Jordi Mitjà 'Floating Lines' (2009). Photo: Danilo Donzelli

Installation view of Erick Beltrán's works: 'Euridice' (ink on gold leaf on oak leaves, text on paper); 'Creusa' (ash from Vesuvius, text on paper); 'Sybil of Cumea' (inscribed tufo stone, text on paper); 'Ildeth' (carved salt from Spiral Jetty, text on paper). All works from 2009. Photo: Danilo Donzelli.

Simon Fujiwara, 'The Museum of Incest', 2008-ongoing, hexagonal table, chairs, projection screen, wood veneer panelling, vinyl mural, map, framed portraits, six framed book pages (“The Incest Museum Cast of Actors”), slide projection loop, Museum orientation video (25 min.), Museum guidebooks, various objects and artefacts. Photo: Danilo Donzelli.

'Provenances'
Erick Beltrán, Jordi Mitjà and Simon Fujiwara
Umberto di Marino Arte Contemporanea, Naples, Italy
until 14 September 2009

EXHIBITION PHOTO TOUR HERE.

'Provenances' reflects on the heritage industry and the museumification of history, as well as the creation, transmission and fidelity of cultural worth. The artists share an aesthetic and pragmatic concern with the principle of the personal archive or the pre-museal wunderkammer – the categorization and veracity of objects, images and words is always provisional. + info...

Erick Beltrán presents four works each focussed around a relic-like artifact made of a particular natural substance. Each object is accompanied by a text-diagram, and together they elicit a dense proliferation of references, narratives, contexts and interconnections. In 'Floating Lines' (2009) Jordi Mitjà reflects on practices of information retrieval, falsification and accumulation. In his seemingly-sparse installation, clusters of photocollages are hidden from immediate view by a string curtain which protects them from light while necessitating the visitor’s gesture in order to reveal them. Simon Fujiwara's 'The Museum of Incest' (2009) is a multipart project which unearths an implicit myth of human origins and an explicit sexual archeology. Fujiwara realised the performance-lecture 'The Museum of Incest. A Guided Tour' during the opening night. A guide of the museum has been published by Archive Books (Softcover / 21 x 15cm / 52pp / ISBN 978-88-95702-09-4).

Press links here.

UMBERTO DI MARINO | Via Alabardieri 1, Piazza dei Martiri | 80121 Napoli, ITALIA
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 15–20h

'Provenances' has been kindly supported by the Institut Ramon Llull.

Haegue Yang, 'Holiday for Tomorrow', 2007. Painted wooden screens with metal feet (Yes-I-Know-Screen); PVC, shells (Shell Sculpture); 10 coloured Venetian blinds, steel cable (Blind Department); wooden platform with monitor showing 13 min DVD (Holiday Story). Courtesy of the artist and Barbara Wien, Berlin. Photo: Carl Newland

Francesc Ruiz, 'Untitled' (Bristol) (2009). Self-adhesive digital prints. Courtesy of the artist, Maribel López Gallery, Berlin and Galeria Estrany-De la Mota, Barcelona. Photo: Carl Newland

Victor Man, Untitled (we die,) (2008) Neon, vinyl. Courtesy of the artist and Johnen Galerie, Berlin; Untitled (Towards an Absent Friend) (2008) Funerary ceramic with rubber mat. Courtesy the artist and Zero..., Milan; Untitled (2009) Steel and taxidermy fox head. Courtesy of the artist and Zero..., Milan. Photo: Latitudes

'Sequelism Part 3: Possible, Probable or Preferable Futures'
Arnolfini, Bristol, United Kingdom
until 20 September 2009
Free admission

EXHIBITION PHOTO TOUR HERE.

