedobeeleer, y también en las adquisiciones de obra para la colección del Frac Bourgogne de Francis Alÿs, Jordi Colomer, Henrik Håkansson, Marcelo Cidade. En relación con esta principal área de investigación, sus proyectos también tratan de la relación con el lenguaje a través de obras de arte que forman parte integrante de un cuestionamiento más amplio sobre las condiciones y formas de auto-percepción y de toma de conciencia en un lugar determinado, y sobre las posibles lecturas de la historia tal como se muestra de distintas formas en las obras de Imogen Stidworthy, Frances Stark, Stefan Brüggemann. Dora García o Matthew Buckingham. Define su trabajo curatorial como aquél centrado en prácticas artísticas no-autoritarias, en otras palabras, aquéllas que ofrecen al público un margen muy amplio de maniobra e interpretación, enfoques no espectaculares que reconocen el protagonismo de los espectadores, su propia individualidad, y responsabilidad.

Bloque VI. EDICIÓN

Sábado, 14 de diciembre
10.30–14 horas. EDICIÓN I


Alberto Sánchez Balmisa es crítico de arte y comisario de exposiciones, desde 2003 se encuentra vinculado al grupo editorial EXIT Imagen y Cultura, donde ha sido redactor jefe de EXIT Express (2005-2011) y director de EXIT Book (2005- actualidad). Es autor de más de una centena de ensayos y artículos en publicaciones especializadas. Entre sus proyectos curatoriales se cuentan Una fábrica, una máquina y un cuerpo… Arqueología y memoria de los espacios industriales (Centre d’Art La Panera, 2009 y Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, México DF, 2010); Periferias (Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2009 y Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, Móstoles, 2010, junto a Rosa Olivares); Sentido y sostenibilidad (Reserva de la Biosfera de Urdaibai, País Vasco, 2012); Esse est percipi (Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, Móstoles, Madrid; y Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, MACBA, 2013). En la actualidad prepara los XXIV Circuitos de Arte Joven de la Comunidad de Madrid (Sala de Arte Joven, Madrid, 2013).
 

16,30–19,30 horas. EDICIÓN II

Roberto Vidal es diseñador editorial y comisario independiente. Ha realizado proyectos curatoriales, educativos y de diseño con administraciones públicas, centros culturales, galerías de arte e institutos de diseño. Entre los últimos destacan la dirección de los Proyectos Fin de Estudios Artes Visuales 2013 en IED Madrid, el comisariado de los Premios Injuve 2012, en la modalidad de diseño. En la actualidad, dirige la plataforma de comisariado editorial RV.PAPERS. www.robertovidal.com

Bloque VII. PROYECTO

Sábado, 21 de diciembre
10,30 horas–14 horas. PROYECTO


Tania Pardo, Sergio Rubira y Alberto Sánchez Balmisa.


http://www.museology.es


This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter
All photos: Latitudes (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
Stacks Image 39


Two 'Portscapes' films presented in 'Scenographies', an exhibition at SMBA in Amsterdam

Still from Marjolijn Dijkman's "Surviving New Land" (2009). 
Courtesy of the artist and SKOR | Foundation for Art in Public Space.
 
Two of the films produced for 'Portscapes', the year-long programme of public art projects in the Port of Rotterdam curated by Latitudes back in 2009, are currently screened as part of the exhibition 'Scenographies'. The show, curated by Clare Butcher for SMBA Amsterdam, is "a dynamic exhibition programme based around the archive of SKOR | Foundation for Art in Public Space." On view until 16 November 2013, artists and artists' collectives will approach the legacy of SKOR, the former institution that realized more than a thousand projects in public space in the Netherlands over the past three decades.

The selected films are those by Dutch artists Jan Dibbets ("6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective", watch the making of part 1 and part 2), and Marjolijn Dijkman's "Surviving New Land" (watch a low res view here), and are screened between 3-16 October as part of the larger film programme "Constructed Sceneries" curated by High& Low Bureau (Yael Messer and Gilad Reich).

On Saturday 3 October at 8pm, High& Low Bureau will talk about their practice in relation to the subjects in the film programme. They will be joint by 'Scenographies' curator, Clare Butcher.

+ info:
Photos of Jan Dibbets' film here
Photos of Marjolijn Dijkman film here.
Info on the exhibition 'Scenographies', here (as a pdf)
Portscapes website.

 Production of '6 Hours of Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009) by Jan Dibbets. Photo: Paloma Polo / SKOR.

This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter
All photos: Latitudes (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Stacks Image 39


Barcelona inaugurates the 2013–14 season with a new art map

Asociación de Galerías
de Arte Contemporáneo
Art Barcelona - See more at: http://www.artbarcelona.es/es/directorios.html#sthash.iopEshqs.dpuf
Asociación de Galerías
de Arte Contemporáneo
Art Barcelona - See more at: http://www.artbarcelona.es/es/directorios.html#sthash.iopEshqs.dpu
Map with suggested route available on the Circuit de l'Art Contemporani website 

Habemus gallery listings!

Barcelona inaugurates the 2013–14 season with new signage and gallery map. The itinerary, presented yesterday to the media, suggests a route from west to east of the city, from Montjuïc's Fundació Miró to Sant Andreu's Fabra & Coats - Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, via most of the contemporary art galleries that concentrate in the city centre. Besides the online and physical map, visitors will find two-metre high poles crowned with a pill (galleries marked in pink; museums, foundations and art centres in blue) placed at the entrances of each venue offering additional information (via QR codes and contactless device) about the adjunct venue (exact address, opening hours, website). 

Promoted by Art Barcelona (Gallery Association of Contemporary Art) the 240,000 Euro initiative maps out 26 galleries and 11 art centre locations as well as a calendar of events and openings, both in English (30,000 copies have been printed) and Catalan (20,000 copies) updated quarterly. On a second phase there will be a mobile app with additional information on the artists and programming.



 Detail of the information given in one of the poles marking a gallery location.

Although the map is quite comprehensive, it is a shame that after years of waiting for an initiative of this kind that matches that of cities such London, Berlin, New York, Amsterdam or Glasgow, to only mention a few, other Barcelona galleries such as etHALL, production and studio facilities like Hangar, artist-run and independent spaces such as Halfhouse, Homesession or A*Desk amongst others, are not represented in the listings. Neither are city or government-funded spaces such as Sala d'Art Jove, Can Felipa or Sant Andreu Contemporani. Adding them to the 'official' map (which is part-funded by the city and the Catalan regional government) would not only help in offering a more textured panorama of the city locating private and public spaces but would also instigate a much-needed generosity from top-down and show the city willingness to share its promotional tools.

On a final note, it is perhaps curious that Arts Santa Mònica [formerly the Centre d'Art Santa Mònica (CASM)] is missing. Yet as the new General Director of Creativity and Cultural Companies Jordi Sellas, recently announced the reorientation of its programming to become "a centre of activity more than an exhibition space" (...) "a radar for new cultural tendencies", it is perhaps a final confirmation that what used to be Barcelona's kunstverein is no longer recognisable as a venue of contemporary art (see this blog post). 

Downloadable map with suggested routes here.

Programming here. Includes addresses, listings and forthcoming openings and events.



This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter
All photos: Latitudes (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
Stacks Image 39


Report from New York: Gramcsi Monument, visiting critics at ISCP, Carol Bove at The High Line and galleries route

Visiting Thomas Hirschhorn's "Gramcsi Monument", a project produced by Dia Art Foundation at Forest Houses, in the south Bronx. Some recent articles on the project are available via Artfagcity's "How Do People Feel About the Gramsci Monument?" and a summary with more reviews via the Gallerist.
 

