View of the outside of the Richard Serra Hall / Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller, The Postpetrolistic Internationale, 2009–2010

Video and audio installation with wooden stage

Ilana Halperin, A Brief History of Mobile Landmass, 2009–2010

General view of the exhibition

Bik Van der Pol, Facts on the Ground, 2010. Video. Duration: 23 min.

Exhibition of the documentation material produced during the year-long commissioning series of works in and around Rotterdam's port extension project Maasvlakte 2, with works by Lara Almarcegui, Bik van der Pol, Jan Dibbets,Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Ilana Halperin, Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller,Paulien Oltheten, Jorge Satorre, and Hans Schabus (website collaborators: Maria Barnas (poetry) and Markus Miessen (interviews)).

On view at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen until 25 April. Entrance free.

More images of the exhibition here

More images of each commission here

'Making of' videos here

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20, 3015 CX Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Opening hours: Tue–Sun 11.00 to 17.00

All images: Latitudes | www.lttds.org

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

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

On Sunday 8 November, SKOR and the Port of Rotterdam Authority organised a bus tour around the Port of Rotterdam coinciding with the 4th International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam and the culmination of 'Portscapes' projects, a year-long series of commissions in and around Maasvlakte 2, the 2,000 hectare ongoing extension of the port.



Over 80 visitors enjoyed the 'The Postpetrolistic Internationale' choir performance, a project by the Zurich-based artists Roman Keller & Christina Hemauer as well as the tour around four wasteland sites included in the research publication of the guide 'Wastelands of the Port of Rotterdam' by Rotterdam-based artist Lara Almarcegui.

During the tour, visitors were also able to see and listen to other 'Portscapes' projects by Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Ilana Halperin (audio here), Jorge Satorre, Hans Schabus and Paulien Oltheten.

A exhibition of the projects will take place at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen from 5 February, coinciding with Art Rotterdam. Exhibition on view until end of March 2010.

Portscapes is a series of newly commissioned art projects initiated by the Port of Rotterdam Authority on occasion of the construction of Maasvlakte 2, with advice and support from SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and is curated by Latitudes (Barcelona).

Roman Keller and Christina Hemauer's participation has been made possible thanks to the support of Pro Helvetia.

–ENG–

Bus Tour – Portscapes public art projects on the Maasvlakte, Rotterdam

On Sunday 8 November SKOR and the Port of Rotterdam Authority are organising a tour coinciding with the 4th International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam. The tour is programmed in the context of Portscapes, a series of art projects related to the construction of the Maasvlakte 2 commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority. The Maasvlakte 2 project is the ongoing extension of the port by 2,000 hectares, which will be constructed in the North Sea in the next five years.

SKOR invited the duo Latitudes from Barcelona, who has curated a series of projects reflecting on the architectural, political, social and ecological aspects of the past, present and future of the Rotterdam port with a focus on the new Maasvlakte 2. Portscapes consists of ten new commissions in and about the Maasvlakte by Dutch and international artists, including interventions, films, performances and mobile seminars.

Bus tour bookings: write to ad [at] skor.nl by 2 November 2009
Free tour. English spoken

An exhibition of the Portscapes projects will be on show at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam from 5 February, until late March 2010.

Programme on 8 November
(please note: programme subject to changes)

09.45 am – 
Leave from NAI Rotterdam, Museumpark 25 3015 CB, Rotterdam

On the way to the port you can listen to interviews by Fucking Good Art on mp3 players in the bus. Amongst others, Hans Aarsman, an industrial ecologist, a botanist and an archaeologist, will describe his vision of the Maasvlakte on the basis of his field of expertise. The artistic duo FGA broadcast this and other conversations from a temporary web radio station in a container united placed on the Maasvlakte between 21 August and 21 September.

