Coinciding with the end of the 'Footprints' exhibition (17 May–25 October 2009) organised by The Wanås Foundation (presenting works by Tue Greenfort, Henrik Håkansson, Tea Mäkipää (with Halldór Úlfarsson), Tomás Saraceno and Nilsmagnus Sköld) this one-day seminar hosted by the foundation on the 21st October included three presentations from different areas of expertise and a panel discussion around the relationship between contemporary art practice and ecology, the language used by the media on climate change, individual and collective environmental efforts, etc.

Speakers included: Folke Tersman (Professor of Practical Philosophy at Uppsala University, author of 'Tillsammans: en filosofisk debattbok om hur vi kan rädda vårt klimat' (2009)); Joanna Yarrow (media commentator and expert in the field of ecologically sustainable lifestyles, founder of Beyond Green in London) and Latitudes, who presented projects including the group exhibition 'Greenwashing Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities' (2008), the publication Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook (2006) and the commissioning series in the port of Rotterdam 'Portscapes' (2009).

Images: Latitudes and The Wanås Foundation

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]

Looking back at the past year is a infectious exercise at this point in the calendar. We would like to thank everyone that has visited or taken part in our projects, from the small ones to the 3 year-long collaborations, whether from nearby or far away.

Our 2008 began as intense preparations were well underway for the group exhibition 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities' at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (29.02 –18.05.2008) co-curated with Ilaria Bonacossa. 'Greenwashing...' presented the work of 25 artists and artists groups (11 of those produced new work). A 192 page catalogue was published by The Bookmakers Ed., Turin – you can buy a copy here (English/Italian editions).

Following 'Greenwashing...' we presented 'A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel: Land Art's Expanded Field 1968–2008', a film and video programme curated at the invitation of the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City that later toured to 8 venues between April and October: MARCO, Vigo; Stadtkino (Kunsthalle Basel), Basel, Switzerland; CAAC, Sevilla; Fundació Suñol, Barcelona; Barn Hongersdijk Farmstead, Wilhelminapolder, The Netherlands; Spike Island, Bristol, United Kingdom; Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Móstoles. For further information you can read an essay in the Winter 2008-9 (upcoming) issue of Art & Co magazine or download press articles and programmes here.

Before the end of the summer we were part of the jury for the Premi Miquel Casablancas, an award for Spanish artists under 36. From around 200 portfolios and projects submitted Latitudes, together with Aimar Arriola, selected four artists to participate in the exhibition later in the year: ‘La, la, la, la: on winning and losing’ (29.11.2008 – 10.01.2009).

The summer was filled with more research and work to be done, which was carried out thanks to the support and hospitality of the Deutsche Börse Residency Programme, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany.

The 2008-9 season began with the exciting realisation of 'The Crest of a Wave’, a four-part project by Lawrence Weiner at Fundació Suñol, Barcelona (08.10 – 15.11.08) that had a great press, radio, specialised media and TV coverage (see post 12 November); followed by the conclusion of the 3 year-long public commission by Tue Greenfort which was presented in a discrete mode alongside his Frieze Art Fair project (16-19 October). This commission was an initiative of the RSA Arts & Ecology programme, London, which has recently become the Arts & Ecology center. Soon there will be a small publication gathering the history of the commission as well visual documentation of the project.

In November, as part of Artissima 15 Latitudes presented 'X, Y, etc!', a video programme comprised of around 40 works that was inspired by Charles Fort's research methodology, the paranormal and anomalous phenomena, the uncanny and the unexplained.

And now looking a little towards what's to come in 2009 ... since May 2008 (see previous posts here and here) we have been working on 'Portscapes', a series of artists’ projects that will take place throughout 2009 alongside the construction of ‘Maasvlakte 2’, a 1,000 hectare area of reclaimed land that will extend the Port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest seaport and industrial area. Mirroring a port's function of transit and exchange 'Portscapes' will involve Rotterdam-based artists and those from countries including China, Austria, Mexico, Scotland and the US, with the aim of considering the physical and conceptual implications of the new lands of Maasvlakte 2, as well as the city-port as a distributive network across artistic, marine and mercantile registers. 'Portscapes' will be introduced during Art Rotterdam (5–8 February 2009) by a small ‘prologue’ publication designed by Ben Laloua / Didier Pascal.

Throughout 2008 we have also contributed several catalogue essays, articles, exhibition reviews, artists profiles, etc. a selection of which can be downloaded from our writing archive.

Happy New Year!

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]

Piotr Uklanski 'A Retrospective' (main space) and Tue Greenfort's 'Medusa' (upper and lower galleries) at the Secession, Vienna, 20 September – 18 November 2007.

All images: Latitudes | www.lttds.org

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]

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