On the September 4 and 12 we were 'visiting critics' at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The first round included seven visits to the studios of Sofie Thorsen, Niko Luoma, Ramiro Chaves, Mojé Assefjah, Shigeyuki Kihara, Javier Barrios and Tobias Dostal. In the second round (12 visits), we visited Paulien Oltheten (participant in our 2009 project "Portscapes"), Henrjeta Mece, Deva Graf, Bernard Williams, Hugues Reip, Ruth Campau, Tricia Middleton, Savas Bovraz, Sasa Tkacenko, I-Chen Kuo, Mónica Ferreras and Petr Sprincl and collaborator Marie Hájková. A selection of images below.

Back in 2006, Max Andrews of Latitudes edited the publication and wrote the catalogue essay for an exhibition at Victoria Miro Gallery in London of Danish artist John Kørner, also a current resident at ISCP.


(Above) Studio visit with Danish-born, Vienna-based artist Sofie Thorsen.
 (Above) Studio visit with Finnish artist Niko Luoma.
 (Above) Studio visit with Argentinian-born, Mexico City-based artist Ramiro Chaves.
 (Above) Studio visit with Dutch artist Paulien Oltheten.
 (Above) Studio visit with Kurdish-born Turkish-based artist Savas Bovraz, recipient of the 2013 Victor Fellowship of the Hasselblad Foundation.
(Above) Studio visit with Chicago-based artist Bernard Williams.
 (Above) Studio visit with Berlin-based artist Tobias Dostal, creator of this magic trick
you'll be amazed!
  (Above) Studio visit with Canadian artist Tricia Middleton.

On September 11, we joined a tour along the northernmost part of The High Line (the as yet unopened section from 34th to 30th street). Alongside Carol Bove's works (read New Yorker review here), and despite the infernal temperatures, there were amazing views of New York's midtown, soon to disappear with the forthcoming construction of Hudson Yards

 

On Friday 13, we visited a few Chelsea galleries, starting at 18th street with a bombastic show by Matthew Day Jackson show at Hauser Wirth. A concise review of the exhibition in this New Yorker article.
(Above) Ho Chi Minh City and Los Angeles-based collective The Propeller Group at Lombard Freid.

(Above) An overview of the 1960s–2000s work by the late John McCracken occupied David Zwirner's spaces.
(Above) Phil Collins at Tanya Bonakdar.


 (Above) "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream" a cross-generational group show with works by Ed Ruscha, Alex Israel, Alex Hubbard, Julie Becker, Lutz Bacher, and Rachel Harrison at Greene Naftali Gallery.


(Above) The always great Annette Kelm presents 2013 photographs at Andrew Kreps – on view until November 2nd.


(Above) Claudia Wieser's mirrors, ceramics, wooden sculptures, geometric prints at Marianne Boesky


Barbara Gladstone Gallery showed Damián Ortega's 25 twisted steel sculptures which cast the alphabet with their shadows.


At Metro Pictures, David Maljkovic's show includes the animation "Afterform" – on view until October 19.


(Above) Wonderful photographic work by Leslie Hewitt at Sikkema Jenkins – on view until 5 October. Another short view of the exhibition on this New Yorker article.


(Above) Bortolami Gallery presented paintings by Morgan Fisher based on colour swatches from a prefab house company owned by artist father.

(Above and below) Pablo Helguera's "Librería Donceles" at Kent Fine Art (210 11th Avenue, 2nd floor). "Librería Donceles" is an itinerant bookstore of 10,000 used books in Spanish, of virtually every subject, and the only Spanish-language used-book store in the city. On view until 8 November. 


In the Lower East Side, Simon Preston presented one of the best shows in town centered around the new film 'Provenance' (2013) by Chicago-born artist Amy Siegel. The 40min. the film documents the interior of homes of avid collectors in New York, London, Belgium and Paris that have furnished their homes with 1950s tables, chairs, settees and desks originally conceived by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, for several buildings in Chandigarh, India. Go see it, ends 6 October.


This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter
All photos: Latitudes (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
Stacks Image 39


Max Andrews' review of Julia Montilla's exhibition 'El "cuadro" de la "calleja"', Espai 13, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona

Below Max Andrews' review of Julia Montilla's exhibition, 'El "cuadro" de la "calleja"', presented between February and April 2013 at the Espai 13 of the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona. Text was first published in the Issue 156 of frieze.
View of the exhibition at Espai 13. Courtesy of the artist and Fundació Miró.

Julia Montilla’s exhibition documented a minor miracle: between 1961 and 1965, in the tiny Cantabrian village of Garabandal, four young girls allegedly received repeated supernatural visitations from the Virgin Mary and were entrusted with her prophesies. However, the so-called Garabandal apparitions are not recognized by the Vatican, though they continue to be championed by a sprawling network of international enthusiasts. Montilla documented the visions – or, rather, documented their documentation – stressing how the beholding of physical testimony can access a vast surplus of politics and patriarchy, belief and body language.

Montilla was not primarily concerned with debunking the girls’ visionary experiences. Instead, the exhibition’s four annotated display cases (La construcción de una aparición, The Construction of an Apparition, all works 2012–13) – containing books, magazines, proselytising pamphlets, religious journals, collectors’ postcards, slide-lecture packs sold by ‘Garabandalist’ organizations, and so on – contextualized them with a forensic attention to how they were produced and publicized through photography. The girls’ theophanies and trances could be understood, it was proposed, as site-specific performances in a post-Lourdes tradition of remote ‘scheduled apparitions’. A monitor looped a 1971 television documentary, while an overhead projector beamed a 1994 newspaper article reporting that Hollywood were set to dramatize the autobiography of Conchita, the most precocious of the ‘seers’ (three of whom left Spain for the US in the 1970s) and that Luciano Pavarotti would sing the theme. Two slideshows entitled Soportes vivientes para la fabricación de un mito (Living Supports for the Fabrication of a Myth) were accompanied by Montilla’s commentary and, along with Garabandalistas, a new publication edited by the artist, compiled dozens of archival shots of the girls’ ecstatic night-time walks, taken by various amateur and professional photographers. Staring fixedly up into the beyond, offering crucifixes and rosaries, conversing with the divine, or open-mouthed to receive invisible communion, the girls are portrayed clasping their hands together or individually writhing on the ground, stupefied by Marian divinity, and all the while seemingly oblivious to the crowds, microphones and lenses around them.

 View of the exhibition at Espai 13. Courtesy of the artist and Fundació Miró. 
 
Tracking the emergence of ‘trance photography’ as a cult genre, Montilla considered how the documentary materials themselves have acquired venerated status as certificates of veracity. The quirk that some of the projected archival images had been noticeably pixelated in their to-and-fro from print to analogue display seemed like a confession of sorts, of Montilla’s own evident hand in their ongoing dramaturgy, here in an artistic context.

In the visionary events’ shift of emphasis from the small street where the first apparition was said to have appeared, to embrace the ‘epiphanic landscape’ and pious tourism throughout the entire context of the village, Montilla’s voice-over and captions proposed how the performances conformed to the expectations of naive and spiritually pure rural life, where hoax or conspiracy would be unthinkable. Through astute bibliographic research and juxtaposition of source materials with commentary, the apparitions’ enthusiastic casting as an apocalyptic warning was shown in its entanglement with the Franco dictatorship’s demonization of Communism and the left. Furthermore, as a sign that Spain’s peasantry had been chosen as spokespeople of God without the middlemen, Montilla articulated how the folkloric fervour of the apparitions’ thronged crescendo in 1965 would have spurned the concurrent doctrinal reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

From "Soportes vivientes para la fabricación de un mito" (2013). Courtesy of the artist.
 
