Lara Almarcegui 'A Guide to the Wastelands of the Port of Rotterdam' (2009). Photo: Latitudes

Bik van der Pol, still of the film 'Facts on the Ground' (2009–10). Photo: Bik van der Pol

Jan Dibbets, Production stills while filming '6 Hours Tide Object With Correction of Perspective' (2009).
Photos: Latitudes, Paloma Polo/SKOR and Freek van AarkelMarjolijn Dijkman, 'Here be dragons' (2009), image presented on a billboard.
The second part of her project, the film 'Surviving New Island' (2009–10) will be premiered during the exhibition.

Fucking Good Art / Rob Hamelijnck & Nienke Terpsma 'Portscapes_ON AIR / Station Maasvlakte' (2009). Photo: FGAIlana Halperin, 'A Brief History of Mobile Landmass' (2009–10), audioguide. Photo: Chantal Karnaat
Paulien Oltheten, Great if two pairs of legs are synchronized for a moment, (2009). Photo: Ben Wind

Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller, 'The Postpetrolistic Internationale' (2009–10). Photo: Paloma Polo / SKOR

Jorge Satorre in collaboration with Jorge Aviña, 'The Erratic. Measuring Compensation' (2010). Courtesy of the artist.

Hans Schabus, 'Europahaven, Rotterdam, 17 juni 2009' (2009) (c) the artist

'Portscapes'
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
30 January–25 April 2010. Reception: Friday 5 February, 8pm.
Free entrance

Project website: www.portscapes.nl
Projects chronology: http://www.dipity.com/latitudes/PORTSCAPES

Works by Lara Almarcegui (Spain/Netherlands), Bik van der Pol (Netherlands), Jan Dibbets (Netherlands), Marjolijn Dijkman (Netherlands), Fucking Good Art (Netherlands), Ilana Halperin (US/Scotland), Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller (Switzerland), Paulien Oltheten (Netherlands), Jorge Satorre (Mexico), Hans Schabus (Austria), as well as work by the website collaborators Maria Barnas (poetry) and Markus Miessen (interviews).

'Portscapes' will present the results of works commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam realised throughout 2009 by 10 (inter)national artists on the occasion of the beginning of the construction of Maasvlakte 2 – the 2,000 hectare land supplementation project to extend Rotterdam's port, Europe's largest seaport and industrial area. 'Portscapes' has encompassed new projects of various scales under the leitmotif itineraries and destinations – artist-led tours, film screenings, billboards and the production of film and photographic works, audio-guides, radio broadcast and field guides. + info...

The films by Rotterdam-based artists Bik van der Pol and Marjolijn Dijkman, 'Facts on the Ground' (2009–10) and 'Surviving New Land' (2009–10) respectively, will be presented for the first time coincinding with the exhibition.

Overtreders W, the designers of the exhibition, have created semi-transparent display structures for the museum’s Richard Serra Hall, using industrial materials based on the format of cargo containers.

A catalogue (€12,50) and a special-edition catalogue (€50) designed by Ben Laloua/Didier Pascal are co-published by SKOR and the Port of Rotterdam Authority on the occasion of the exhibition. The special-edition includes filmed interviews with the artists as well as the DVD of '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009), the film produced by Jan Dibbets for 'Portscapes'. Publication available at the Museum Boijmans's shop or can be ordered via SKOR by writing to info@skor.nl or calling +31(0)20 672 25 25

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

Serra Hall, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museumpark 20 | 3015 CX Rotterdam, Netherlands
Opening hours: Tue–Sun 11–17h
Free entrance to the exhibition

Press enquiries: Nienke van Beers, Tel: +31(0)20- 672 25 25, nvanbeers@skor.nl

Jorge Satorre's project for Portscapes had its beginnings in the eastern part of the Netherlands with a 3-tonne gneissic granite rock from the Svecofennian age, approximately 1.9 billion years ago. Following the artist’s fascination with the environmental compensation practices being instigated alongside the construction of Maasvlakte 2, his project consisted of returning the rock to where it once came from in Sweden – an act of synthetic restitution and transnational sculptural offsetting. The boulder has found a permanent home at the Wanås Foundation, near Knislinge in southern Sweden [1]. The boulder was transported from Erica, in the north east of The Netherlands, to Knislinge at the beginning of January (see report on the Swedish newspaper Kristianstadsbladet).

