Latitudes

2008-07-21T20:49:00.003+02:00

El viernes 25 de Julio se inaugura en el Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga la exposición individual 'Forever and a Day' (Siempre y un día) del artista norteamericano Lawrence Weiner (Nueva York, 1942), que se podrá visitar hasta el 26 octubre. Para crear esta instalación Weiner ha tomado como punto de partida la ubicación geográfica y la historia de la ciudad de Málaga. El artista utiliza símbolos de la mezcla de culturas que se han dado en esta ciudad – la herencia que dejaron fenicios, griegos, romanos y los árabes – al tiempo que reflexiona sobre el sur y las fronteras.

Latitudes está actualmente trabajando con el artista en su próximo proyecto: 'THE CREST OF A WAVE' que se presentará en la Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, el 8 de Octubre y que se podrá visitar hasta el 15 de Noviembre. Más información aquí.

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga (CAC Málaga)
c/ Alemania s/n 29001, Málaga, España
T: + 34 952 12 00 55
www.cacmalaga.org
prensa@cacmalaga.org

[foto: Detalle de 'Cat. #976 (2008)' SOMEWHERE SOMEHOW/FOREVER & A DAY/SOMETHING SOMEWAY/FOREVER & A DAY/SOMETIME SOMEPLACE/FOREVER & A DAY. Materiales: LANGUAGE + THE MATERIALS REFERRED TO. Courtesy of the artist.]

Gracias a Beatriz Lafuente, Responsable de Comunicación, CAC Málaga.

Ferran Barenblit out, Vicenç Altaió in at the Centre d'Arte Santa Mònica (CASM), Barcelona

2008-07-17T16:37:00.012+02:00

Last weekend was a turbulent one for the Barcelona art scene. On Friday 11th the Culture Councillor Joan Manuel Tresserras announced the appointment of a new director for the Centre d'Arte Santa Mònica (CASM): Vicenç Altaió, who modestly describes himself as a 'poet, writer, catalan translator, theatre critic, art critic, opinion generator and cultural agitator' and until then the director of KRTU ("Culture, Research, Technology, Universal"). The trouble was, however, that CASM already had a director: Ferran Barenblit, appointed during the summer in 2002. If you'll excuse the football link, the act was not unlike FC Barcelona's recent appointment of 'the next' head coach Guardiola when Frank Rijkaard was still at the club. Invitations to leave are never easy, political muggings of a cultural institution are even harder to bear. On this occassion the news of this affair has hit the press and blogs with general signs of bewilderment, disappointment and bitterness.

For those not entirely familiar with the Barcelona art landscape, CASM has followed the kunsthalle model with funding from the local government (Generalitat de Catalunya) and occasional sponsors. Under Barenblit's directorship, a series of adjunct local curators (Montse Badia, David G. Torres, Frederic Montornés) and international guest curators (Miguel Von Hafe Pérez, Jacob Fabricius) have produced exhibitions and projects by artists such as Christian Jankowski, Tomás Saraceno, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Dora García, Maria Eichhorn, Joao Tabarra, Filipa César, Nedko Solakov, Runa Islam, Maria Nordman, Cabelo, Juan López, Peter Liversidge, Carles Congost, Antoni Abad, Francesc Ruiz, Joan Morey, Mike Nelson, Joachim Koester, Toni Matelli, Jill Magid, Ceal Floyer and Jiri Kovanda (see our blog) amongst many other group shows (Think, Hamsterwheel...). Currently, CASM is one of the institutions invited to participate in 'Lucky Number Seven' Site Santa Fe with a compelling project by Martí Anson.

Manolo Borja-Villel, the recently appointed director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid (see our post 23 December) has declared in El País that, "the fact that the government imposes a project ... at best, as an instrument of propaganda, indicates a regression to dark times" (this and other quotations translated from the Spanish / Catalan). According to El Pais (12 July) during the presentation of the new director, Culture Councillor Tresserras insisted "there are no victims left along the way" and that the centre and the general budget (750,000 Euros/annum) will still exist, but in a new location (still to be discussed with the townhall). He added "Barenblit's programme was interesting, but the centre didn't have the social performance required". Barenblit was not invited to the presentation, and, the promise of the new location not being confirmed, he handed in his resignation. Later Barenblit declared "it is the best moment [to resign], after receiving the compromise that the new centre is under discussions. I'm coinvinced that my departure is the best guarantee that this process takes place; I always said that directors should have an expiry date ... CASM collaborated with many artists and local entities and promoted Catalan art abroad".