Yet, Montilla’s bravest and most calibrated area of enquiry intimated how the moving imagery of the girls’ rapture established a legendary motif for the performing or occupied female body as an index of radical obedience, even to the extent of self-harm. Correspondingly, the two screens of El contagio visionario (The Visionary Contagion) and Ídolos y ídolitos (Idols and Lesser Idols) showed fragments of a 1961 film of the entranced girls alongside a video shot by the artist in Garabandal in 2012, showing a muttering woman devotee supposedly in a trance herself. In urging feminist questions about Garabandalism seemingly as a form of infectious hysteria, Montilla echoes Elaine Showalter’s 1997 study Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Culture in which alien abduction and – more controversially among other case studies – Gulf War syndrome, are interpreted as fictional epidemics propagated through support groups, popular magazines, talk shows and the Internet. Whether the seers and believers of the apparitions reflect extreme symptoms of cultural anxieties and traumas, as Showalter would argue, or represent exultant communiqués from the Blessed Virgin, Montilla carefully beseeches that we must still pay attention to what they continue to tell us. 

– Max Andrews

This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption).  
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Stacks Image 39


Latitudes' "out of office" photo album, 2012–2013 season

This is the fifth consecutive year [see 2008-9, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12] we say goodbye to the season with an 'out of office' post with some unseen and 'behind the scenes' moments lived in the past months. 

Regretfully, we're not exactly off to a beach-and-palmtree holiday, just slowing down our inbox activity as well as our posts on this blog, Facebook and Twitter. 

So happy holidays/felices vacaciones dear readers!  

3 September 2012: The season started with the exciting publication of the first #OpenCurating interview with the web team of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, which became content partners of the interview series. "Beyond Interface: An Interview with Robin Dowden, Nate Solas and Paul Schmelzer" was the first of a series of ten publications which were released between September and April 2013. The compilation, gathers an array of voices and approaches around the challenges, expectations, and new possibilities that digital culture and social media present to contemporary art institutions. To what degree are curators, media teams, publishers and archivists concerned with a dialogue with their audiences? #OpenCurating has investigated these questions through how new forms of culture, participation and connectivity are being developed both on site and on line.

In 'Beyond Interface' Robin Dowden (Director of New Media Initiatives), Nate Solas (Senior New Media Developer) and Paul Schmelzer (Web Editor) of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, discuss the museum's new website, relaunched in December 2011 following a two-year conceptual reboot and complete redesign.


OC1

9 September 2012: Soon after publishing the first #OpenCurating interview, we participated in dOCUMENTA (13) series of readings based on their publications programme Readers' Circle: 100 Notes—100 Thoughts, for which we decided to read 'Lawrence Weiner IF IN FACT THERE IS A CONTEXT' (2011, Hatje Cantz). On the door steps of Fridericianum, we read Lawrence's book and played his voice reading some of the passages too. See our post on dOCUMENTA (13).


 Board announcing the 19h 'Readers Circle' event.

On the steps of the Fridericianum reading Lawrence Weiner.

11–15 September 2012: During the last week of dOCUMENTA (13) Latitudes facilitated the Nature Addicts Fund Travelling Academy, organised within the framework of the 100-days-long exhibition in Kassel, Germany. Here you can watch a summary of the week-long workshop that had 15 participants (Ackroyd & Harvey, Frédérique Aït‐Touati, Geir Backe Altern, Linus Ersson, Aurélien Gamboni, Fernando García‐Dory, Mustafa Kaplan, Zissis Kotionis, Julia Mandle, Clare Patey, Érik Samakh, Åsa Sonjasdotter, Elisa Strinna, and was punctuated by the partcipation of dOCUMENTA (13) artists Maria Thereza Alves, Toril Johannessen and Claire Pentecost.


 Im-port and Ex-port boat moared at Kassel's river Fulda. Photo: Nature Addicts Fund.

 Visiting Jimmie Durham's piece at the Karlsaue Park. Photo: Nature Addicts Fund.

Group discussion with Chus Martínez, Core Agent, dOCUMENTA (13) at the Import/Export boat. 
Photo: Nature Addicts Fund.

17 September–5 October: Installation and opening (27 September) of the two-part exhibition 'Latitudes Projects 2005–2012' and 'Incidents of Travel: Mexico City' as part of Casa del Lago's 'Sucursal' programme, 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. 'Incidents of Travel: Mexico City', consisted of the invitation to Minerva Cuevas (19 September), Tania Pérez Córdova (20 September), Diego Berruecos (21 September), Terence Gower (23 September) and Jerónimo Hagerman (24 September), and to devise one-day-long tours throughout the city. More info and photos of the five tours.


E-invite to the opening of the exhibition "Latitudes. Proyectos 2005–2012 & Incidentes de viaje" at Casa del Lago.
 Around Lagunilla with Minerva Cuevas. Photo: Eunice Adorno.
 Visiting the Hemeroteca at the UNAM with Diego Berruecos. Photo: Eunice Adorno.

Lunch with Terence Gower at Sólo Veracruz es Bello!, Tlalnepantla Centro. Photo: Eunice Adorno.

Observing an overgrown ivy and an ash in Polanco. Photo: Eunice Adorno.

 Visiting the Espacio Escultórico in the UNAM with Jerónimo Hagerman. Photo: Eunice Adorno.

Installing one of the 200+ poster pannels that composed the exhibition 'Latitudes. Proyectos 2005–2012' gathering information on +30 projects presented over the last seven years. More on Latitudes' projects here.

 Post-opening chelas with artists Jerónimo Hagerman and Jorge Satorre at the social cathedral of the artworld in Mexico DF: the cantina Covadonga. 

8 October 2012: Release of the second #OpenCurating interview. 'Alguien dijo 'Adhocracy'?' with Barcelona-based architect, co-founder of the publishing project dpr-barcelona and blogger Ethel Baraona Pohl. Ethel was a member of the curatorial team of 'Adhocracy', the exhibition of the first Istanbul Design Biennial (13 octubre–12 diciembre 2012) which later toured to the New Museum's 'Ideas City' Festival (1–4 May 2013). Read here (in Spanish) or here (in English).

OC2

17 October 2012: Mariana Cánepa of Latitudes participates in the season of talks Cultural Professions: the Curator, at the Aula de Cultura CAM, in Murcia. An initiative of the curatorial collective 1er Escalón.

Foto: Obra Social Caja Mediterráneo.

19–21 October 2012: Following on, we participated in a two-day meeting in Witte de With, Rotterdam, in preparation for Moderation(s), a year-long programme of residencies, performances, exhibitions, workshops and research initiated by Witte de With’s director Defne Ayas and Spring Workshop founder Mimi Brown, and presided over by artist, writer and curator Heman Chong.


Photos: Witte de With.

6–9 November 2012: Trip to Munich, to see Haus der Kunst's 'Ends of the Earth – Land Art to 1974' exhibition and attend the opening of Haegue Yang's "Der Öffentlichkeit" commission.


 Façade of Haus der Kunst in Munich.


Haegue Yang's "Der Öffentlichkeit" commission in Haus der Kunst atrium.


 Haegue Yang with Max Andrews discussing the installation process.

28 November 2012: Third #OpenCurating interview online. 'Itinerarios transversales' is the interview with Sònia López and Anna Ramos of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). The new web of the museum, was launched at the beginning of 2012 and includes new features such as 'Recorridos' (Itineraries), a tool that allows visitors to create their own transversal itineraries selecting amongst the five thousand works that compose the MACBA Collection, besides videos, artist entries, podcasts, publications, amongst others. Read here (in Spanish) or here (in English).
 Testing the navigation on the iPad. Looking good.

5 December 2012: Fourth #OpenCurating interview up. 'Democratizando la sociedad informacional' analyses the practice of visual artist, art theorist and web activist Daniel G. Andújar. Though the use of irony, his work has questioned the use of new communicative technologies, the democratic and egalitarian promises these media prophesy, critisising their real yet hidden intentions to control users. Read here (in Spanish).



  17 December 2013: Reached the equator with #OpenCurating. Five out of ten interviews are up and running. The fifth, 'books_expanded_field' is the interview with Badlands Unlimited, a New York-based publishing house whose motto is “books in an expanded field”. Its publications and editions in paper or digital forms (e-books for iPad or Kindle) acknowledge that “historical distinctions between books, files, and artworks are dissolving rapidly”. Read here (in English).