Artists: Mariana Castillo Deball (1975, Mexico City. Lives in Berlin/Amsterdam), Heman Chong (1977, Malaysia. Lives in Berlin/Singapore), Graham Gussin (1960, London. Lives in London), Victor Man (1974, Cluj–Napoca. Lives in Cluj), Francesc Ruiz (1971 Barcelona. Lives in Barcelona/Berlin), Jordan Wolfson (1980, New York. Lives New York/Berlin) and Haegue Yang (1977, Malaysia. Lives in Berlin/Singapore), (1971 Seoul. Lives in Berlin/Seoul)

Curated by: Nav Haq (Curator, Arnolfini) and Latitudes

'Sequelism...' is an exhibition reflecting on the future and that which is yet to happen. It looks at the political, social and ecological implications of the inexact arena of futurology: the science and interdisciplinary practice of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures from the present. This is the first in a trilogy of Sequelism exhibitions, with Part 2 in 2010. + info...

More on the public programme related to the exhibition on http://futurologyprogramme.org

Arnolfini, Arnolfini 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA, UNITED KINGDOM
Opens: 10am-6pm Tues-Sun & Bank Holiday Mondays. Closed Mondays. Free entrance

'Sequelism' is generously supported by the Institut Ramon Llull and the Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural en el Exterior (SEACEX), IFA, the National Arts Council Singapore and The Ratiu Family.

We have uploaded a slideshow with installation shots (CLICK HERE) of the recently inaugurated exhibition 'Sequelism Part 3: Possible, Probable, or Preferable Futures' on view at Arnolfini, Bristol until 20 September 2009.

'Sequelism, Part 3: Possible, Probable or Preferable Futures' is an exhibition project that looks into the future and at that which is yet to happen. It considers how the inexact arena of futurology is used as a means to better comprehend the present and the past.


'Sequelism Part 3' includes works by Mariana Castillo Deball (1975, Mexico City. Lives in Berlin/Amsterdam), Heman Chong (1977, Malaysia. Lives in Berlin/Singapore), Graham Gussin (1960, London. Lives in London), Victor Man (1974, Cluj–Napoca. Lives in Cluj–Napoca), Francesc Ruiz (in residency) (1971 Barcelona. Lives in Barcelona/Berlin), Jordan Wolfson (1980, New York. Lives New York/Berlin) and Haegue Yang (1971 Seoul. Lives in Berlin/Seoul).

Taking the style of a magical realist tale or childrens’ story, Mariana Castillo Deball's 'Nobody Was Tomorrow' (2007) consists of three interconnected stories based on the fictional connections between three real ‘characters’ – ‘Nobody’ a defunct accelerating aging machine, a sprawling fig tree and the remains of a Roman bath in Čačak, Serbia. Castillo Deball makes us mindful of culture’s fortunes through a swirling fable about the sedimentation of time, encapsulated by an image of a damaged book.

'Index (Down)' (2009) is part of Heman Chong's ongoing series ‘Surfacing’, which require the action of putting up 3000 stickers on a wall within a given set of instructions. The red triangular stickers are intended to resemble the downward pointing arrows used to denote a fall in value of stock exchanges. Considering the paranoia around the scenario of economic freefall, Index (Down) uses this motif to create an abstract pattern evoking a waterfall.

Graham Gussin's 'Hypnotic/Dystopic/Optic' (2009) presents a ‘horizon line’ of rotating record covers for soundtracks to renowned dystopian science fiction films. The covers are set to rotate at the speed at which their images ‘vaporise’ at the limit of visual comprehension. 'In The Not Too Distant Future (Self Portrait with Sleeping Masks)' (2009) is a self-portrait of the artist inspired by a scene from the film La Jetée (1962) concerning an experiment in time travel following a nuclear war.

Francesc Ruiz's stair barriers installation 'Untitled (Bristol)' (2009) takes the shop windows of the high streets in the south of Bristol – East Street and North Street – as sequential units akin to comic-book vignettes. Ruiz has created a narrative around a dystopian future in which destruction, revolt and anger have invaded the city after an economic downturn.

Jordan Wolfson 'Untitled' (2007) centres on a 1984 Macintosh 128k, the first affordable home computer to use a mouse-driven graphical user interface. The computer is seen stranded by the side of a road in Connecticut, built in the late 1930s following the Great Depression. The soundtrack comprises a triumphalist monologue concerning the emergence of American abstract painting in the 1950s. Wolfson is interested in obsolescence, and in these elements as generational touchstones.