There had been rumours for several months (see El Periodico, 18.02,08 or even earlier this month the possible relocation of CASM was discussed with the president of the Visual Artists Association (AAVC), see El País 05.07.08) claiming that CASM was going to be taken over by the Generalitat and would be converted into a center for Catalan culture, speculation that has prompted numerous strongly-worded responses by various art associations (visual artists association, association of museum directors, art gallery associations...). With this shadow looming over CASM, the programme in recent months has sufferred an inevitable slide.

The new CASM director Vicenç Altaió will take his position in January 2009 and turn CASM into what is described in the vaguest of terms as "a multidisciplinary center for art, science, thought and communication". The questions are, what place 'the new CASM' can take on the Barcelona art landscape? Does the city need another venue for diluted cultural programming? What happened to the 'código de buenas prácticas' (code of good practice) that was decided last year by the Ministry of Culture, whereby "made" appointments were to be replaced by an open-application advisory-panel system based on merit? Where else will ambitious new work be produced in the city? In recent years Barcelona has suffered from the abrupt disappearance of art spaces including Metrònom, the 'relocation' of Sala Montcada from the city centre – its now sited at Caixafòrum– and the failure of Espai 13 in Fundació Miró to produce relevant and informed projects. There is sadly little space for experimentation, fertile discussion or risk-taking.

What is most dismaying is the utter control the Barcelona politicians seem to have over publicly funded cultural programmes. There is, it seems, a lack of support and respect for the work of experienced and trained art professionals and as there is always an ominous cloud hanging over institutions or initiatives when a (4-yearly) change of administration takes effect, there is little continuity and plenty of suspicion. Working within such constant bureaucratic insecurity is never productive and it undermines confidence and creativity. Instead cultural programmes should have their own administrative cycles, their own secured funding, their own staff who are independent from state workers and protected from temporary or mileuristas contracts. It should go without saying that directors should be free to foment long-term creative relationships with the local scene as well as with national and international contexts.

Many questions remain unanswered: where will the proposed new Kunsthalle be? Why didn't CASM have an independent administrative board to prevent such undemocratic moves? Who will now steer and programme such a space? And admist this political-cultural debacle, another factor has been unleashed: who will take control over the first Catalan Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennial in the Magazzini del Sale? Incidentally, the proposals (open submission until 2 September) for the pavilion will be assessed by a jury of six artists and curators and the decision will be made public on 1 October.

[Photos: Kris Martin, 'The End' (2005) (included in the SantaMòniCA 2007 summer show 'PENSA/PIENSA/THINK' curated by Montse Badia, Ferran Barenblit, Jacob Fabricius and Frederic Montornés) and below Ferran Barenblit (left) with Christian Jankowski talking to Joan Manuel Tresserras (right) in May 2007 during the launch of Jankowski's Living Sculptures]

New and bigger photo galleries in Latitudes website

2008-07-16T18:16:00.007+02:00

For those who visit our website (www.lttds.org) regularly, you would like to know that we have enhanced the photo galleries with a larger slideshow format: at the top a caption explaining what you see and at the bottom the usual back and forth arrow to navigate, as well as a thumbnail panel.

An example of this is this one: http://www.lttds.org/projects/current/stake/stakegallery/stakegallery.html, where we just uploaded photos from the recent film & video screenings at the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona and at the Wilheminapolder in Holland, when 130 people attended the screenings in this beautiful 18th Century barn.

We have also updated other gallery sections like that of Greenwashing, where you'll be able to see the exhibition catalogue designed by The Bookmakers Ed., Turin (slideshow of the works in the exhibition on the Greenwashing web). And of course we keep feeding with new info our various archives, such as this or this or this or this!