10.45 am – Visit to wastelands by artist Lara Almarcegui and botanist Remko Andeweg
The Spanish-born Rotterdam-based artist Lara Almarcegui has published a free newspaper research project concerning the ‘wasteland’ areas which can be encountered throughout the Port of Rotterdam. Almarcegui and botanist Remko Andeweg will describe these areas characterised by an apparent lack of human intervention.

12.00 am – Arrival at Futureland, the Maasvlakte information centre
On the way we pass the billboards by the artists Marjolijn Dijkman, Jorge Satorre, Paulien Oltheten and Hans Schabus.

Lunch in Futureland, provided by the Rotterdam Port Authority.
Introduction by Latitudes, curators of 'Portscapes'

1.00 pm – 
Tour of the artworks in and around Futureland
You can view work by Paulien Oltheten and Hans Schabus and explore the nearby area picking up Ilana Halperin’s audio tour. Halperin created a compelling narrative of fragments which draws on fact, fiction and personal fieldwork – as well as site surveys by volcanologists, geologists and the experts involved in the construction of Maasvlakte 2.

1.30 pm – Performance 'Postpetrolistic Internationale'
The project by Swiss artists Roman Keller & Christina Hemauer
 emerges from the medium of the collective human voice, the tradition of the aspirational social anthem alongside the artists’ long standing interest in energy use. The project starts with the transportation of a wooden stage along the Rhine from Basel (where the Rhine begins), near the artists’ home, to Rotterdam (where the Rhine joins the sea) – see post 30.10.09. Upon arrival a local choir will perform this anthem of hope-in-action (composed by the artists in collaboration with musician Mathias Vette) on the stage, against a backdrop of local industry, to mark man’s changing relationship with fossil fuels and energy use.

2 pm – Return to NAI Rotterdam with a number of stops at various art projects along the way: wastelands by Lara Almarcegui and works by Paulien Oltheten

3 pm – 
Arrival in NAI Rotterdam. End of the journey.

Portscapes is commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice from SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amterdam) and is curated by Latitudes.


–CAST–

Bus tour entorno al puerto de Rotterdam, Domingo 8 Noviembre 2009, 10–15h, organizado por SKOR y la Autoridad Portuaria de Rotterdam coincidiendo con la 4th International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam. Tour organizado en ocasión de Portscapes, la serie acumulativa de proyectos públicos que en el Puerto de Rotterdam

Presentación de dos nuevos proyectos: performance de los suizos Roman Keller y Christina Hemauer (7–8 Noviembre) y publicación de la guía 'Wastelands of the Port of Rotterdam' realizada por Lara Almarcegui. Durante el tour se podrán ver y escuchar los proyectos realizados por Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Ilana Halperin, Jorge Satorre, Hans Schabus y Paulien Oltheten.

Para reservar tu lugar, escribe a ad@skor.nl antes del 2 November 2009.
Accesso gratuito, tour será en inglés.

Exposición de los proyectos de Portscapes tendrá lugar en el Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, a partir del 5 de Febrero y hasta finales de Marzo 2010.

–
PROGRAMA 8 NOVIEMBRE, 9.45-15hs (Nota: programa sujeto a cambios de última hora)

09.45 am – Salida desde NAI Rotterdam, Museumpark 25 3015 CB, Rotterdam
Durante el recorrido se podrá escuchar mediante auriculares una entrevista al ecologista, botanista, y arqueólogo Hans Aarsman realizada por el duo FGA durante su residencia en un container emplazado en el Maasvlakte, desde donde recogieron conversaciones temáticas y exploraciones de campo. + info...


10.45 am – 
Visita de terrenos baldíos por Lara Almarcegui y el botanista Remko Andeweg.