Not insignificantly, the celebrated Land art work 'Broken Circle' (1971) by Robert Smithson, sited in a working quarry near Emmen, incorporates such a seemingly immovable boulder at its centre. Satorre’s reverse geological gesture is also reflected in the fact that much of the existing and future sea defence in the port area will be made from rock brought from Scandinavia. The artists offers an account of the process through drawings, which incorporates both actual and imagined details. One such detail depicts an imagined protest at the beginning of the boulder’s homeward journey – see post 2 October 2009.

Jorge Satorre's project was produced in the context of 'Portscapes', an accumulative series of newly commissioned projects produced in the context of the 2,000 hectare extension to the Port of Rotterdam, the project Maasvlakte 2.

An exhibition with 'Portscapes' projects will be on view at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam between 30 January and 25 April 2010 (Reception: Friday 5 February, 20h).

Portscapes was commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice and support from SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and was curated by Latitudes.

[FOOTNOTE 1] The foundation estate encompasses a medieval castle, an organic farm, and a sculpture park which since 1987 has hosted a number of permanent works by international artists.

Images: Journey and placement of the boulder from the newspaper Kristianstadsbladet; drawing 'The Erratic. Measuring Compensation' (2009), courtesy of the artist.

In the forthcoming issue of Danish magazine SUM#5, Latitudes talks to Rotterdam and Saint Mihiel-based artist Marjolijn Dijkman (1978) about visions of the Earth, cartography, image categorisation, representations of the future and new lands. Marjolijn Dijkman is one of the artists involved in the year-long commissioning series 'Portscapes'. Her film 'Here be dragons' (2009–10) will be premiered in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen exhibition, opening on the 5th February.

SUM#5 will be launched on the 9th December, from 17–19h, at the BKS Garage on Ny Carlsberg Vej 68, Copenhagen V.

SUM is published twice a year in English/Danish by The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts' Schools of Visual Arts. Issue #5 is published with support from The Danish Ministry of Culture's grant for culture magazines and The New Carlsberg Foundation.

Another Denmark-based magazine Karriere#4 (Autumn issue), has published the text 'Big Things: Crunch, Crisis, Change we can believe' by Max Andrews from Latitudes which discusses Mark Boulos' two-screen film installation 'All that is Solid Melts into Air' (2008) and Renzo Martens' feature-length 'Episode III: Enjoy Poverty' (2008). You can download a pdf of Karriere text from Latitudes' writing archive.

Karriere is published 3 times a year. Karriere is a free newspaper on contemporary art and social life. Distributed in all major Danish cities, Germany and England via the Walther Koenig Bookstores.

[Image: Marjolijn Dijkman, Maasvlakte, 2009, Courtesy of the artist. Below: pdf of Karriere. Courtesy of Karriere]

Latitudes' 'Portscapes' page has been updated with new flickr slideshows for each project (see under each artist name) and incorporating a new page for the 'Portscapes' exhibition which will be on view at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from the 5 February until the end of March 2010 (date TBC).

The opening will coincide with the art fair Art Rotterdam (4–7 February) and 'Divided Divided', a solo exhibition by the Stockholm-based artist Carsten Höller also opening at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen on February 5th.

The Museum Boijmans exhibition will present the year-long commissioning series with works that have been produced in and around Maasvlakte 2, the ongoing extension to the Port of Rotterdam, with works by 10 artists: Lara Almarcegui, Bik van der Pol, Jan Dibbets, Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Ilana Halperin, Roman Keller & Christina Hemauer, Paulien Oltheten, Jorge Satorre and Hans Schabus. 'Portscapes' also involved artist Maria Barnas and the London and Zurich based architect, researcher, educator and writer Markus Miessen as website collaborators.

The films commissions by Rotterdam-based artists Bik van der Pol and Marjolijn Dijkman will be premiered coincinding with the exhibition.

Project website: www.portscapes.nl (Dutch/English)
Other Latitudes' flickr photo sets here.

We have also updated the 'Portscapes' projects timeline:

Portscapes is a series of art projects commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice and support from SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and is curated by Latitudes.