Alexandra Navratil at Angels Barcelona & Frieze.com

2008-07-04T23:53:00.004+02:00

Latitudes' Max Andrews reviews Alexandra Navratil's (17.06.08 > 20.09.08) show at Àngels Barcelona for Frieze.com

"Navratil’s curious exhibition ... prompts a filmic response throughout – each element, including drawings and two videos, might be read as parts of the same arcane, deconstructed movie production. Yet ..."
http://www.frieze.com/shows/review/alexandra_navratil/

Ciclo film y video en el Nivell Zero, Fundació Suñol, 7-8 Julio, 19.30h

2008-07-01T14:56:00.007+02:00

Después de las presentaciones en México, Vigo, Basilea y Sevilla continuamos con la itinerancia del ciclo de film y video 'Una estaca en el lodo, un hoyo en la cinta. El campo expandido del Land Art, 1968-2008'. La próxima proyección será en el Nivell Zero de la Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, el 7 y 8 Julio a las 19.30h.

El ciclo se divide en dos partes: la primera proyección (7 Julio, 1h 38m duración) muestra obras clásicas del Land Art realizadas en los sesenta y setenta (algunas son post-producciones del 2004 y 2005) y la segunda parte (8 Julio, 1h 15m duración) incluye obras contemporaneas producidas en los últimos 6 años. Para más información sobre los films que se proyectan, véase programa (castellano) o la invitación (catalán).

Aforo limitado | 2 € por sesión | Reserva previa: 93 496 10 32

Nivell Zero de la Fundació Suñol
c/ Rosselló 240
08008 – Barcelona
T 93 496 10 32
www.fundaciosunol.org

Programas anteriores y prensa, aquí

El viernes 11 de Julio, a las 11.30am presentaremos el programa en una granja en la Wilheminapolder (véanse fotos), Holanda, como parte de una serie de comisiones artísticas que está llevando a cabo SKOR (la Fundación de arte y espacio público de Amsterdam) en la zona. Para más información (en inglés)

SKOR organiza un autobús desde Amsterdam hacia la Wilheminapolder. El bus saldrá a las 9am desde sus oficinas en Ruysdaelkade 2. Coste transporte: € 10.00 (más evento y comida = € 17.50). Para registrarse escribir a info@cbkzeeland.nl o llamar al: +31 0118-611443. Durante el trayecto se podrá escuchar la banda sonora realizada especialmente para la ocasión por Rutger Zuydervedt, conocido como Machinefabriek.

[Imágenes: Parte frontal invitación a las proyecciones en Fundació Suñol. Abajo, dos fotos de las granjas Hongersdijk en la Wilheminapolder, Holanda]

Henrik Håkansson, 'The Jungle Novels', Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City

2008-06-26T23:31:00.005+02:00

Opening today, Håkansson's exhibition at the Museo Tamayo (until 20 September) is the outcome of recordings carried out at the Montes Azules, El Triunfo, and Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserves, and photographs and videos obtained over four weeks by twelve remote cameras placed by the artist in different spots throughout the southern Lacandon Rainforest, Mexico.

Curated by Tatiana Cuevas for the Tamayo, the catalogue features an extended essay by Latitudes' Max Andrews.

Proyección 'Una Estaca en el lodo...' CAAC, Sevilla, 24-25 Junio, 20h

2008-06-23T11:53:00.008+02:00

Los días 24 y 25 de Junio, a las 20h, se proyectará el ciclo 'Una estaca en el lodo, un hoyo en la cinta. El campo expandido del Land Art, 1968-2008' en el Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC, Sevilla). El programa revisa una selección de imágenes en movimiento que forman parte de la memoria histórica de Land Art (Parte 1, 1h38m), acompañadas de producciones de artistas contemporáneos (Parte 2, 1h15m).

Próxima parada: 7–8 Julio, Fundació Suñol, Barcelona; y 11 Julio, antiguo granero Hongersdijk Farmstead, Wilheminapolder, Holanda - proyección auspiciada por SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space, Amsterdam).

Más información http://www.lttds.org/projects/current/stake/stake.html
Descargar los programas de mano (inglés y español)

Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo
Monasterio de la Cartuja de Sta. Mª de las Cuevas
Acceso: Avda. Américo Vespucio nº 2, Isla de la Cartuja y
Avda de los Descubrimientos s/n (por pasarela de Torneo)
41092 SEVILLA
Tel. +34 955 037 070
actividades.caac@juntadeandalucia.es
www.caac.es

Fallo Jurado Premios Casablancas 2008, 20 Junio, 20h

2008-06-16T16:25:00.010+02:00

El viernes 20 de junio a partir de las 18h, en el antiguo recinto fabril de la Fabra i Coats, tendrá lugar el inicio oficial de la edición del Sant Andreu Contemporani Premi Miquel Casablancas 2008. Se fallarán los 2 ganadores/as y los finalistas de la modalidad de compra-obra y beca-proyecto de este año.