The Walker Art Center's web continues to support the project re-publishing the interviews on their site. Read 'books_expanded_field'.


2 January 2013: Happy New Year and happy reading. Seventh #OpenCurating interview with Steven ten Thije, Research Curator at the Van Abbemuseum, in Eindhoven. In 'From One History to A Plurality of Histories', Latitudes conversed with the researcher from one the first public museums for contemporary art to be established in Europe. Under the directorship of Charles Esche since 2004, the museum has defined itself through “an experimental approach towards art’s role in society”, where “openness, hospitality and knowledge exchange are important”. Read here (in English).


OC6_issuu

7 January–11 February 2013: Curators-in-residency at Spring Workshop, Hong Kong, as part of the above mentioned 'Moderation(s)' programme. Our residency continued the artist-led tour format we initiated in Mexico City a few months earlier. Hong Kong-based artists Nadim Abbas, Yuk King Tan, Ho Sin Tung and Samson Young were invited to develop day-long itineraries, thus retelling the city and each participant’s artistic concerns through personal references and waypoints. More info and more photos of the four artist tours.

First 'Incidents of Travel' public tour with Nadim Abbas, 19 January. Photo: Spring Workshop.

Visiting Chung King Mansions and the nearby Mirador Mansions on Nathan Road with Yuk King Tan, 24 January. Photo: Mimi Brown.


 Navigating Tai Po with Ho Sing Tung, 29 January. Photo: Spring Workshop.

 Sound tour around the Kwun Tong Industrial district, with Samson Young, 7 February.
  
The residency included participating in the workshop "A Day at the Asia Art Archive" organised in collaboration with Spring Workshop and Witte de With, Rotterdam, on 31 January and concluded on February 2, with an Open Studios during which Latitudes and Heman Chong mantained a conversation about their experience in Hong Kong and their curatorial practice. [Related posts: Read the May 2013 interview between Christina Li and Latitudes here.]


Concentrating in the archives, "A Day at the Asia Art Archive". Photo: Mimi Brown.


2 February: Open Day at Spring. Conversation between Heman Chong and Latitudes. Photo: Spring Workshop.


 During an interview and photo session for Ming Pao Weekly. Photo: Athena Wu.

19 February 2013: Public event of the #OpenCurating research at the Auditorium of MACBA, Barcelona. Latitudes in conversation with Yasmil Raymond, Curator of the Dia Art Foundation in New York. The conversation was later transcribed and published at the #7 of the series.


Yasmil Raymond during the conversation at MACBA's Auditorium. Photo: Joan Morey.

8–14 March 2013: Research trip in Dublin. Invited by Dublin City Council: The Arts Office, Latitudes visited art spaces, artists' studios and galleries in Dublin and Derry-Londonderry throughout the week. The diary included participating in the round table 'Within the public realm', alongside artist Sean Lynch and curator Aisling Prior at the Hugh Lane Dublin City Gallery [video of the talk here]; and a Curatorial talk at CCA Derry-Londonderry. During the week we were hosted by artists, curators and studio managers who took us around the Red Stables Studios; Temple Bar Gallery + Studios; Fire Station Artists' Studios; Green On Red Gallery; Kevin Kavanagh Gallery and the Project Arts Centre - Visual Arts.


Visiting Fire Station Artists' Studios. Photo: Liz Burns.


 Walk with our hosts Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh, co-directors of CCA Derry–Londonderry, around Kinnagoe Bay in Donegal, site of 1588 shipwreck of one of the Spanish Armada ships.


 Gathered plenty of material during studio visits, lunches and dinners. How do we deal with this, Ryanair?


20 March 2013: Mariana Cánepa of Latitudes visits A*Desk's HQ and talks to A*Study's partipants about some of the practical challenges that came up in recent projects, how they were negotiated and ultimately, presented.

Photo: Oriol Fondevila.

2 April 2013: Publishing the eight #OpenCurating interview, "Digression(s), Entry Point(s): An interview with Heman Chong", Singapore-based artist, writer and curator of 'Moderation(s)'. 



18–22 April 2013: Attended the first International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) congress, this year celebrated in Madrid. See more photos of the three-day event.


(Above) Symposium at the Cineteca in Matadero and (below) visit to the newly opened MediaLab Prado.

24 April 2013: Since mid-2010 we been members of the Programme Committee of Hangar Production Center in Barcelona, and have extended our mandate one more year until a new board is formed. Below a tweeted photo of a studio visit to Rasmus Nilausen' working space, during one of our periodic visits alongside other members of the Committee Joan Vilapuig, Jordi Mitjà and Àlex Mitrani.


27 May–2 June 2013: Venice Biennale week galore. We published three posts on our blog on 'The Encyclopedic Palace', the National Pavilions and Collateral Events and of the ubiquitous biennale tote bags.

After the art overdose, Venice rewarded biennale visitors with incredible sunsets between the several storms and showers that plagued the opening week.

4 June 2013: In Madrid for an in conversation with New York-based artist Alejandro Cesarco on the occasion of his solo exhibition "La noche agranda su silencio”, Parra & Romero, Madrid. 


Photo: Parra & Romero.

As far as press coverage, Stephanie Cardon of Boston's Big Red & Shiny featured a profile in September 2012 titled 'Meanwhile in Barcelona: Latitudes and #OpenCurating'. In the Autumn issue of D'ARS, Italian writer Saul Marcadent mentioned the (out of print, unfortunately) publication "LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook", Latitudes edited in 2006 in the context of other ecological-oriented projects. During our March visit to Dublin, we chatted with Anne Mullee about the (then ongoing) #OpenCurating research, the conversation was soon after published in the International section of the May-June 2013 issue of The Visual Artists' News Sheet. Also in May, writer and curator Christina Li, interviewed us for the Moderation(s) blog Witness to Moderation(s), an opportunity to look back at our January residency in Hong Kong.

In the past months, Max Andrews of Latitudes has published the following texts in frieze: 'Utopia is possible' (October 2012 issue); review of Julia Montilla's exhibition "El «cuadro» de la Calleja" at Espai 13, Fundació Miró; and forthcoming, an interview with Rotterdam-based artists Klaas van Gorkum and Iratxe Jaio also for frieze, as well as two texts on the 1979 documentary film 'The Secret Life of Plants' for the final issue of the Dutch journal Club Donny!



This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter
All photos: Latitudes (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
Stacks Image 39


Publication "A Chronology of Energy- and Art-Related Developments (2013, ongoing)" edited by Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller

Photo: Edizioni Periferia.

Last week we received a copy of the wonderful publication by Zürich-based artists Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller, with whom we have collaborated twice in the past, on the Portscapes commission series in 2009 (see photos of project here and a 'making of' video here) and on their solo exhibition 'United Alternative Energies' in 2011 in Kunsthal Århus, Denmark.  

Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller maintain the thesis that throughout history, culture and energy have been reciprocal entities: technological change determines cultural achievements and vice versa.

 Title page with contributors names. This and the following photos: Latitudes.

Their publication "A Chronology of Energy-Related Developments (2013, ongoing)" is based on the appendix of the six-volume "Encyclopedia of Energy" (2004). Its 64-page appendix sums up historical events of relevance to energy since the existence of Earth. In collaboration with 32 art historians (including Steven Jacobs, Andreas Vogel, Dorothee Messmer), curators (including Fiona Parry, Pedro de Llano and ourselves) and cultural theorists (including Yvonne Volkart, Anke Hoffmann, Rolf-Peter Sieferle) and concluding with an epilogue by Bice Curiger, former Kunsthaus Zürich's curator, the artists have supplemented the appendix (white pages) with «art-related» entries (yellow pages) in words and pictures.

