Vena (por la) anuncia su primer evento de la temporada: la performance 'The Museum of Incest: A Guided Tour' (El Museo del Incesto: una visita guiada) del artista británico afincado en Berlin/Londres Simon Fujiwara, que tendrá lugar el Sábado 19 Septiembre, 19h, Hangar, Barcelona – La performance será en inglés con subtítulos en castellano.

ENTRADA GRATUITA. MAPA



'The Museum of Incest' (El Museo del Incesto) es un proyecto que se manifiesta en tres partes: como una instalación, una performance-lecture (véanse imágenes arriba) y como publicación. La performance consiste en un tour a través del edificio de un museo ficticio que representa la historia alternativa a los orígenes del hombre a través de prácticas incestuosas. El tour se acompaña de diapositivas, un mural y artefactos provenientes de los yacimientos arqueológicos de la Garganta de Olduvai en Tanzania, conocida también como 'cuna de la humanidad' por descubrise allí restos de los primeros homínidos.



En ocasión de la exposición 'Provenances' en Nápoles (véase imágenes arriba), Latitudes editó la publicación 'The Museum of Incest. A Guided Tour' publicada por Archive Books (Turin/Berlin) – (imágenes a continuación), que se podrá adquirir por 6 Euros una vez finalizada la performance.



Simon Fujiwara (1982, Londres, Inglaterra. Vive en Berlin y Londres). Recientemente ha sido artista en residencia del MAK Center for Art & Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles (2008–9) y ha participado en 'Office of Real Time Activity', Royal College of Art, Londres (Marzo 2009); 'Provenances', Umberto di Marino, Nápoles (comisariada por Latitudes - imágenes aquí) (Mayo–Septiembre 2009) y 'The Collectors', Danish and Nordic Pavilions, 53rd Biennale di Venezia. Próximamente presentará el 'The Museum of Incest' en Frieze Art Fair (sección Frame - véase post 07.05.09), Londres, con Galerie Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt.

+ info:

– Texto "Simon Fujiwara_ES.pdf" en el archivo de textos de Latitudes (pdfs en Español e Inglés)
– Artículo sobre 'Provenances', 3 Junio, La Repubblica (italiano)
– Entrevista que se ha publicado en la revista italiana Kult Magazine de Septiembre, realizada por Daniele Perra (pdf italiano)

Organiza: Vena (por la) en colaboración con Hangar.org, en el contexto de 'Hangar Obert'.

A continuación imágenes de la performance en Hangar:

[Imágenes (arriba a abajo): Performance de Simon Fujiwara durante la inauguración de 'Provenances', Umberto di Marino, Nápoles, fotos de Latitudes y Danilo Donzelli; instalación de 'The Museum of Incest' en 'Provenances', Umberto di Marino, Nápoles, fotos de Simon Fujiwara, Latitudes y Danilo Donzelli y 'The Museum of Incest. A Guided Tour' publicada por Archive Books. Fotos: Latitudes. Performance en Hangar. Fotos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org]

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.

As the 2008–9 artistic cycle turns for many towards a holiday exodus and 'out of office' autoresponders, below is a selection of some unseen and 'behind the scenes' moments from our projects since last summer.
Thank you to everyone y felices vacaciones!
– Latitudes



(Three images above): MCL with Lawrence Weiner during the installation of Lawrence Weiner's exhibition 'THE CREST OF A WAVE' at the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, in October–November 2008; during the press conference; Lawrence, Latitudes and Fundació Suñol team (Sergi Aguilar, Maga Ruiz, Xavier De Luca, Mireia Arnau and Jaume Brunet) photographed by Pierre-Jean Moulis after tossing a horseshoe upon the crest of a wave.

16–19 October 2008: presentation of the Danish artist Tue Greenfort 'transparent' bins outside Frieze Art Fair, London, commissioned by the Royal Society of Arts' 'Arts & Ecology' programme.

5–9 November 2008: Leaving the 'X, Y, etc!' Videolounge in Artissima Art Fair, Torino, Italy; admiring the phenomenal long table arrangement Artissima dinner hosted at the equally phenomenal Venaria Reale.


November 2009: fourth visit to Rotterdam – evening boat trip with some of 'Portscapes' artists, site visit to the port with the Port of Rotterdam's Sjaak Poppe (Hans Schabus and Roman Keller alongside) and discussions in Marjolijn Dijkman's studio (Roman Keller and Christina Hemauer – with Ilana Halperin on Skype)


November 2009: ‘La, la, la, la: on winning and losing’ co-curator Aimar Arriola arranging a work with artist Verónica Aguilera and (below) selecting images with Fermín Jimenez Landa and Oriol Vilanova.