Los premios se complementarán con un programa que, a lo largo de 2008, contará con tres proyectos coordinados por los tres equipos que conforman el jurado de este año (Aimar Arriola, comisario e investigador; Mariana Cánepa Luna, comisaria y escritora (en representación de Latitudes); Alicia Yáñez, comisaria (en representación del colectivo BECUPU); Alex Brahim, comisario y productor cultural; Joan Morey, artista y Jordi Mitjà, artista).

Programa 20 Junio:

18:00 h. Algunas consideraciones sobre arte emergente
Mesa redonda con la participación de los miembros del jurado del Concurs d’Arts Visuals Premi Miquel Casablancas 2008:

20:00 h. Entrega de Premios

21:00 h. Espacio de consulta sobre el Premi Miquel Casablancas y presentación del proyecto 'Caballo' de Jorge Satorre, propuesta ganadora de la convocatoria de proyecto 2006.

22:00 h. Concierto de Los gru, www.myspace.com/lordmanythings

23:00 h. Concierto de Internet 2, http://www.myspace.com/internet2

24:00 h. Fito vs. klsbeatsdj, http://www.myspace.com/fitoconesa
http://www.myspace.com/klsbeatsdj

Más info: http://santandreucontemporani.wordpress.com

:: Update 25 Junio ::
Los ganadores del Concurs d’Arts Visuals Premi Miquel Casablancas 2008 son:
Modalidad obra: 'Unir los puntos' de Mariona Moncunill (finalistas: Fito Conesa, Fermín Jiménez Landa, Mireia C. Saladrigues, Oriol Vilanova)
Modalidad proyecto: 'Taller Poble Sec' de Marc Navarro & Pol Esteve (finalistas: Verónica Aguilera, Sergi Botella, Daniel Jacoby, Enrique Lista)

'Greenwashing' reviewed in summer issue of Artforum

2008-06-08T13:23:00.004+02:00

Eva Scharrer reviews 'Greenwashing' in the current issue of Artforum, Summer 2008, on p. 456. There is a printable pdf version on our Greenwashing archive along with other critical responses to the exhibition including from El Mundo, La Stampa and Artforum.com

Catálogo 'Estratos', PAC Murcia 2008

2008-05-28T17:00:00.007+02:00

El catálogo de la exposición 'Estratos', PAC Murcia 2008 está ya disponible. La publicación contiene una mezcla de textos nuevos, rescatados y reimpresos, entrevistas, textos de los propios artistas, etc. acompañados de fotografías del montaje, vistas de la exposición y de los proyectos que tuvieron lugar durante la duración de la exposición y actividades paralelas (Enero–Marzo).

En las imágenes vereis un detalle del texto que Mariana Cánepa Luna de Latitudes escribió sobre 'La Montaña de Escombros' (2008) de Lara Almarcegui y que podéis descargar desde este archivo (pdf, 5.6 MB). Para completar, en el blog del 3 Febrero podréis escuchar una entrevista con la artista sobre esta pieza.

Título: 'Estratos', Proyecto Arte Contemporáneo Murcia 2008
Formato: 33,5cm x 21 cm, Color, 324 pp.
Edita: Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia. Consejería de Cultura, Juventud y Deportes - Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Bienes Culturales.
Diseño: Germinal Comunicación
ISBN 978-847564-400-4
Distribución: Cataclismo S.L., circulación@exitmedia.net

June 8 update:
See Latitudes' Max Andrews Frieze review of Estratos here (Frieze, Issue 116, June-August 2008 (180 KB, jpg))

Maasvlakte 2 - Port of Rotterdam expansion

2008-05-27T16:24:00.009+02:00

Last week Latitudes visited the port and industrial zone of Rotterdam (seen in the images). On the west of the existing port, construction is undergoing to build Maasvlakte 2, a new port area arising from the sea in front of the Maas estuary, which will be constructed between 2008 and 2013. The reclaimed land will add 20% of port area and triple the container capacity. Following such land reclamation or polder mega-projects such as the Flevopolder, Ijburg and Neeltje Jans, the second Maasvlakte will be the latest chapter of the Netherlands’ ongoing relationship between the sea and the land.

