The trilingual exhibition catalogue 'Symmetric Inequality' (Desigualdad simétrica), has just been published following the solo exhibition by Berlin-based artist Haegue Yang (1971, Seoul, Korea) which opened a year ago at sala rekalde, Bilbao (18.12.08–19.04.09 – see images of the exhibition on Latitudes' post from 20 December 2008). The catalogue is the second volume of a two-part publication project that began with the exhibition 'Asymmetric Equality: Haegue Yang', which took place at REDCAT, Los Angeles between 28 June and 24 August 2008.
This second volume documents the installation at sala rekalde and includes texts by Max Andrews of Latitudes; Prof. Jie-Hyun Lim, director of the Institute of Research in History and Comparative Culture of the University of Hanyang and a conversation between Melanie Ohnemus, curator of Portikus, Bart van der Heide, former curator of Cubitt, Pablo Lafuente, critic and editor of the journal Afterall, London/ Los Angeles, Asier Mendizábal, artist, Leire Vergara, former curator of sala rekalde and Haegue Yang. 'Haegue Yang. Symmetric Inequality' Graphic Design: Katie Hanburger & Gail Swanlund Publisher: sala rekalde, www.salarekalde.bizkaia.net Distributor: AGD Libros, Bilbao, agdlibros@adglibros.com ISBN 978-84-88559-58-6 (sala rekalde), ISBN 0-9749831-9-5 (REDCAT) 352 pp., colour, softcover
Recent publications – catalogue essays by Latitudes' Max Andrews:
•‘Untitled (You Are Good For Me Because You Destroy Me)’, Henrik Håkansson: Novelas de la selva / The Jungle Novels, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, 2009 (Spanish and English)
•‘Towards Haegue Yang’s ‘Blind Rooms’’, Haegue Yang, Artsonje Center / samuso, Seoul, 2009 (Korean) & forthcoming in Symmetric Inequality: Haegue Yang, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, 2009 (Spanish, Basque and English)
'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.
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. –
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.
Haegue Yang's new exhibition at sala rekalde 'Symmetric Inequality' (18.12.08-19.04.09) "belongs to a group of installations the artist has been developing over the course of this year, focusing her interest on investigating new possibilities for parallel crossings between abstraction and narration. Together with Kunstverein (Hamburg), Cubitt (London), the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh), Portikus (Frankfurt) and REDCAT (Los Angeles), sala rekalde now contributes to the closure of a serial project that has taken the medium of portraiture as the point of departure for its own articulation." (from e-flux 18.12.08). Below an excerpt from the catalogue essay by Latitudes' Max Andrews "Towards Haegue Yang's 'Blind Rooms'", which will be included in the forthcoming publication (out Spring 2009) followed by a video of the installation:
"Yang has developed a finely-tuned articulation of space through deft assemblage that has encompassed mirrors, multifarious electric lamps, scent atomizers, infrared motion detectors, heat sources and Venetian blinds. Variously sensory and sensible (i.e. readily percieved), such devices are not necessarily socially meaningful in themselves, yet they allow an interactive atmospherics that suggest zones of indeterminate necessities – part domestic interiors, part private theatres – and “localized effects” akin to political action." As the Arts Council Korea announced on the 23 December Eungie Joo, Director & Curator of Public Programs at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, recently appointed commissioner of the Korea Pavilion at the forthcoming Venice Biennale has invited Yang to represent Korea at the 53rd International Venice Biennale. Joo is the first non-Korean national commissioner for the Korean Pavilion. Haegue Yang was featured in an interview by Doryun Chong in the Summer 2007 issue, which Latitudes guest edited, of UOVO/14 titled 'Ecology, Luxury and Degradation' (see inside the issue here).
Daniel Birnbaum's correct triennale also presents two 'solo shows' by Paul Chan (three rooms at the Sandretto) and Olafur Eliasson (at Rivoli). Here 'solo shows' means presenting more works by each or simply giving them more room (having said that Eliasson's work is a one-room installation) not necessarily making clear divisions between these 'solo shows' and the rest of the artists in the Triennale.