La artista española afincada en Rotterdam Lara Almarcegui ha publicado una guía en formato periódico en la que se recoge su investigación entorno a los actuales terrenos baldíos que pueden encontrarse a lo largo de puerto de Rotterdam. En contraste con la gran planificación que circunda el futuro Maasvlakte 2, Almarcegui se interesa por los espacios definidos por la aparente falta de diseño y desarrollo. El público navegará el puerto como un territorio interconectado con la ayuda de esta guía que, como ha manifestado la artista, "actuará como una herramienta para conocerlo mejor (...) para ver cómo el territorio está cambiando. En el futuro, cuando la mayoría de estos terrenos se vean modificados, la guía actuará como un documento histórico que describirá cómo fue el puerto en el 2009".

12.00 am – Visita del centro de visitantes Futureland y almuerzo
Durante el viaje se podrán ver las vallas publicitarias de los artistas Marjolijn Dijkman, Jorge Satorre, Paulien Oltheten y Hans Schabus. A la llegada Latitudes, comisarios de 'Portscapes', introducirán los proyectos.

1.00 pm – Visita de las obras presentadas en Futureland y alrededores
Visita de las obras de Paulien Oltheten y Hans Schabus así como la audioguía 'A Brief History of Mobile Landmass' realizada por Ilana Halperin. La audioguía narra fragmentos reales y ficticios recogidos a partir de la investigación de la artista y expertos entorno a volcanes y estudios de campo relacionados con la presente construcción del Maasvlakte 2 – escuchar capítulos o descargar archivos aquí

1.30 pm – '
Postpetrolistic Internationale', performance de Roman Keller & Christina Hemauer

El proyecto de los suizos Roman Keller & Christina Hemauer
 comienza con el transporte de un escenario a lo largo del Rin, desde Basilea (donde el Rin abandona Suiza) y cerca de donde viven los artistas, hasta Rotterdam (donde el Rin desemboca en el mar) - léase post 30.10.09. A su llegada un coro cantará la 'The Postpetrolistic Internationale', un himno social compuesto por los artistas en colaboración con el músico y compositor Mathias Vetter, que proclama el comienzo de una nueva era donde el petróleo pertenece al pasado. Los días 7 y 8 de noviembre un coro local interpretará este himno de esperanza sobre el escenario en pleno paisaje industrial, para poner en perspectiva la historia evolución de hombre y su relación con los combustibles fósiles y el uso de la energía. Ésta será la primera vez que se cantará en inglés.

2 pm – Regreso al NAI Rotterdam con varias paradas durante el recorrido a los terrenos valdíos seleccionados por Lara Almarcegui y obras de Paulien Oltheten

3 pm – Llegada a 
NAI Rotterdam. Fin de trayecto.

Portscapes es un encargo de la Autoridad Portuaria de Rotterdam con el consejo de SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) y comisariado por Latitudes.

Latitudes contributed a short text on Lara Almarcegui's work for the recently released publication 'Intervenciones artísticas en las riberas del Ebro' ('Artistic interventions around the riberas del Ebro'), printed on the occasion of the commissions series produced by Expo Zaragoza 2008 (www.expo2008.es).

Almarcegui's 'Un descampado en la Ribera del Ebro' (Open Ground on the Banks of the Ebro) was commissioned by Expoagua Zaragoza 2008 and produced in collaboration with The Centro de Arte y Naturaleza–Fundació Beulas in Huesca (http://www.cdan.es).

Here is an extract of the text:
...
Almarcegui’s project for Expo Zaragoza 2008 started from an agreement to preserve a section of land in an untouched state for as long as possible. The artist has set up a legal stipulation whereby an otherwise unremarkable 700 sq.m. ‘wasteland’ is put beyond the control of developers for 75 years. This project takes its place among several sites that she has sought to preserve, including Rotterdam Harbour, 2003-2018; Genk, 2004-2014 and Arganzuela Public Slaughterhouse, Madrid, 2005-2006, for example. Each place seems banal yet beautiful while confounding what we understand as ‘wild’. They are what they they are: what they have left to be.
...
The terrain is located within the boundaries of the Parque del Agua, in the Sotos del Río area where the Expo fair itself takes place. Almarcegui chose this area as she was attracted by its proximity to the Ebro river and to the idea that the flux of the currents during the seasons would slowly modify its appearance―blurring the margins where land becomes water. This interstitial, entropic site was picked without the intention of “trying to experiment with new ideas”. As she has described, “The project is something I thought necessary ... given the speed of construction ongoing in Spain and also the construction involved in the Expo, I somehow felt compelled to stop and preserve something in its raw state.”