Endpapers of the publication based on the appendix of the six-volume "Encyclopedia of Energy" (2004).

Latitudes contributed six entries, those of 1901 (Giacomo Balla's "Street Light"), 1956 (Atsuko Tanaka's "Electric Dress"), two entries for 1972 (Victor Grippo's "Energy of a Potato" and Gustav Metzger's "Project for Stockholm (phase 1)", ca. 1987 (Fischli & Weiss's "The Way Things Go") and 2003 (Simon Starling's "Tabernas Desert Run").


The book was made possible by a Dr. Georg und Josi Guggenheim-Stiftung 2012 grant.

Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller
182 pages, 20 x 27 cm, in two colours, linen binding
Edizioni Periferia
ISBN: 978-3-906016-24-5
CHF 38 / EUR 30

Purchase here.



This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter
All photos: Latitudes (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
Stacks Image 39


A day at Hong Kong's Asia Art Archive, 31 January 2013

A few months ago, on January 31, an 8-hour internet-free workshop took place at the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. The workshop had the objective of harvesting quotes from amongst the thousands of books, artists correspondence, articles, exhibition invitations that are available at the archive, that made reference to three main subjects: "Influence" (on references, legacy, canalisation), "Itinerary" (on events, time, place, location) or "Moderation" (on collaboration, group dynamics, strategies for participation, partnerships).  

The workshop was led by artist/writer and Moderation(s) moderator Heman Chong, together with curatorial duo Latitudes, and counted with the participation of two Incidents of Travel artists' Nadim Abbas and Yuk King Tan, as well as with Spring Workshop founder Mimi Brown and Chantal Wong, Head of Strategy & Special Projects at Asia Art Archive.

The results of these processes or 'entry points' will be presented later this year (date TBA) on a temporary shelf within the Asia Art Archive, where a host of bookmarks, Post-it notes, and jottings placed within books and documents will reveal the traces of an extended interpersonal conversation

On a related note, and following on from that experience, Latitudes mantained a conversation with the above mentioned Chantal Wong, as well as with Hammad Nasar (Head of Research and Programmes) and Lydia Ngai (Head Librarian) of the Asia Art Archive in the context of Latitudes' #OpenCurating research project. The conversation was published at the end of April, as the concluding chapter of a series of ten interviews conducted since August 2012 with artists, editors, curators, archivists and new media specialists on how the internet and the ongoing expectation for new forms of interaction between publics is changing contemporary art museums programmes. 

 
Workshop participants (left to right) Artist Nadim Abbas; curators Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes; artist, writer and Moderation(s) moderator Heman Chong, artist Yuk King Tan, Spring Workshop founder Mimi Brown; Head of Strategy & Special Projects at Asia Art Archive, Chantal Wong; and Athena Wu, Programme Manager at Spring Workshop.





View of Sheung Wan area from the Asia Art Archive. Photo: Latitudes.
A quick database search before jumping onto the bookshelves.
Reading, selecting, highlighting, noting down... Photo: Mimi Brown.
Workshop participants amongst Asia Art Archive's library stacks.
Related contents:




All photos: Spring Workshop (except when noted otherwise).
Stacks Image 39


(Part 3/3) The 55th Biennale di Venezia: National Pavilions and Collateral Events in pictures and as seen by the critics, 1 June–24 November 2013

Browsing 'The Ideological Guide' on iPad.

If you haven't been to this year's Venice Biennale and plan to go soon, download 'The Ideological Guide', a free app developed by the Dutch artist Jonas Staal. As reported in artinfo.com "the smartphone app offers information about each participating country’s 2013 pavilion, from its commissioner and curator to the sources of its funding, while also providing historical information about past pavilions, and charting that nation’s economic and political alliances with other participating countries. The app, according to its creators, shows that the Venice Biennale’s distribution of national pavilions around the city is in many ways a more accurate reflection of nations’ geopolitical position than any geographical map.

Allora. So. Let's begin with the Spanish Pavilion, not only as it's the country where Latitudes is based, but also as it's the first pavilion one encounters when entering the Biennale area, walking towards the Padiglione Centrale. Quinn Latimer
 in Art Agenda wrote: "In her discreetly powerful Spanish Pavilion, meanwhile, Lara Almarcegui also tread some familiar contemporary-art modes and ideas, though they were insistently material. And the pavilion was a natural: streaked with sunrays from the skylights above, the piles of stone, wood, glass, and dirt—the exact same amounts that were used in the building of the pavilion itself—were immediately comprehensible, inevitable, lucidly effective." [Press Release and more photos here, video interview here]

  
'Raw' mountains of the various materials that compose the very building where they were presented: the 1922 Spanish Pavilion.

Continuing with Latimer
: 

"Surrounded by Massimiliano Gioni’s larger show, the somewhat airless “Encyclopedic Palace,” with its Documenta hangover of late, and serious crush on cleanly framed taxonomies, the national pavilions’ representatives of culture and country felt antique and obvious and a mess—but also a relief. Gioni’s turning of private cosmos and personal struggle into a stylized interior design aesthetic was definitively lacking in the disordered, disparate pavilions, where taste was usually the least concern. Yet lack of taste does not always equal distastefulness, which often arises instead from an excess of the stuff. If sometimes bad taste materializes as poeticized and/or politicized kitsch (see the pavilions of Canada, the US, Israel, and, at moments, the Netherlands), other pavilions broke through the visual chatter."

On the Netherlands' presentation, Adrian Searle of UK's The Guardian commented that Mark Manders' "Room with Broken Sentence" (...) "is a sensitively conceived and quietly dramatic tableau, like the interior of a mind as much as an actual space. The human presence emerges and disappears, conjoins with furniture or is sandwiched between stacks of timbers." 

Following on from our previous post on biennale tote bags, we'd like to add that the Dutch press package gets our bravo for the most beautiful, comprehensive and effectively-designed communication materials (and what a great pavilion catalogue too, with contributions by 37 international writers invited to reflect on individual works by Manders, published by Roma Publications). The press folder includes a full-coloured booklet with beautiful installation views of the pavilion; an 8-page booklet with an interview between the pavilion curator, Lorenzo Benedetti, and the artist alongside black and white photos of the works on show and a floorplan of the exhibition; two double-sided thick card A4 postcards of the artist's work; and a copy of Manders' "fake newspapers" which also covers the entrance to the pavilion. You can see images of the materials on the website of Amsterdam-based designer Roger Willems, or read more in the website of the pavilion. Gefeliciteerd!

  
 (Three above) Installation views of Mark Manders's "Room with a Broken Sentence" (2013) at the Dutch pavilion. More photos via Contemporary Art Daily.

Latimer laments the somehow shy presentation of Valentin Carron at the Swiss Pavilion which according to her "provoked nostalgia. Bruno Giacometti’s austere, 1952 modernist idyll is one of the finest pavilions in the Giardini. If two years ago Thomas Hirschhorn [see a few photos here onwards] obliterated Giacometti’s clean lines with his overwrought, über-hoarding installation, this year Valentin Carron erred on the side of caution, hewing too close and careful to those very same lines."

 View of Valentin Carron's presentation at the Swiss Pavilion.

Despite Latimer's comments on the "disordered, disparate pavilions", Jörg Heiser was amazed to find a common thread: "Even in the national pavilions of the Giardini – which are not under any over-arching curatorial supervision, but in each case are commissioned according to very different agendas – there are numerous signs that artists are groping in the dark of the unconscious and the (supposedly) ‘primordial’: grottoes and caves all over the place, clay sculptures, enigmatic allegories, prehistoric flintstones, (pseudo-)fossil findings. Is this parallel between the curated show and the national pavilions merely coincidental or does it tell us – as it steers art away from sober abstraction, calculated boutique chic, and more straightforward forms of realist social comment – something about the current state of things, the position of art in society (and economy) at large?"