As stated in the Maasvlakte website: "The land reclamation will measure around 2,000 hectares in total. Half of this will consist of infrastructure, such as sea defences, fairways, railways, roads and port basins. The other 1,000 hectares will provide the space for industrial sites."

The Maasvlakte 2 project organisation of the Rotterdam Port Authority wants to involve artists in this 5 year development stage, and for that they have involved SKOR. The Port Authority and SKOR invited Latitudes to visit the area and to generate ideas for the forthcoming 5 year period, from planning to realisation of what will be one of the biggest trade zones in the world.

Wilfredo Prieto wins The Cartier Award 2008

2008-05-10T23:33:00.019+02:00

The Cartier Award 2008 has been awarded to Cuban artist Wilfredo Prieto (b. 1978). The award enables artists to realise a major project as part of Frieze Projects at the Frieze Art Fair, curated by Neville Wakefield, as well as to enjoy a 3-month residency at Gasworks, London, to produce the piece.

According to Frieze Art Fair 2008, "Prieto will present Pond, a site-specific installation of more than 100 oil drums. The mirrored pond-like effect created by water in the lids of the drums will be punctured by the presence and movement of a frog. The work will be a beautiful and poetic reflection on the current international obsession with accumulation and growth."

A version of the work is currently on view in the group show Latitudes curated with Ilaria Bonacossa at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin as part of the exhibition “Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities” (until 18 May).

To know more about Prieto's work, read the profile that appeared in Frieze Magazine (October 2007, Issue 110) and the images of 'Grasa, Jabón y Plátano' (2006) in 'Extraordinary Rendition', the exhibition we curated in NoguerasBlanchard (March 2007).

Following is an excerpt of the artist entry in the 'Greenwashing...' catalogue:

The artist’s most visible contribution to Greenwashing is Estanque (Pond) (2007), a new sculpture in which a congregation of crude oil barrels have seemingly been transformed into an idyllic, ‘eco-friendly’ lily pond habitat with the addition of water puddles and a live frog. Though the oil barrel is not commonly part of our everyday surroundings as a physical object, it has a familiar significance as the standard unit of volume for the production and consumption of petroleum, and as such, it is often cast as a symbol of all of the ills of fossil-fuel dependency. Furthermore, the price of a barrel is a global index of macroeconomic conditions, geopolitical stability, and the fundamentals of energy supply-and-demand. [1] The environment that Prieto has created by converting the petroleum containers is no more ‘natural’ than the oil itself – which is, after all, an organic substance. Yet the sculpture inevitably suggests the prospect of eco-advertising, as if its graphic visual summary of apparent amphibian-petroleum harmony could perfectly lend itself to an audacious company marketing department in a bid to demonstrate their ‘green’ industrial principles. [2] – Max Andrews

1. According to the 2007 CIA World Factbook, in Italy the equivalent of 32.1 barrels of oil are used each day for every 1000 people – or 11.7 barrels per person per year. The figure for the US is roughly double this estimate, and for Cuba, roughly half.
2. The connection to a recent Ford Motor Company campaign is irresistible: the well-known character Kermit the Frog appears pedalling on a bicycle singing his 1970 song ‘Bein’ Green’, before he spots a Ford Escape Hybrid in a verdant wood, ‘I guess it is easy being green’, Kermit declares. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKotANcNVyo

[Image: Wilfredo Prieto 'Estanque (Pond)', 2008. Oil barrels, water, frog. Courtesy the artist and Galería NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona. Photo: Courtesy Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino]

Una estaca en el lodo, un hoyo en la cinta. MARCO, Vigo

2008-05-07T14:47:00.005+02:00

CICLO DE VÍDEO. Panorámica
Una estaca en el lodo, un hoyo en la cinta
El campo expandido del Land Art, 1968-2008
SALÓN DE ACTOS

FECHAS
jueves 8 y viernes 9 de mayo de 2008
jueves 15 y viernes 16 de mayo de 2008 [repetición]

COMISARIADO POR
Latitudes | www.LTTDS.org

ENTRADA LIBRE Y GRATUITA hasta completar aforo

MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo.
C/ Príncipe 54. 36202 Vigo.
Tel: 986 113900. Fax 986 11 39 01
info@marcovigo.com www.marcovigo.com

Durante cuatro días del mes de mayo, el salón de actos del MARCO acoge el ciclo de vídeo “Una estaca en el lodo, un hoyo en la cinta. El campo expandido del Land Art, 1968-2008”, comisariado por Latitudes, después de su presentación en el Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo de México, y antes de continuar su itinerancia a Basilea, Sevilla, Barcelona y Holanda.