Other artists included in the publication: Javier Peñafiel, Federico Guzmán, Christopher Janney, Klaus Bury, Nicolás Camoisson y Marion Coudert, Isidro Ferrer & Batlle i Roig, Atelier Van Lieshout, Miguel Ángel Arrudi, Fernando Sinaga, Dan Graham, Miquel Navarro, Jeppe Hein, Jaume Plensa, Tony Cragg and Richard Deacon.

Distributes: Actar D, Turner, FNAC, Casa del Libro, Librería Central, Barrabes, amongst others.
Editor: Expoagua Zaragoza 2008, S.A.
Languages: Spanish, English, French
Pages: 240 pp.
Format: 22 x 27 cm
ISBN: 978-84-93657-23-9
Price: 35 Euros

On 23 October Lara opened the solo exhibition 'Ruins in the Netherlands' at Galeria Pepe Cobo, Madrid, where she presented a selection of 26 photographs of sites in ruin (an abandoned open theatre, a barn, a bunker, a windmill, a ferry station, an IBM tower, a swimming pool...) which are featured in her publication 'Ruins in the Netherlands XIX–XXI' (Episode, 2008, ISBN 978-90-5973-092-2) – also present in the exhibition. Alongside this, a photograph of her recent project 'Removing the outside wall of a ruined house' is included, as well as a slideshow of 80 images, 'An empty terrain in the Danshui River', accompanied by a small guide analising this particular area – three elements related to her presentation at the 2008 Taipei biennial.

Read Mariano Navarro's review 'Lara Almarcegui. Memoria de los lugares vacíos' here ('El Cultural' suplement, week 30 october, in Spanish).


[First 2 images: 'Open Ground on the Banks of the Ebro' (2008) by Lara Almarcegui. Courtesy the artist. Below: Installation views of the exhibition 'Ruins in the Netherlands' in Galeria Pepe Cobo, Madrid. Photos: Latitudes]

El catálogo de la exposición 'Estratos', PAC Murcia 2008 está ya disponible. La publicación contiene una selección 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 exposición y actividades paralelas (Enero–Marzo 2008).

Arriba: 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 completarlo, en el blog del 3 Febrero podréis escuchar una entrevista con la artista sobre esta pieza, así como ver imágenes de todo el proyecto en este blog (4 Febrero 2008).

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

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

[Imágenes: Latitudes | www.lttds.org]

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

Tonight we are taking the 'Salvador Dalí' night train from Barcelona to Turin—in part as response to RAF / Reduce Art Flights—to install and work on the catalogue for our show 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities', which will open at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo on 28th February (19h-21h). It includes works by Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Lara Almárcegui, Maria Thereza Alves, Ibon Aranberri, Amy Balkin, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Chu Yun, A Constructed World, Minerva Cuevas, Ettore Favini, Cyprien Gaillard, Tue Greenfort, Norma Jeane, Cornelia Parker, Jorge Peris, Wilfredo Prieto, RAF / Reduce Art Flights, Tomás Saraceno, Santiago Sierra, Simon Starling, Fiona Tan, Nikola Uzunovski, Sergio Vega, Wang Jianwei and James Yamada.

31 January – 31 March 2008
www.pacmurcia.es

ARTISTS
LARA ALMARCEGUI, BERND & HILLA BECHER, BLEDA Y ROSA, JUAN CRUZ, VERNE DAWSON, MARK DION, JIMMIE DURHAM, CYPRIEN GAILLARD, ILANA HALPERIN, JOACHIM KOESTER, MARK LOMBARDI, ALLAN McCOLLUM, PAUL NOBLE, PAULINA OLOWSKA, DIEGO PERRONE, ABRAHAM POINCHEVAL & LAURENT TIXADOR, MARJETICA POTRC, GREGOR SCHNEIDER, EVE SUSSMAN & THE RUFUS CORPORATION and KEITH TYSON.