And speaking of clay figures and rocks, according to Carol Vogel Sarah Sze's 'Triple Point' spread beyond the US Pavilion, with a few merchants in Castello displaying simulations of her pieces adorning rooftops, balcones and shop windows. "Ms. Sze is asking questions of her audience: “What objects in your life have value, and how is value created?” she explained. “I wanted to show objects that we know and have seen in our bag or on the shelf of a store which have the residue of emotion... Ms. Sze, who is known for creating site-specific environments from everyday objects like toothpicks, sponges, light bulbs and plastic bottles, arrived here in a snow storm on March 28 and has been hoarding, foraging and installing ever since." [Full article here, you can also read another review here, watch a video interview with the artist or have a 360 degree virtual tour of the Pavilion].

(Above) Sarah Sze's 'Triple Point', United States of America Pavilion.


The mentioned 'spiritual turn' is also shared by Corinna Kirsch in her review in Art F City, which reads: "It seems there’s something in the air about The Encyclopedic Palace’s “dream of a universal, all-embracing knowledge” (...) Science fiction and spirituality, in particular, are present in the pavilions as well as Gioni’s exhibition, though the way these themes play out are to entirely different stylistic ends... Overall, these works are less emotional than Gioni’s; even when they’re grounded in science fiction and spirituality, they’re grounded in the concerns of the here-and-now. Simply put, Gioni’s artists tend to live in their head, and the pavilions’ artists, in the world." 

According to Kirsch, examples of this are the British pavilion with Jeremy Deller's "English Magic" [see a video of Adrian Searle visiting the pavilion], where the artist has "the grandest presentation on view of epic creation and destruction myths, and on a national scale." [Watch the full-length of the video 'English Magic' here]. Paul Teasdale went on to say that Deller delves in the "antiquated, faintly ridiculous notion of the ‘national pavilion’ and the antiquated, faintly ridiculous notion of Englishness itself that Deller is exploring. And the almost magical way in which we so quickly forget the past."

(Above) Visitors queue to have their own prints of "William Morris returns from the dead to hurl Roman Abramovich's vast yacht Luna, which blighted the waterfront beside the Giardini at the 2011 Venice Biennale, into the waves." (Adrian Searle) and of a Hen Harrier grabbing a Range Rover.

 Above: A steel-drum orchestra played A Guy Called Gerald and Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World during the afternoon of the opening day.

Moving on. The almost bare Romanian Pavilion presented a "retrospective history of Venice, with actors as breathing archives of the Biennale itself" as Kaelen Wilson-Goldie has described in her Artforum diary review. Adrian Searle went on to recommend everyone to visit "the Pavilion, where Alexandra Pirici, Manuel Pelmuş and a small group of performers restage dozens of works from the previous 54 Biennales: using nothing more than their own bodies, they act out and mime Picasso's Guernica, Hans Haacke's famous destruction of the German pavilion's floor in 1993, paintings by Modigliani, sculptures by Rodin, performances by Marina Abramović and photographs by Nan Goldin. Both homage and parody, these quick-change charades in the otherwise empty pavilion take place all day, every day. Marvellous, funny and affecting, An Immaterial Retrospective of the Venice Biennale is much more than a parlour game. It is about history and memory – and it shows that the real encyclopedic palace is not to be found in a collection of objects, but in people themselves." [see a video of Searle visiting the Romanian Pavilion, starting at min. 2.30 while the 'living sculptures' are performing a reenactment of Allora and Calzadilla's 2011 piece presented in the US Pavilion].


(Above) An Immaterial Retrospective of the Venice Biennale, Romanian Pavilion.


Above: 'Bang', a so-so installation assembled by 886 three-legged wooden stols by Ai Weiwei, at the entrance of the German Pavilion (this year housed in the French Pavilion).

More Giardini. For the Austrian Pavilion, Mathias Poledna takes us to the movies. "... to a very short movie, that is. At just over three minutes long, “Imitation of Life” should feel like a slap in the face to the hulking structure in which it sits (both literally and figuratively). But the single animated scene, which reproduces to exacting detail the process used by film studios in the late 1930s and early 1940s, is a joy. It’s simple, light (at least on the surface), heartwarming even, and then it ends leaving one wishing for more." Jörg Heiser of frieze adds: "Poledna shows a four-minute musical animation in the style of Disney’s Bambi or Snow White – realized, in Los Angeles, with specialists able to do it the classical way. It’s not an original found object, but a kind of new reconstruction. Poledna does not rely on readymade or parody, thus generating a kind of double perception: I see the film projection and am inevitably reminded of childhood experiences – don’t I know this cute donkey with drooping ears in sailor outfit? – that I never could have had. He taps into our real-existing, pop-cultural affect reservoir, while diverting it into perfect fiction."


Still from Poledna's “Imitation of Life”.

Adrian Searle also mentioned Anri Sala's "Ravel Raval Unravel": "... Albanian artist Anri Sala, representing France, is in the German Pavilion. He drew big queues last week for his three-part film installation, based on performances of Maurice Ravel's 1930 composition Concerto in D for the Left Hand. Impeccably staged though it is, Sala's is a minor work on a major scale." [Watch video here]

 A (poor) photo of Anri Sala's video installation.


Midwaythrough a 2-hour queue under the rain to enter Anri Sala's exhibition on Friday 31 May.
  
Other National Pavilions in the Giardini not very much mentioned by the press, but worth visiting: Czech Republic & Slovak Republic, exhibiting work by Petra Feriancová (first room) and Zbyněk Baladrán (with the film "Liberation or Alternatively", at the back). Feriancová's project takes "Venice as a starting point and theme disappears in a return to intimate history: although pigeons, shells, masks and cityscapes are universal figures with a specific information value right here in Venice, their photographs or their collections were taken for purely personal reasons (the artist and her family) and have in fact nothing in common with Venice." [More images and text via Mousse].
the exhibition project Still the Same Place by Petra Feriancová and Zbyněk Baladrán curated by Marek Pokorný. - See more at: http://moussemagazine.it/55vb-czechoslovak-pavilion/#sthash.hhxgS6c4.dpuf


Also, Lebanon was represented by a wonderful new film, "Letter To A Refusing Pilot", by Akram Zaatari. The story is centered on a powerful real-life account of an Israeli Air Force fighter who was sent to destroy a school outside of Saida, the artist hometown, in the early 1980s but refused to do so, and instead dropped the bombs in the sea. As a kid, Zaatari would hear the story from his father, director of the very same school. Years later Zaatari discovered the story wasn't a rumor and that the pilot was real. 

Nina Siegal includes a quote by the artist on her New York Times article: “The importance of the story is that it gives the pilot a human face,” Mr. Zaatari said. “It gives what he is about to bomb, which is considered terrorist ground; it also gives that a human face. I think it’s important to remember in times of war that everyone is a human being. Taking it to this level humanizes it completely, and we’re not used to this at all.” 

"The film was shot in the neighborhood around the school, which has been rebuilt and incorporates aerial photographs, drawings, computer imaging and some personal documents from Mr. Zaatari’s own life to tell the story from the perspective of a teenage boy. In the Lebanese Pavilion at the Biennale, it is part of an installation that includes a reel film projector, a single movie theater chair and a number of cylindrical stools."

Zaatari's film in the Lebanese Pavilion in the Corderie.

Holland Cotter of the New York Times wrote on Alfredo Jaar’s show at the Chilean pavilion [two photos below], which is "centered around a sculpture that moves, an exact model of the Giardini campus that emerges from and sinks back into a vat of fetid-looking water. Mr. Jaar is telling a story about the alignment of art and power: Many of the older, pre-World War II pavilions are relics of a murderous nationalism were built as cultural trophies by economically competitive nations that created colonial empires and eventually led Europe into war."
 