T2 participating artists:
Meris Angioletti, Rosa Barba, Jennifer Bornstein, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Ulla von Brandenburg, Matthew Brannon, Gerard Byrne, Bonnie Camplin / Paulina Olowska, Valerio Carrubba, Antonio Cataldo & Mariagiovanna Nuzzi, Paul Chan, Kerstin Cmelka, Keren Cytter, Simon Dybbroe Möller, Olafur Eliasson, Lara Favaretto, Spencer Finch, Ceal Floyer, Anna Galtarossa, Andrea Geyer, Loris Gréaud, Wade Guyton, Haegue Yang, Annika von Hausswolff, Ragnar Kjartansson, Joachim Koester, Koo Jeong-A, Sandra Kranich, Robert Kusmirowski, Rivane Neuenschwander, Diego Perrone, Alessandro Piangiamore, Giuseppe Pietroniro, Giulia Piscitelli, Peyman Rahimi, Pietro Roccasalva, Tomás Saraceno, Wilhelm Sasnal, Benjamin Saurer, Alberto Tadiello, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gert and Uwe Tobias, Luca Trevisani, Tatiana Trouvé, Ian Tweedy, Donald Urquhart, Guido van der Werve, Jordan Wolfson and Akram Zaatari.
Palazzina della Società della Promotrice delle Belle Arti Via Diego Balsamo Crivelli 11, Torino Open: from Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 7 pm
Artissima 15 programme was packed with numerous events Wednesday to Sunday, including:
PRESENT FUTURE (17 projects by artists emerging on the national and international scene selected by Cecilia Alemani, art critic and independent curator, New York; Michael Ned Holte, independent curator and art critic, Los Angeles; Thibaut Verhoeven, curator SMAK, Gent; Aurélie Voltz, independent curator, Berlin); CONSTELLATIONS (11 installations, sculptures, and large-format works) selected by Stéphanie Moisdon, co-curator, 2007 Lyon Biennale and Manifesta 4, and Susanne Pfeffer, curator, Kunst-Werke, Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin); The VIDEO LOUNGE (curated by ourselves, included films and videos by 40+ artists and over 6 hours of screening of materials submitted by the participating galleries – More info); the ITALIAN WAVE (a contest launched to present the work of Italian artists under-35 Italian); l'ECOLE DE STEPHANIE (curated by Stéphanie Moisdon, l'école is a small temporary school that offered lessons, lectures, debates, performances and screenings); ARTISSIMA CINEMA (a festival of animated shorts and artists films from Indonesia and China); ARTISSIMA VOLUME (devoted to contemporary music); ARTISSIMA COMICS (an exhibition of a promising young talent of Italian comics, Michelangelo Setola); ARTISSIMA DESIGN (an exhibition of Paolo Mussat Sartor, the photographer and narrator of Art Povera) plus the CONTEMPORARY ARTS NIGHT on Saturday 8th, where galleries and art spaces premiered shows or performances until the wee hours...
'Brave New Worlds', Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 4 October 07–17 February 08
Accompanying the 'Brave New Worlds' exhibition is a 300-page illustrated catalogue containing essays by Walker Art Center Curatorial Assistants and exhibition curators Doryun Chong and Yasmil Raymond.
The catalogue also includes "correspondent" essays inspired by newspaper reports and penned by art historians, critics, and curators from around the world, including Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna (Spain), Cecilia Brunson (Chile), Hu Fang (China), Tone Hansen (Norway), Mihnea Mircan (Romania), and José Roca (Colombia). Recent texts by philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, celebrated author and activist Arundhati Roy, and award-winning foreign correspondent Janine di Giovanni provide additional perspectives on global affairs of the past decade...
Addressing contemporary international art beyond glib expressions of globalism, the exhibition 'Brave New Worlds' assesses the current state of political consciousness and its multiple artistic manifestations in an era characterized by the unraveling of a unified world order. Guided by the questions “How do we know?,” How do we experience?,” and “How do we dream about the world?,” twenty four artists from more than a dozen countries in Southeastern Europe, South America, the Middle East, East Asia, North America, and North Africa propose their own answers in paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and videos.
Participating artists: Armando Andrade Tudela, Yto Barrada, Yael Bartana, Mark Bradford, Fernando Bryce, Mircea Cantor, Cao Fei, Banu Cennetoglu, GimHongSok, Runa Islam, Gabriel Kuri, Jorge Macchi, Josephine Meckseper, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Rika Noguchi, Dan Perjovschi, Lia Perjovschi, Walid Raad, Tomás Saraceno, Sean Snyder, Erik van Lieshout, Haegue Yang, Zheng Guogu, and Artur Zmijewski.
Latitudes is
a Barcelona-based curatorial
office initiated in 2005 by Max Andrews and Mariana
Cánepa Luna. This is our blog,
affiliated to our website www.LTTDS.org
Latitudes es
una oficina curatorial
con base en Barcelona iniciada en 2005 por Max Andrews y Mariana
Cánepa Luna. Este es el blog
afiliado a nuestra web www.LTTDS.org