8 February: SKOR curator Theo Tegelaers and Jan Dibbets during the filming of Jan Dibbets' '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective'; some of 'Portscapes' artists including Bik Van der Pol and Marjolijn Dijkman visit the beach while waiting for the tide to go up; Christiane Bosman (SKOR press coordinator) and curator Theo Tegelaers from SKOR at 'Portscapes' during Art Rotterdam opening evening.

18 February: Vena (por la) talk with (the then) Walker Art Center associate curator Doryun Chong (now associate curator at MoMA in New York)

April 2009 - The Associació d'Art Crítics de Catalunya awards Fundació Suñol for their exhibition programme (Latitudes-curated projects Lawrence Weiner's 'THE CREST OF THE WAVE' and the Land Art film programme 'A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art's Expanded Field, 1968–2008' were part of this season)


(7 images above): First Neapolitan lunch with Simon Fujiwara and Jordi Mitjà: deep-fried maceroni; Erick Beltrán installing during 'Provenances', Umberto di Marino, Naples; preparing Simon's 'Museum of incest'; subtitling session with Nicoletta Daldanise; delightful Sicilian cuisine at Umberto's house, documenting Erick's work during the opening night and audience during Simon's performance 'The Museum of Incest: A Guided Tour' (publication here)

(5 above): Arrival day in Beijing with Ignasi Aballí; laying out the Barcelona posters for 'Scenic viewpoints'; (around 3.30am...) installation of 'Nothing, or Something' at Yintai Centre with Suitcase Art Projects artistic director Carol Yinghua Lu and Ignasi; checking the vinyl is straight with Ignasi ('El País' always at hand) and a quiet conversation with Carol on the escalators.


(2 Above): During the installation of 'The Garden of Forking Paths', Maisterravalbuena, Madrid, May 2009 and post-opening beer landscape at Maisterravalbuena office, 29 May 2009.

Hans Schabus mulls over the location for his Portscapes project, the image 'Europahaven, Port of Rotterdam, 17 Juni 2009', 15 June 2009

(2 above): At Latitudes' temporary office space during the non-profit festival 'No Soul for Sale', in New York, 24-28 June 2009 (with Michael Jackson breaking news on screen).

The Bruce High Quality Foundation in full (we are indebted to them for their fantastic 1983 Burger King set up)


(3 above) Installing Graham Gussin work during 'Sequelism Part 3. Possible, Probable or Preferable futures' in Arnolfini, Bristol (July 2009); hanging around with participating artists Francesc Ruiz and Haegue Yang as well as Nav Haq (Arnolfini curator) before dinner; and knitting lessons from Haegue at Arnolfini's bar.

[All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org]

During 'NO SOUL FOR SALE' we are presenting several publications and paraphernalia related to our projects, including:

– Compendium of essays, artists' projects, etc. 'Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' (Royal Society of Arts/Arts Council England, 2006)
– Magazine UOVO #14 'Ecology, Luxury and Degradation' (The Bookmakers Ed., Summer 2007)
– Exhibition catalogue 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities' (The Bookmakers Ed., February 2008)
– Artist book by Simon Fujiwara 'The Museum of Incest: A Guide' (Archive Books, May 2009)

We also have DVDs of Jan Dibbets' recent film '6 Hours of Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (as part of Portscapes) and a public sculpture produced in October 2008 by Lawrence Weiner on occasion of his exhibition 'THE CREST OF A WAVE' at Fundació Suñol, Barcelona (we also have the exhibition booklet available).

The Bruce High Quality Foundation also have a computer available from where visitors can burn DVDs for $5 as well as some of their publications.

Daniel Birnbaum's 'Making Worlds' felt less melancholic though still very much in keeping with his recently-curated '50 Moons of Saturn', the 2nd Turin Triennial (see post 10 November 2008). Both exhibitions shared several artists (Ulla von Brandenburg, Koo Jeong-A, Pietro Roccasalva, Spencer Finch, Ceal Floyer, Lara Favaretto, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Haegue Yang, Paul Chan, Tomás Saraceno, Wade Guyton, Keren Cytter and Rosa Barba), while Venice included several students (including Att Poomtangon) or professors (Simon Starling, Wolfgang Tillmans) from the Birnbaum-directed Staedelschule in Frankfurt, and the support of curator Jochen Volz in the artistic organization (additional advice was provided by a team of 'correspondents': Savita Apte, Tom Eccles, Hu Fang and Maria Finders). In contrast with the 2007 biennial by Robert Storr it felt less painterly and more sculptural and with a notable lack of 'black boxes' with film and video work.