Elsewhere in Venice, a number of Pavilions bid for our attention. Not least Angola, which won the Golden Lion for the Best National Participation. The question here was, as rightly stated by Filipa Ramos in her Art Agenda review, "How much of the Golden Lion for the best National Participation was due to Edson Chagas's "Luanda, Encyclopedic City" and how much of it was due to the gallery of Palazzo Cini, which hosts the Angolan Pavilion?" The impressive Cini collection of Renaissance works (Piero della Francesca, Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Pontormo...see photos below) is rarely open to the public. Chagas's low pillars of twenty-three off-set takeaway posters à la Felix González-Torres (though displayed on pallets), marked a contrast between classical products of Western culture and the photographed images of the streets of Luanda.

"The images consisted mostly of depictions of large pieces of junk (the seat of a broken office chair, a tattered soccer ball) that were displaced and then photographed by the artist in Luanda. Visitors were invited to collect the different images, thus producing a supersized album of all the gathered prints. Despite the naïve dualism generated by the blatant contrast between the two worlds (the location of production and location of display), the project presented an almost magical and secretive discovery to its visitors that was much in harmony with Massimiliano Gioni's exhibition's focus on parallel and lesser-known art histories."




Do check out – and leave plenty of time for – the Cyprus-Lithuania in Palasport "Giobatta Gianquinto" nearby the Arsenale entrance. The sports centre building alone is worth a visit. You'll be surprised to see such a large venue in what is seemingly such a small island. As Dan Fox of frieze writes "The Pavilion of Lithuania and Cyprus, held in a building one would never expect to find in Venice. An almost Brutalist-looking edifice, tucked next to the Arsenale, housed a huge, modern school gymnasium, where curator Raimundas Malasauskas had organized a show of performances, sculpture, painting, and dance in an environment that was about as un-Venetian as one could get ... What on earth was going on? What was the work and what wasn’t? For once it was nice to simply enjoy the mystery." 

Back to Quinn Latimer: "Maria Hassabi performed her intricate movement-based work on the steep, cinematic steps of the gymnasium, while far below, an installation of temporary walls made up of recycled walls from previous pavilions (by Gabriel Lester) and works by various artists—Jason Dodge, Elena Narbutaitė, and Dexter Sinister, among twelve others—looked, from above, as small and distant as a diorama." [Watch a video with interviews and images of the exhibition]


(Above) New York-based performance artist Maria Hassabi during Intermission (2013), surrounded with works by Phanos Kyriacou.


Another one to not miss is Richard Mosse's 'The Enclave' in the Irish Pavilion. The photo below doesn't do justice if you want a better idea to watch this wonderful 7min. video 'The Impossible Image' produced by frieze (and Vimeo staff pick!) in which you can hear the artist talking about the process of making the works. 

(Above) Multi-screen installation of Richard Moss' The Enclave in the Irish Pavilion in the Fondaco Marcello. 

Not to forget the Scottish Pavilion in the Palazzo Pisani which has one of the most solid shows in town, composed of three artists – Hayley Tompkins, Duncan Campbell and Corin Sworn. Filipa Ramos noted that "Hayley Tompkins’s floor installation of photographs and paintings puts together different scales of familiar, commonplace scenes and objects (from the depiction of a traffic jam to an electric plug or to the proliferation of plastic bottles) in such a way that they all become part of a set of recognizable, familiar presences."


Detail of  Hayley Tompkins's "Digital Light Pool (Orange)" (2013), composed of Acrylic on plastic trays, stock photographs, wooden boxes, glass, plastic bottles, watercolour.

Elsewhere in the city, dozens of Eventi Collaterali and other exhibitions piled up. Christy Lange wrote about one of the most talked-about events (particularly as queues became a real 'trending topic' in any conversation). Lange writes: "organized by the Fondazione Prada, the exhibition ‘When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969 / Venice 2013’ at Ca’ Corner della Regina ambitiously sets out to reconstruct Harald Szeemann’s seminal exhibition ‘Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form. Works – Concepts – Processes – Situations – Information’, originally staged at the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland in 1969." (...) "The show also recreates the tile and wooden floors of Bern, and even imported and installed authentic radiators. The effect is not seamless; nor is meant to be. Instead, there are visible gaps where the white walls had to be cut to fit around the classical Venetian moldings, and the intricately painted wooden beams of the palazzo remain exposed overhead." (...) "Along with Szeemann’s preliminary sketches for the show’s poster, we also get to see evidence of the harsh reception the show received in the Swiss press: illustrated by several ridiculing cartoons in national newspapers, like one in which a cleaning woman forgets her mop bucket in the gallery, only to have it interpreted as a work of art by a museum guide."

Carol Vogel of the New York Times puts the exhibition into historical perspective: "Originally organized by Harald Szeemann, the Kunsthalle’s director at the time, the show is considered the first major exhibition of what was then regarded as radical art. It included little from outside the  Western Hemisphere and little by women, but it was the first big show to acknowledge a broad range of mixed-media work that fell under freshly coined terms like Arte Povera, Process Art, Anti-Form, Conceptual art and performance art. Its nearly 70 artists included Claes Oldenburg, Joseph Beuys, Eva Hesse and Bruce Nauman." (...) "Featured in the show, which ends on Nov. 3, are works from artists who were then emerging, including Carl Andre, Richard Artschwager, Alighiero Boetti, Sol LeWitt and Keith Sonnier. And when the curators were unable to locate a work of art, they just left a dotted outline of where the piece should have been placed — a ghost of what once was."

Ramos reminded readers of "Celant’s ongoing inquiry upon the possibilities of reproducibility—a line of research he has pursued since his early years as an exhibition maker—a step further, as he attempts to reproduce the unrepeatable, indeed to repeat the irreproducible."

Jannis Kounellis' "Untitled" (1969) was originally installed in the lower floor of the Kunsthalle Bern. Here it's on the second mezzanine floor of Ca' Corner della Regina. 

 Walter de Maria's "Art by Telephone" (1967). Reenacted.


 Richard Serra works from 1969.
 General view of the Schulwarte (third floor in the Fondazione Prada) which displayed works by Pino Pascali (floor), Marinus Boezem (left), Frank Lincoln Viner, Thomas Bang, Michael Buthe, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Paul Cotton, Ger van Elk, Rafael Ferrer, Hans Haacke, Roelof Louw, Emilio Prini, Allen Ruppersberg, Frank Lincoln Viner and William T. Wiley.

 Giovanni Anselmo's "Untitled" (floor, right); "Il cotone bagnato viene buttato sul vetro e ci resta" (left, wall) both from 1969; and the 1968 "Untitled" in the corner. (Displacement)

Szeemans' (pre-excell!) spreadsheet listing the artist's names, place of residence, title, technique, and measurements of the work to be displayed, and a projected travel and production budget.

Another interesting exhibition was the Future Generation Art Prize housed in the incredible  Palazzo Contarini Polignac nearby the Accademia. More photos here.

 Entrance to the exhibition. 

 Emily Roysdon, "Our Short Century", 2012. 

 Eva Kotátková, "Theatre of speaking objects (Becoming objects)", 2013.

Detail of Rayyane Tabet, "Architecture Lessons", 2012. From the series "Five Distant Memories: The Suitcase, The Room, The Toys, The Boat and Maradona". 

 Aurelien Froment, "Pulmo Marina", 2010.

And last but not least, the Palazzo Grassi's inauguration of Tadao Ando's Teatrino (or rather "Teatrone" as it's 1,000 square-meters and holds 225 seats), as stated by Ramos "a truly remarkable event for a country known for its epidemic of closing-down cinemas." During the opening days, the Teatrino screened Anri Sala’s "1395 Days Without Red" (2011), Philippe Parreno’s "Marilyn" (2012), and Loris Gréaud’s "The Snorks: A Concert for Creatures" (2012). This was undoubtedly the best contribution Pinault brought to this year's biennale. We agree with Christy Lange on that the exhibition "Prima Materia", curated by Caroline Bourgeois and Michael Govan at the Punta della Dogana "managed to reduce even good works of art to macho collections of ‘things’". The only room that was somehow 'saved' was the space mixing Japanese Mono-ha and Arte Povera with works by Merz, Paolini, Boetti, Penone, Sekine, Suga, Ufan, Koshimizu, Enokura (photo below). Adel Abdessemed's 2011 four life-sized sculptures of Christ modeled after the Crucifixion made of razor wire was one of the low points in Venice.
 