VENUES
Centro Párraga, Espacio AV, MAM (Museo Arqueológico de Murcia), MUBAM (Museo de Bellas Artes de Murcia), Museo de Santa Clara, Sala San Esteban, Sala Verónicas, Cendeac, Filmoteca and three other public spaces in the city

The first Contemporary Art Project (PAC in Spanish) wants to make itself distinctive from the circuit of international biennials and art festivals by promoting a series of seminars for the duration of the project ('Heterocronías, Temporalitites in contemporary art practices' with guests including Pamela M. Lee, Peter Osborne, Manuel Cruz, Gary Shapiro and José Luis Villacañas), a film season in the regional filmoteca, and by offering six 3-month residency grants to Murcian artist to go to GlogauAIR, Berlin; Gasworks, London and Duende, Rotterdam; on top of the usual guided tours organised for this kind of events.

Organiser _ Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia. Consejería de Cultura, Joventud y Deportes
Curator _ Nicolas Bourriaud
Assistant Curator _ Aurelia Kreienbühl
Coordination & Communication _ Urroz Proyectos

[all photos: Latitudes with courtesy to all the participating artists]

Here is a brief (just over 3 mins) audio interview, complete with canary and dog, recorded this past Friday with Lara Almarcegui about her work Rubble Mountain, commissioned by Estratos, the first Contemporary Art Project / Proyecto Arte Contemporáneo, Murcia (photos here) and
interview by Max Andrews.

From the following archive you'll be able to download the text file 'ALMARCEGUI_Estratos.pdf', an essay written by Mariana Cánepa Luna on Almarcegui's contribution (and published in 'Estratos' catalogue).

The December 07 issue of 'Dazed and Confused' have profiled UOVO magazine as a 'heavy duty zine'. Their short review is subtitled 'Latitudes, the Spanish curators, take over the doorstep-sized art quarterly with the help from Dash Snow and Ryan McGinley' and the caption under the photograph reads 'Latitudes take over the reins at UOVO'.

They are indeed dazed and confused. We have NOT taken over the magazine nor have we met Dash Snow or Ryan McGinley, at least not yet. Snow and McGinley were interviewed in previous UOVO issues as were in fact all the other artists mentioned in the review.

However, Latitudes did guest edit the summer issue #14 (Green) 'Ecology, Luxury and Degradation' which included interviews and projects by artists such as Tue Greenfort, Sergio Vega, Michael Rakowitz, Lara Almárcegui, Federico Martelli, Noguchi Rika, Arturas Raila, etc. We are also collaborating with The Bookmakers Ed., the design office led by Chiara Figone which has just begun to publish monographs, as members of their Advisory Board together with Andrew Bonacina, Adam Carr, Lillian Davies, Silvia Sgualdini and Francesco Stocchi.

[Thanks to Alexis Zavialoff for sending the photo of the magazine]

We have launched the temporary project website for 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities': www.greenwashing.lttds.org. The site will be developed and updated over time as an extension to the printed catalogue, with expanded contents such as installation shots, interviews, artists CVs, etc.

The list of participating artist (ongoing) is: Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Lara Almárcegui, Maria Thereza Alves, Amy Balkin, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Chu Yun, A Constructed World, Ettore Favini, Cyprien Gaillard, Tue Greenfort, Norma Jeane, Cornelia Parker, Jorge Peris, Wilfredo Prieto, RAF / Reduce Art Flights, Tomás Saraceno, Simon Starling, Nikola Uzunovski, Sergio Vega, Wang Jianwei, James Yamada.