Tomando prestado su título de los escritos de Robert Smithson, este programa presenta una selección de imágenes en movimiento que forman parte de la memoria histórica del Land Art, acompañadas de producciones de artistas contemporáneos.

Life On Mars: 55th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh

2008-05-06T18:22:00.003+02:00

Our shots of the 55th installment of the Carnegie International, curated by Douglas Fogle, which was unveiled last Thursday 1st May and runs until January 11th 2009. Latitudes's Max Andrews contributed to the catalogue, designed by COMA, with texts on 20 of the 40 participating artists, including Carnegie prize winners Vija Celmins and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. There's more about the opening on Artforum Diary...

James Yamada's Public Art Fund Project, New York

2008-04-30T16:40:00.003+02:00

Unveiled on Monday "this new sculpture by James Yamada entitled Our Starry Night, will be on view at Doris C. Freedman Plaza at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street. Built from powder coated aluminum and punctuated with 1,900 colored LED lights, Our Starry Night is a 12-foot-tall sculpture that acts as an interactive passageway to Central Park.
"As visitors to the park walk through the sculpture at all hours of the day and night, it will illuminate in response to each person individually. When visitors walk through the portal in the piece, they trigger a metal detector hidden inside the structure's casing. This activates the LED lights that perforate the exterior of the sculpture. Common everyday metal objects such as cell phones, keys, belts, jewelry, cameras, computers, and the like will trigger the lights; the luminosity and the light patterns seen in the piece will correspond to the quantity of metal detected. Our Starry Night is literally activated by the public, reinforcing the notion that art — and particularly public art — is dependent on the people around it." (until October 28 2008) more...

'Greenwashing' in Artforum Critics' Picks

2008-04-18T06:23:00.005+02:00

Below you can read the review of the 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities' exhibition by Emily Verla Bovino in Artforum Critics' Picks. The project website (www.greenwashing.lttds.org) has also been updated with links to press articles (ongoing) and a photogallery with a selection of installation shots.

- - -
"Greenwashing"
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Via Modane, 16
February 29–May 18

     “Cyclus Offset,” “KeayKolour Recycled May,” “Shiro Alga Carta”: A series of “all natural,” “ecological” papers color the catalogue for “Greenwashing” in a muted rainbow of earthy greens, yellows, and pinks. Designed by the exhibition’s curators—Ilaria Bonacossa and Latitudes’s Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna—the volume offers its own version of “green sheen.” Are the Fondazione and the organizers self-consciously engaging in the same banal posturing they set out to critique? Or do they see the printing of an art catalogue on recycled paper as a step in the direction of philosopher Félix Guattari’s exhortation to “think transversally,” toward a reconciliation of the nature/culture dichotomy? Like most of the show’s twenty-five participating artists, the organizers are uncompromising in their ambiguity: They neither propose grand solutions nor shy away in passive resignation. An ambitious project that occasionally falters, “Greenwashing” is largely successful in broadening and interrogating the narrow views that dominate environmentalist debates.
Works by Jorge Peris, Lara Almarcegui, and Chu Yun provide the most exemplary models of this approach. For Fairy, 2008, Peris bolted slabs of wet clay to the walls of a back room, transforming the space’s frigid architecture into a musty den of soft, sweating walls kept moist by a network of sprinklers. Like Peris’s installation, Almarcegui’s slide show and postcards, titled A Wasteland: Rotterdam Harbour, 2003–2018; Genk, 2004–2014; Arganzuela Public Slaughterhouse, Madrid, 2005–2006; Peterson Paper Factory, Moss, 2006–2007, documents microenvironments that are at once constructed and deconstructed, simultaneously additive and subtractive. In A Wasteland—wilderness by design—the artist negotiated with municipal authorities and landowners to preserve the atmosphere of disuse in a selection of urban lots, sparing them from the restoration and clean-up of urban planners. In Chu’s Constellation, 2006, various appliances set to “sleep” mode are arranged in a dark room. Their twinkling red, blue, and green lights are the stars of a heaven inhabited by obsolete electronics, including VHS players and soon-to-be-outmoded technologies, like CRT television monitors. While Chu’s work evokes what Andrews calls the “‘What can I do?’ responses to climate change,” it also explores the seductiveness of the spectacular apocalypse scenarios frequently invoked in environmentalist rhetoric. Such eschatological visions aren’t the province of environmentalists alone, however. As Noam Chomsky affirms in Cornelia Parker’s video, Chomskian Abstract, 2007: “About a third of the population probably believes it doesn’t matter what we do about global warming . . . because Jesus is coming and so . . . what’s the difference? . . . Those of us who are saved will rise to heaven, and everyone else will be massacred—and it’ll be wonderful.”
—Emily Verla Bovino

