Cover Story, December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View
Sat, Dec 2 2023 
December 2023 cover story on www.lttds.org
The December 2023 monthly Cover Story “Ibon Aranberri. Partial View” is now up on our homepage: www.lttds.org
“This month’s Cover Story, the 100th no less, focusses on artist Ibon Aranberri, whose anthology exhibition “Vista partial” (Partial View) has recently opened at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, and with whom Latitudes has been able to collaborate on several occasions.” → Continue reading (after December 2023 this story will be archived here).
Cover Stories are published monthly on Latitudes’ homepage featuring past, present, or forthcoming projects, research, texts, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects, or field trips related to our curatorial projects and activities.
→ RELATED CONTENTS:
- Archive of Monthly Cover Stories
- Cover Story, November 2023: Surucuá, Teque-teque, Arara: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, 2 Nov 2023
- Cover Story, October 2023: A tree felled, a tree cut in 7, 2 October 2023
- Cover Story, September 2023: The Pilgrim in Ireland, 6 September 2023
- Cover Story, July–August 2023: Honeymoon in Valencia, 1 July 2023
- Cover Story, June 2023: Crystal Bennes futures, 1 Jun 2023
- Cover Story, May 2023: Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty in Barcelona, 1 May 2023
- Cover Story, April 2023: Jerónimo Hagerman (1967–2023), 1 Apr 2023
- Cover Story, March 2023: Art, Climate and New Coalitions, 1 March 2023
- Cover Story, February 2023: Soil for Future Art Histories, 2 Feb 2023
- Cover Story, January 2023: Claudia Pagès’ ‘Gerundi Circular’, 2 Jan 2023
- Cover Story, December 2022: “The Melt Goes On Forever. David Hammons and DART Festival, 1 December 2022
- Cover Story, November 2022: Jorge Satorre’s Barcelona, 1 Nov 2022
Reduce Art Flights website refreshed
Wed, Feb 5 2020 |
| https://reduceartflights.lttds.org/ |
The Reduce Art Flights website has had a long-overdue refresh (the first version is from 2008 and originally at reduceartflights.com): it now features a new exhibition history, bibliography and a transcription of the interview with RAF's instigator, the late artist Gustav Metzger (1926–2017).
RAF / Reduce Art Flights is a campaign which upholds that the art world—artists, curators, critics, gallerists, collectors, museum directors, etc.—could or should diminish its use of aeroplanes.
“...it’s a nudge in the ribs as it were to remind people there is a problem and let’s talk about this problem of endless flights here and there. What particularly annoyed me originally was the statement by the organisers of the [2006] Basel art fair that when it comes to taking the fair to Miami, which was planned, everybody could get a 50% reduction on the aeroplane flight. I thought that is just over the top, pumping up the possibility of aeroplane use. So for me, this has very much to do with a rejection of mass transport through the air of course, and through cars and buses, and also a criticism of the art world where everything is out for maximizing everything and in every direction.” — Gustav Metzger
The site is maintained by Latitudes as a resource for the initiative and as a location for future elaborations of its aims.
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| The website in 2008. |
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| Pages of the exhibition catalogue ‘Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities’, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, edited by Latitudes & Ilaria Bonacossa, published by The Bookmakers Ed., Turin, 2008, ISBN: 978-88-95702-01-8. |
→ RELATED CONTENT:
- 'THE LAST MONITOR' AVAILABLE NOW! #5 issue of the 10 Latitudes-edited newspapers for 'The Last Newspaper' exhibition, New Museum 30 October 2010
- Reduce Art Flights leafleting campaign by Gustav Metzger at the Serpentine Gallery, London 21 October 2009
- Gustav Metzger's RAF / Reduce Art Flights campaign initiative changes URL to www.reduceartflights.lttds.org 28 January 2009
- “Greenwashing update: RAF / Reduce Art Flights. Gustav Metzger interview”, Latitudes blog post, 6 March 2008
- Exhibition ‘Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities’, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, 2008.