Victor Man's three pieces could read in terms of premonition and symbolic rites which relate to the uncertainty of the future in a similar way that memory relates to the past. A taxidermy fox head is wedged within a metal structure as if a votive or magical offering. Vinyl text on a wall is negated by a neon ‘X’. A ceramic funerary plate bears the image of stars, whose arrangement has often been interpreted by man in terms of fate and fortune.

Haegue Yang's 'Holiday for Tomorrow' (2007) considers our perception of time, and the emotional anticipation of holidays, those socially-agreed days in which labour is suspended and we attempt to rest our bodies and minds. At its centre is a video essay showing Seoul during the Korean harvest holiday Chuseok over which a female voice reflects on the postponement of desire and the dysfunctional hopes triggered by enforced leisure.

Accompanying events and film programme here.

Exhibition curated by Nav Haq (Curator, Arnolfini) and Latitudes

Supported by the State Corporation for Spanish Cultural Action Abroad (SEACEX), the Direction of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Institut Ramon Llull, IFA, National Arts Council, Singapore and The Ratiu Family Foundation.

[IMAGES (Top-bottom): Gallery 2 with three works by Victor Man; Francesc Ruiz 'Untitled' (Bristol) 2009 and Haegue Yang, 'Holiday for Tomorrow', 2007. All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org]

[Images from top to bottom: Francesc Ruiz x 2, Haegue Yang x 2, Graham Gussin and Victor Man (taken by Nav Haq). All other images Latitudes | www.lttds.org]

'Sequelism Part 3: Possible, Probable or Preferable Futures' (18 July–20 September 2009)
Preview: Friday 17 July, 6–8pm
Venue: Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
Artists: Mariana Castillo Deball (1975, Mexico City. Lives in Berlin/Amsterdam), Heman Chong (1977, Malaysia. Lives in Berlin/Singapore), Graham Gussin (1960, London. Lives in London), Victor Man (1974, Cluj–Napoca. Lives in Cluj–Napoca), Francesc Ruiz (in residency) (1971 Barcelona. Lives in Barcelona/Berlin), Jordan Wolfson (1980, New York. Lives New York/Berlin) and Haegue Yang (1971 Seoul. Lives in Berlin/Seoul)

Co-curated by Arnolfini and Latitudes

'Sequelism Part 3: Possible, Probable or Preferable Futures' is a project that looks into the future and at that which is yet to happen. It considers how art and the inexact arena of futurology might be utilised as a means to better comprehend, rethink, obscure, or even colonise the present. Knowledge of current and historical events often plays a role in collective foresight or prognoses of change that is yet to take place. In a similar fashion, futurology could be said to deal with memory in reverse. The project seeks to investigate how prospective visions might be generated for vastly differing reasons, offering great idealism on the one hand, or harnessing political and societal anxiety on the other.

The future is commonly manifested in popular cultural forms, including science fiction, yet how might we look beyond the present without recourse to established genres? To what extent does strategic foresight affect our understanding of the ‘now’ or the ‘when’? Is the future a culturally specific phenomenon that is inherently ‘Western’ in its own gaze and orientation? And just how accurate can we be when imagining the future? The Sequelism project addresses issues and questions such as these. Disputing illustrative organisation around a predetermined thesis, the project itself invites doubt, speculation and to-be-determined outcomes.

This is the first in a trilogy of Sequelism exhibitions, with Part 2 in 2010.
More information: http://futurologyprogramme.org


Events and screnings

Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska
Museum Futures: Distributed
Screening/Discussion, Saturday 18 July, 2pm, Free

Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska’s film 'Museum Futures: Distributed' (2008) is a machinima record of the centenary interview with Moderna Museet’s executive Ayan
Lindquist in June 2058. It explores a possible genealogy for contemporary art practice and its institutions, by reimagining the role of artists, museums, galleries, markets, ‘manufactories’ and academies. The screening will also incorporate a discussion led by Neil Cummings and the curators of the Sequelism exhibition, discussing the future of art institutions.