Thomas Hirschhorn in Mexico City

2008-04-10T19:07:00.004+02:00

'Poor Tuning' at kurimanzutto, Mexico City continues until April 27: "Thomas Hirschhorn’s current exhibition, “Poor Tuning,” presents ten pimped-out race cars..." (Artforum) more...

While 'Stand-alone' at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, which continues until May 18, presents a three-room rendering of a kind of demonic fireplace inspired by a student occupation of a university campus.

'Una estaca en el lodo, un hoyo en la cinta. El campo expandido del Land Art, 1968-2008'

2008-03-25T22:40:00.002+01:00

'Una estaca en el lodo, un hoyo en la cinta. El campo expandido del Land Art, 1968-2008'
Auditorium Museo Tamayo, Mexico City

Programme 1. Tuesday 1 April 2008, 19:30 h
Programme 2. Wednesday 2 April 2008, 19:30 h
(Repetition: 5 & 6 April 2008, 13:00 h)

Free entrance

Maria Thereza Alves, Francis Alÿs, Ibon Aranberri, Donna Conlon, Cyprien Gaillard, Mario García Torres, Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson, Gordon Matta-Clark, Damián Ortega, Nikolaj Recke, Thiago Rocha Pitta, Hans Schabus, Gerry Schum (with films by Richard Long, Barry Flanagan, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, Marinus Boezem, Jan Dibbets and Walter de Maria), Robert Smithson, Jordan Wolfson.

Download the full screening programme here

Paseo Reforma y Gandhi
Bosque de Chapultepec
Ciudad de México
CP 11580 Mexico
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Hans Schabus at the Barbican, London

2008-03-17T14:13:00.004+01:00

(Latitudes' Max Andrews gave a talk for the Hans Schabus's new commission 'Next Time I’m Here, I’ll Be There' last weekend at The Curve Gallery, Barbican, London. Exhibition runs until 1 June 2008).

Hans Schabus
Next Time I’m Here, I’ll be There, 2008
The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery
Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery
Photo © Lyndon Douglas

'Greenwashing' en El Cultural (13 Marzo 2008)

2008-03-17T13:32:00.007+01:00

A continuación una selección del artículo 'Verde es el color del dinero' de Mariano Navarro que se publicó en el suplemento 'El Cultural' de 'El Mundo' el 13 Marzo 2008 – podeis descargar un pdf aquí, en la sección de prensa de nuestra web:

Greenwashing se ocupa de un tema pujante, la situación del medioambiente en el mundo, y cómo su título indica lo hace desde una óptica tan amplia como determinada. Greenwashing es un neologismo que define la injustificable apropiación de las virtudes medioambientales por parte de la industria, los estamentos políticos o las organizaciones, con la finalidad de crear una imagen positiva de sus actividades o productos y una imagen mistificadora que distraiga la atención respecto a sus propias responsabilidades e impactos medioambientales negativos. Green significa verde, washing, lavar, y podría traducirse por “lavar con verde” o, más irónicamente, por “el verde lava más blanco”.

El comisariado ha sido un trabajo colectivo entre Ilaria Bonacossa, jefa de exposiciones de la Fondazione, y el estudio Latitudes, formado por Max Andrews y Mariana Cánepa Luna, colaboradores del programa Arts & Ecology, autores del libro Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook, organizadores en la Bienal de Sharjah de un simposio sobre el tema y editores de un número de la revista UOVO, de Turín, con el tema Ecología, Lujo & Degradación. Cito esta parte de su curriculum porque sin el conocimiento previo del temario tratado, difícilmente podrían haber llevado a cabo una lectura que, sin ilustrar tesis preconcebida alguna, resulte tan rica, tan alertadora e instructiva, en el mejor sentido del término. Tampoco para la Fondazione, que ha dedicado esfuerzos en esos aspectos desde 2001. (continúa...)