The show will open on 28 February 2008 at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin and remain on view until 11 May. The exhibition is curated by Ilaria Bonacossa and Latitudes (Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna).

For any press enquiries please email: press@fondsrr.org

[Image: Sergio Vega, 'Paradise on Fire', 2007. Series of five inkjet archival prints, 106 x 134 cm each. Courtesy the artist and Umberto di Marino Arte Contemporanea, Naples]

Last weekend we visited 2 of Lara Almárcegui's wastelands. One in the Rotterdam harbour (www.braakliggendterrein.nl) and the other one in Genk, Belgium. The Rotterdam wasterland (first 4 pictures) has remained untouched since 2003 and will be kept until 2018. The Genk wasteland's dates are 2004-2014 (following 12 images).



"Lara Almárcegui's work often explores neglected or overlooked sites, carefully cataloguing and highlighting each location's tendency towards entropy. Her projects have ranged from a guide to the wastelands of Amsterdam to the display, in their raw form, of the materials used to construct the galleries in which she shows. Her works are simple actions that belie the vast research process which she undertakes to achieve them." (Frieze Projects, 2006)

GUEST EDITED BY LATITUDES
JULY–SEPTEMBER 2007

Issue # 14 presents interviews, essays, projects and two CDs around art practices that resist the spectacularisation or romanticisation of ecological issues or the natural world.
The issue was launched in Art Basel's Art Lobby on the 17 June (images below). See also inside the magazine here.

Where to find it? here
More info? here and here

[Photos courtesy UOVO|The Bookmakers Ed. & MCH Swiss Exhibition Basel/Zurich AG]

Brian Dillon reviews LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook in the summer issue of Frieze, devoted to ecology. There is also a feature article by Latitudes's Max Andrews entitled 'The Whole Truth' featuring the work of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller, Maria Thereza Alves, among others.

Pictures from our excursion/roving seminar to Dubai Pivot Fields, Ras Al Khor wetlands (bird list below); and Al Khan, an abandoned village in Sharjah and the basis of Lara Almárcegui's UNESCO-prize-winning project for the Biennial. Participants: Michaela Crimmin, Max Andrews, Mariana Cánepa Luna, Mark Nash, Sarah Rich, Susi Platt, Stephanie Smith, Lara Almárcegui, Ignasi Aballí, Gulnara Kasmamlieva, Muratbek Kjoumakliev,Tea Mäpikää. Bird guiding: Clive Temple.Birds we saw during the excursion:

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Western Reef-egret (Egretta gularis)
Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)
Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea)
Great Egret (Ardea alba)
Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Eurasian Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus)
Greater Spotted Eagle (Aquila clanga)
Grey Francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus)
Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus)
Little Plover (Charadrius dubius)
Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)
Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus)
White-tailed Lapwing (Vanellus leucurus)
Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola)
Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)
Temminck's Stint (Calidris temminckii)
Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)
Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia)
Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis)
Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)
Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus)
Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis)
Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops)
House Martin (Delichon urbica)
Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis)
Red-throated Pipit (Anthus cervinus)
White Wagtail (Motacilla alba)
Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola)
Blue-headed Wagtail [sp] (Motacilla flava)
Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea)
White-cheeked Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucogenys)
Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer)
Purple Sunbird (Nectarinia asiatica)
House Crow (Corvus splendens)
Asian Pied Starling (Sturnus contra)
Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)
Bank Myna (Acridotheres ginginianus)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Indian Silverbill (Lonchura malabarica)

Courtesy Latitudes | www.lttds.org, photos: Robert Justamante

One of our many highlights of the manic Frieze week–last week–was finally meeting up with artist Rotterdam-based Spanish artist Lara Almárcegui. She was presenting a new work for Frieze Projects that listed all the weights of materials that made up the fair's tent structure.

We have been working with Lara as one of the contributors to LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook (with pages documenting her wasteland projects), and she will also be presenting at the Arts & Ecology conference No Way Back? in London in December.