The Futurological Congress
Sequelism Artists’ Screning Programe
Screening, Friday 21 August, 7.30pm, £3/£2 concs

A programme of artists’ videos selected by the curators of Sequelism to accompany the exhibition, including works by Marjolijn Dijkman, Jordan Wolfson and Julia Meltzer & David
Thorne. Introduced by Nav Haq, Exhibitions Curator, Arnolfini.

David Maljkovic
'Scene for a New Heritage Trilogy Screening'
Thursday 17 September, 6.30pm, Free

The films in David Maljkovic’s renowned 'Scene for a New Heritage Trilogy' (2004–6) are set between 2045 and 2071, visualising different encounters with a communist monument at the memorial park at Petrova Gora, Croatia, and speculating on how the meanings of history and monuments change over time.

Roy Ascott
Art and Technoetic Evolution: when the Mind outgrows the Body
Artist’s talk, Saturday 19 September, 2pm, Free

Artist and theorist Roy Ascott gives a presentation on the recent ideas informing his Technoetics art practice, that has grown out of his long-term research into cybernetic and ‘telematic’ art.

Will Holder
Neologisms Workshop
Workshop, September, date tbc, Free
Booking required, call 0117 917 2300 / 01

A language workshop for young people led by the designer, writer and editor Will Holder for constructing brand new words or ‘neologisms’, inspired by R. Buckminster Fuller’s technique for synthesizing existing words to generate names for new concepts and designs.

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Arnolfini | 16 Narrow Quay | Bristol BS1 4QA | UNITED KINGDOM | T: +44 (0)117 917 2300 | www.arnolfini.org.uk

Opens: 10am-6pm Tues-Sun & Bank Holiday Mondays | Closed Mondays | Free entrance

Sequelism is possible thanks to the generous support of the State Corporations for Spanish Cultural Action Abroad (SEACEX), the Direction of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Spanish Ministry of Foreing Affairs, Institute Ramon Llull, The National Arts Council Singapore and IFA.

[Image: Invitation design to the exhibition]

Two friends of Latitudes are opening their own galleries in Berlin: Feinkost and Maribel López Gallery.

Feinkost opened at the end of September with a show with work by the bulgarian artists Luchezar Boyadjiev. Tomorrow they will inaugurate their second show titled 'The Art World' with works by Ad Reinhardt, Alan Phelan, Balthasar Burkhard, Ben Gavin, Charles Gute, Christian Jankowski, IRWIN, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Matthieu Laurette, Pablo Helguera, Rainer Ganahl, REP Group, SOSka Group, et al.

On December 15th, Maribel López Gallery will open her space with the show 'Game Over Expanded' by Barcelona-based artist Francesc Ruiz.

"Francesc Ruiz (Barcelona, 1971) deploys an array of ‘possible’ fictions, laden with irony and bordering on delirium, which encompass multiple horizons of escaping from and re-inventing reality. His ink drawings alternate with other media, such as installations of black-and-white photocopies glued to the wall, videos and sculptures.On this occasion, in a new series of drawings and an installation, Francesc Ruiz tackles one of his recurring themes—his interest in places of consumption. These spaces enable him to develop narrative exercises charged with unexpected potential for action."

Francesc Ruiz was present at such recent exhibitions as Existencias, MUSAC, León (2007); Où? Scènes du Sud: Espagne, Italie, Portugal, Carrée d’Art – Musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes (2007), Registros y hábitos. Máquina de tiempo/imágenes de espacio, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona and CGAC, Santiago de Compostela (2006).

Feinkost (Aaron Moulton & Mette Ravnkilde)
Bernauer Straße 71 - 72
13355 Berlin
T. +49 (0)172 1849732
info[at]galeriefeinkost.com

Maribel López Gallery
Holzmarktstrasse 15-18
S-Bahnbogen 54
10179 Berlin
T: +49 (0) 30 200 54 530
info[at]maribellopezgallery.com