There seemed to be however, a certain self-reflexivity with regard to the biennale context: several works referred to the winter life of the Giardini venues (Steve McQueen's film in the British Pavilion; Haegue Yang's video in the Korean Pavilion) and the challenge artists face when asked to present work for the Venice. This was most evident in Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's video in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (formerly named 'Padiglione Italia'), a touching exorcism of artistic exhaustion. During the last twenty years she has been asked to participate in the Biennale not less than five times, and she speaks about the pressure of expectation in creating something new every time.

Elsewhere in Venice the Biennial threatened to be overshadowed by the opening of François Pinault’s über-collection hosted in the recently renovated Punta della Dogana (the former customs house). The spectacular triangular building has undergone a speedy renovation by Japanese architect Tadao Ando (see video here) and the inaugural exhibition's sombre atmosphere is much in contrast to the über-kitch displays at Palazzo Grassi.



Without trying to be at all comprehensive (with almost one million square feet of exhibition space, more than ninety artists, seventy-seven national contributions, forty-four collateral events that seem increasingly impossible) here are some highlights in no particular order of the Giardini (see first slideshow with 107 images) and Arsenale (slideshow above with 52 images):

Roman Ondák’s 'Loop' contribution in the Czech/Slovak pavilion: a walk-through pavilion with a path running from the entrance to the back door that has been landscaped with exactly the same greenery that exists in the Giardini – it was executed with such precision that some visitors asked the artist if his work was the pavilion building itself as they could not find the 'art' anywhere.

Haegue Yang's 'Condensation' (Korea Pavilion) atmospheric assemblage of Venetian blinds, lamps or bulbs, scent atomizers, infrared motion detectors and crochet.

'The Collectors' in the Nordic and Danish pavilions, taken over by artists invited by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset which included exquisit works by Pepe Espaliú's ('Carrying Project') and Simon Fujiwara.

Lara Favaretto's 'Momentary Monument (Swamp)' at the Giardini delle Vergini as well as the three minute man-horse-motorbike film by David Bestué & Marc Vives, which together with their 'Acciones en casa' presented in the Arsenale, gave one of the only humorous notes in the exhibition.

Finally the biennial at last has a decent cafeteria! Tobias Rehberger was given the Golden Lion for the Best Artist for his neo-pop environment. It could well have been recognised along with another new facility previously in dire need of a revamp: the bookstore, which was designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija and hosted a comprehensive collection of monographs and catalogues.



Off-Giardini (Eventi Colaterali) highlights (slideshow above with 33 images):

Joao Maria Gusmao & Pedro Paiva's 'Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air' (Portugal) which included five 16mm films, a mixture of humour and magical realism (a sunset with three suns, a man lifting a bucket filled with water by grasping the water...). Truly great.

Teresa Margolles (Mexico) showing 'What else can we talk about?'. An traumatised and almost empty Palazzo Rota Ivancich highlighted the many Mexicans who have recently died in a violent manner. Margolles and her collaborators gathered blankets with blood and mud where victims fell. That mud and that same blood is slowly moistened in the ground floor and later used to mop the main floor. A decadent palazzo in almost complete silence combines personal dramas and national sorrow. As the artist put it 'we live in a country that cries' (La Jornada, 10 June). This, perhaps alongside Taiwan ('Foreign Affairs'), was by far the most self-critical national representation.

At Isola di Certosa: 'Animated Scene' by Irish artist John Gerrard: an amazing three-screen real time computer-generated projection of the American West: a reconstruction of a 1935 Texas dust storm, a year in the life of an automated pig production facility in the Great Sothern Plains and a man blacking out the facade of a white silo in Kansas – see images here.

Disappointments:

The Golden Lion for Best National Participation going to Bruce Nauman's 'Topological Gardens'. Yes, indeed a great artist but partly agreeing with Harry Bellet and Philippe Dagen from Le Monde: 'a retrospective without any new work is far away from the very principle of the Biennale: to reveal the present'. It also presented very familiar work from the 1960s until today from museums and private collections. His presentation did however come more to life in IUAV Tolentini and Ca'Foscari yet the need to crame three venues seems questionable.