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Stacks Image 39


(Part 2/3) The 55th Venice Biennale in tote bags

The biennale tote bag. Merely light and foldable marketing freebees in the form of non-rigid containers for the carrying of catalogues, innumerable press releases and checklists? Or ironic critiques of an increasingly capitalist and permissive society? Austere, poetic and challenging invitations to revalue familiar things and refocus our perceptions?

Now ever-present at the most vital and visible sites for the production, distribution, and public discourse around contemporary art, these large and often alarmingly unfastened cloth bags – typically with parallel handles that emerge from the sides of its pouch – have in the span of a few decades quietly become the unquestioned handmaiden of biennalisation. In Venice this year few dared to break with the tote's canvassed hegemony. The Dutch stuck their head above the parapet with a risky choice of clear plastic bags to accompany Mark Manders’ pavilion – a whimsically aggressive engagement with issues of indispensability, and, perhaps with typically Dutch straightforwardness, transparency. 

Even if a pavilion or Eventi Collaterali can fly in Michelin-starred chefs for their dinners or legendary DJs from the South Bronx instrumental in the early development of hip hop for their parties, getting the tote bag right nevertheless remains a perilous balance of form and content, of prestige and patriarchy, greenwashing brinkmanship and sheer design cojones.

So was 2013 acqua alta for tote bags in Venice? Did any of them attain the understated brilliance of the Canadian Pavilion bag at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007? (David Altmejd's noir classic in heavy twill boasted a separately tailored gusset.) Or did they match the game-changing 48 x 48 cm tote bag for Ayşe Erkmen's Turkish Pavilion in 2011? (designed by Konstantin Grcic, it featured an inner pocket made to fit the catalogue, and its own section on the pavilion website). There's a big wide world of tote bags out there...


All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org 

This year, the Biennale organisation brought in the Milan-based Tucano to design the official tote – they've been working with the film festival for a decade or more – and they spurned the traditional heavy cloth in favour of a lightweight synthetic "skin" and webbing straps which lend the item the air of a piece of technical camping equipment. The extra-long straps allow for a certain dynamic freedom of movement that is a clear reference to the Futurists, although they may impede the shorter visitor on a busy vaporetto. Its uncompromising blackness seems to suggest mourning, yet with a vital rather than dour spirit –  "time and space died yesterday" as F.T. Marinetti once said. Good effort.


Le pavillon français opted for a nocturne in Parisian fog grey for its bag accompanying Anri Sala's "Ravel Ravel Unravel". The rawness of the medium-weight cotton – or is it hemp? – speaks of torrid emotional intensity while the contrastingly spare and delicately-kerned typography attempts to echo the phasing-in and out of the pianists in Sala's grand video installation. Only printed on one side however – a note of uncertainty?


Being in part based in Alvar Aalto's masterpiece pavilion in the Giardini, Finland's representation at the Biennale has wisely shied away from grand gestures with its bag for the exhibition "Falling Trees". The exhibition was put together with "a sinuous curating process" the organisers reveal, and their serene bag prompts us, with its ample volume and unadorned reilu meininki tailoring, to weave our way through its "contingent encounter between art and nature". Onneksiolkoon! Pidän siitä todella!


The Tuvalu Pavilion pluckily represents the third-least populous sovereign state in the world, and likely the first in line to disappear underwater as sea levels rise due to climate change. The exhibition itself, by "sensational Taiwanese artist Vincent J.F. Huang" reportedly features "a sea turtle and a group of penguins belonging to an underwater mafia ring seeking revenge on capitalism and the effects this is having on their natural habitat". Wow. More understated – though no less imaginative – the cream-and-azure coloured tote bag bears the coat of arms of Tuvalu: a shield decorated in a pattern with mussel shells and banana leaves, a hut and stylised waves. A Tuvaluan inscription reads “Tuvalu mo te Atua” (Tuvalu for the Almighty). Made from silkscreened Polyfabric™ (an environmentally-friendly cloth) it hits all the right notes for ecologically-sensitive micro-nation enthusiasts. Child-safe and odor/mildew resistant.


The tote for Jeremy Deller's British Pavilion, entitled "English Magic", was manufactured in 100% 135 gsm cotton by a company based, ironically enough, in Welshpool, Wales. The reverse side depicts a line drawing of the British Pavilion which has been a staple on the British bags since at least Chris Ofili's 2003 exhibition. Given the inspiration that William Morris provides in Deller's exhibition, and the fact that Morris was a prolific type designer, it is perhaps a missed opportunity that the slogan text appears in the all-too-familiar Times New Roman. British Council directives? Nevertheless it does lend it a kind of appropriate DIY quality, and the highlighter orange colour (wondering though why it wasn't pink considering how much the artist loves to wear this colour) gives it the so-wrong-its-right touch that will secure its place on the sturdy shoulders of Deller fans, Bowie fans, cyclists, birdwatchers, tea-drinkers, stone-hand-axe experts, etc., for posterity. Not likely to appear on the Christmas list of Harry, His Royal Highness Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales. Or autocratic Russian billionaires.


2013 saw the United Arab Emirates present the work of Mohammed Kazem in the Arsenale’s Sale d’Armi. "Walking on Water" comprised a projection of the sea and illuminated GPS coordinates within an chamber, but the quality of the tote bag alone was already leaving visitors feeling like they were walking on water with its speckled blue background recalling the waves of the Persian gulf. Assalaam alaykum!


Jesper Just's Danish Pavilion had to suffer the cruel injustice of technical difficulties with its complex five-screen video installation during the opening days. And to be frank, the gloomy black-on-black tote accompanying an exhibition burdened with the icky title Intercourses cannot have lifted the mood. An uncharacteristic error from the style-conscious Danes? In fact the design was headed by the usually-impeccable New York based Project Projects. Nevertheless, the bag looks more suited to a Bulgarian goth club or an inner tube manufacturers' convention than something to accessorise an exhibition that "challenges the viewer’s preconceived notions of space and time". Interesting pavilion. Charismatic artist. Woeful tote. Even difficult to re-gift this one.

 
Photo courtesy: Graphical House
 
Scotland! A typography-forward triumph! Impactful use of the three artists surnames in a highly refined neo-grotesque sans serif which appears not at all restrained by an attempt at upholding historical accuracy or formalities. The clarity, poise and symmetry of the white letterforms, combined with the discerning deep-blue cotton base, and the cheeky short handles say "hey, let's celebrate everything that's good about Scottish creativity!" If there was a Golden Lion for totes, this would surely be in with a roar. 


"See Venice and die," is what they say? Or is it Rome? Whatever, once you've experienced the bag for Lawrence Weiner's THE GRACE OF A GESTURE, organised by the Written Art Foundation and presented at the Palazzo Bembo near the Rialto bridge, you may have witnessed the pinnacle of totes. Or something pretty close. Weiner has already produced some bag legends – check out his audacious design for Printed Matter – yet this multilingual canvas produced in Westphalia is a perky filet mignon of a bag that makes the competition look like cheap mince. As Weiner says: “Art is the empirical fact of the relationships of objects to objects in relation to human beings and not dependent upon historical precedent for either use or legitimacy". Who can argue? 


Related posts: 

Stacks Image 39



Cookies Advice: We use cookies. If you continue browsing, we consider that you accept their use. Aviso de Cookies: Utilizamos cookies. Si continua navegando, consideramos que acepta su uso.