[Imagen: Ibon Aranberri 'Light over Lemoniz (without shockwave)', 2000–4. Cortesía del artista e Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin]

'Post-it City: Occasional Cities' at CCCB, Barcelona

2008-03-13T09:56:00.005+01:00

Curated by Martí Peran and featuring over 70 case-studies/projects, including by artists Banu Cennetoglu (featured in the Walker Art Center's Brave New Worlds–which opens in Mexico City at the end of April), Can Altay, and René Francisco, "Post-it City looks at different overlapping uses of urban territory, focusing on the viewpoints offered by architecture, town planning and the visual arts. [The initiative] seeks to explore the phenomenon ... of the ephemeral cities that infect the everyday city with uncoded, temporary, anonymous uses ..."
Continues at the CCCB, Barcelona, until 25 May 2008.

‘A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art's Expanded Field 1968–2008'

2008-03-10T21:58:00.012+01:00

Latitudes was invited to curate the Spring 2008 Panorámica cycle for the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City. The cycle is titled 'A Stake in the Mud, a Hole in the Reel. Land Art's Expanded Field 1968–2008' and will be screened in two parts on 1st and 2nd April at 19.30h (and repeated on 5–6 April at 13h.)

Borrowing its title from the writings of Robert Smithson, the programme revisits a selection of moving-image works that form part of the historical memory of Land Art, through and alongside more recent productions by contemporary artists. Indeed a concern with remoteness, together with the powerful allure of specific sites, weaves throughout the films’ itinerary, which includes the sewers of New York and Vienna (Gordon Matta-Clark, Hans Schabus), the deserts of California (Mario Garcia Torres), the mountains of the Basque country (Ibon Aranberri), and the beaches of Taveuni (Nikolaj Recke).

Dowload the screening programme here (Spanish, pdf, 624 KB)

Part 1:
Gerry Schum's LAND ART (1969) which includes films by Richard Long, Barry Flanagan, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, Marinus Boezem, Jan Dibbets and Walter de Maria), Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson, Robert Smithson and Gordon Matta-Clark.

Part 2:
Maria Thereza Alves, Francis Alÿs, Ibon Aranberri, Donna Conlon, Cyprien Gaillard, Mario García Torres, Damián Ortega, Hans Schabus, Nikolaj Recke, Thiago Rocha Pitta and Jordan Wolfson.

The programme will also be presented in Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Vigo (8-9 and 15-16 May); Stadtkino/Kunsthalle Basel (27 May); Centro Andaluz Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla (24-25 June) and Fundació Suñol, Barcelona (7–8 July).

The programme is available for screenings in auditoriums. If you are interested in hosting it, please write to info[at]lttds[dot]org to receive information on the available dates and terms and conditions.

[Image above: Gerry Schum, 'Land Art TV' (1969). Courtesy Groninger Museum, Groningen]

RAF / Reduce Art Flights. Gustav Metzger interview

2008-03-06T23:45:00.004+01:00

The new RAF / Reduce Art Flights website is now up, featuring an exclusive audio interview with Gustav Metzger, by Emma Ridgway, about the project and its implementation in the Greenwashing show.

To be notified of future RAF activity subscribe to the mailing list here.

Greenwashing Update - Jorge Peris

2008-03-03T17:15:00.008+01:00

Curated by Latitudes with Ilaria Bonacossa, Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities finally opened to the public on Thursday and continues at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, until 18 May (e-flux mailing). La Stampa previewed the show here. We are currently working on redesign of the project website (www.greenwashing.LTTDS.org) which will include installation photographs, audio interviews with participating artists, details about the 192-page catalogue (English and Italian editions) and more. Details to be announced here on the Latitudes blog.

Meanwhile to whet your appetite here are some photos of Jorge Peris's Fairy (2008), one of several new installations in the exhibition: a cave-like environment consisting of 400kg of clay kept from drying out through the use of a humidity system. Peris has likened the experience of the work – which took three weeks to complete – to being inside the belly of a whale.

All images: Courtesy the artist and Zero..., Milan

Greenwashing invitation

2008-02-15T12:53:00.004+01:00