Steve McQueen's ticketed entry to the British pavilion, showing a double-screen film portraying the off-season of the Giardini during the winter months: insects silently making their way through the vegetation, rain drops, Venetian bells ringing in the mist, greyhounds scavenging a trash-scattered Giardini, gay cruising in the small hours of the night. One cannot argue against the evident beauty of the piece, yet its impact quickly wore off.

Miquel Barceló representing Spain: not only because the choice of the project didn't follow any semblance of a democratic or juried selection (as did the Catalan Pavilion) but also the frankly flatfooted delivery: a hagiographic mini-retrospective complete with reading area.

Italian Pavilion in the Arsenale curated by Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli: an embarrassingly poor exhibition, doing no justice to the tremendous artistic talent in the host country.

The sudden cancellation of Emily Jacir's project 'Stazione' for the Palestinian Pavilion (to display the names of each vaporetto station along the Grand Canal in Arabic alongside the Italian). It would have been a telling reference to the cross-cultural exchange between Venice and the Arab world and a great addition to the very little public-space work produced for this Biennale.

'In-Finitum' at the Palazzo Fortuny included some great works (include those by Anselmo, and a room with Lucio Fontana) although the exhibition felt much less compelling than 2007's 'Artempo: Where time becomes art'. This year it seems to include more 1950s-1970s work, more monochromes (Gutai group, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Ryman, James Turrell, Mark Rothko, Hiroshi Sugimoto...) and did not exactly run with the concept of 'the infinite'. The strength of this curatorial exercise lies in widening the timeframe while building a link between Fortuny's legacy and 'anonymous' work (e.g. Egyptian ancient sculpture) with contemporary works (on this occasion John Gerrard, Michael Borremans, Berlinde Bruyckere et. al.), which failed to spark this time.

–

53rd International Art Exhibition: Making Worlds // Fare Mondi // Bantin Duniyan // Weltenmachen // Construire des Mondes // Fazer Mundos…
Artistic director: Daniel Birnbaum
Giardini della Biennale / Arsenale

Open 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Giardini closed on Mondays / Arsenale closed on Tuesdays

http://www.labiennale.org

We have updated our web and uploaded images of two recent projects: 'Provenances' an exhibition at Umberto di Marino, Naples, and 'Nothing or Something', SUITCASE Art Projects, Beijing:


'Provenances' [PHOTO GALLERY] opened on May 14th at Umberto di Marino, Naples, and is composed of three specially-commissioned solo presentations by Erick Beltrán, Simon Fujiwara and Jordi Mitjà. The exhibition reflects on the heritage industry and the museumification of history, as well as the creation, transmission and fidelity of cultural worth. On view until 14 September. + info

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


Ignasi Aballí's new project [PHOTO GALLERY] for the eight windows of SUITCASE Art Projects responds to the retail context of the Yintai Centre as well as an artistic history of absence, nothingness and invisibility. + info

Suitcase Art Projects, Park Life, Beijing Yintai Centre, No. 2 Jianwai Dajie, Chaoyang District, Beijing, CHINA. Opening Hours: 10am–10pm, Monday–Sunday


Please join us on Thursday 28th, 20h, at the opening of 'The Garden of Forking Paths', a group exhibition at Maisterravalbuena, Madrid. The exhibition brings together the work of Eric Bell & Kristoffer Frick; The Infinite Library (Daniel Gustav Cramer & Haris Epaminonda); huber.huber; Leslie Hewitt & Matt Keegan and Nashashibi/Skaer, five artist-duos to consider duality, simultaneity, saturation and proliferation. On view until 18 July 2009. + info

MAISTERRAVALBUENA, Doctor Fourquet 1, 28012 Madrid
Opening: Mon-Fri 10-14;15.30-19.30; Sat 10-18pm


[Photos: Simon Fujiwara, 'The Museum of Incest', installation at 'Provenances', Courtesy of teh artist. Photo: Simon Fujiwara; Visitors seeing 'Scenic Views' by Ignasi Aballí and Daniel Gustav Gramer & Haris Epaminonda 'Book #7: Walther Haage, 'Das praktische Kakteenbuch in Farben', Neumann Verlag, Radebeul, 1966 & Tibor Déry, 'Der Balaton', Druckerei Kosuth, Budapest, 1968' Courtesy the artists. Below: huber.huber, 'Mikrouniversum und andere kleine Systeme IV', 2009. Courtesy the artists]