Latitudes' redesigned portfolio – projects since 2005
Wed, Feb 20 2019
After weeks and long hours facing the screen and mining hard disks, we've uploaded Latitudes' redesigned portfolio, at last! Go to download page and choose format:
For desktop/laptop/tablet view (83pp, 30.9 MB)
For mobile (164pp, 15.8 MB)
For print (164pp, 155.3 MB)
The pdf gathers a selection of projects produced since 2005 and includes a refreshed version of our biographies – which have also been updated on our website.
We have also included short individual biographies available for download as pdf – see below highlighted in yellow.
PDF designed and edited by Latitudes.
RELATED CONTENT:
RELATED CONTENT:
- About Latitudes
- Writing archive on Latitudes' website
- Receive our sporadic newsletters.
Lawrence Weiner tote bag and sugar sachets at the McManus Museum and Galleries in Dundee
Mon, Nov 26 2018Following on our earlier post from October 26, 2018 announcing our donation of Lawrence Weiner's limited edition tote bag to Tate Archive, we now share some images of its presentation as part of Tate's "ARTIST ROOMS: Lawrence Weiner" currently on view at the McManus Museum and Galleries in Dundee, Scotland, until February 17, 2019.
The Dundee presentation includes the limited edition tote bag and three sugar sachets with the striking typographic rendition of the statement "A CLOTH OF COTTON WRAPPED AROUND A HORSESHOE OF IRON TOSSED UPON THE CREST OF A WAVE" in Catalan, Spanish, and English, the latter first commissioned in 2008 as part of Weiner's solo exhibition at the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona.
Thank you Valentina Ravaglia (Assistant Curator, Exhibitions & Displays, Tate Modern) for facilitating the inclusion of these ephemera into Tate's collection, and to Lili Bartholomew (Curatorial Assistant, Leisure and Culture Dundee) for liaising from Dundee and sharing the images.
RELATED CONTENT:
10th anniversary, 2008, 2019, donation, Exhibition, Fundació Suñol, Lawrence Weiner, Tote Bags
Photo: Lawrence Weiner. ARTIST ROOMS. National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. ©Lawrence Weiner.
The Dundee presentation includes the limited edition tote bag and three sugar sachets with the striking typographic rendition of the statement "A CLOTH OF COTTON WRAPPED AROUND A HORSESHOE OF IRON TOSSED UPON THE CREST OF A WAVE" in Catalan, Spanish, and English, the latter first commissioned in 2008 as part of Weiner's solo exhibition at the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona.
Thank you Valentina Ravaglia (Assistant Curator, Exhibitions & Displays, Tate Modern) for facilitating the inclusion of these ephemera into Tate's collection, and to Lili Bartholomew (Curatorial Assistant, Leisure and Culture Dundee) for liaising from Dundee and sharing the images.
Photo: Creative Learning Team McManus.
RELATED CONTENT:
- THE CREST OF A WAVE by Lawrence Weiner at the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, October–November 2008.
- Photographs of THE CREST OF THE WAVE project.
- Latitudes' limited edition tote bags exhibited in the Asia Art Archive's "A short history of the art book bag (and the things that go in them)" 24 August 2015
- Latitudes 10th Anniversary Tote Bags. Commemorative editions by Lawrence Weiner, Haegue Yang, Ignasi Aballí and Mariana Castillo Deball
- Archive Cover Story (May): Here’s to horseshoes: Lawrence Weiner and Sergi Aguilar 1 June 2015
- Latitudes contribution to Kadist Art Foundation's 'One Sentence Exhibition' 1 September 2015
Lawrence Weiner's THE CREST OF A WAVE tote bag in the Tate Archive and exhibited at The McManus Museum and Galleries, Dundee
Fri, Oct 26 2018
Limited edition tote bag designed by Lawrence Weiner in 2015. Photo: Latitudes.
We're delighted to share that Latitudes' limited edition tote bag, exclusively designed by Lawrence Weiner to commemorate Latitudes' 10th anniversary in 2015, is now part of Tate Archive.
Latitudes' donation is presented as part of Tate's "ARTIST ROOMS: Lawrence Weiner" exhibition, on view from November 2, 2018, at The McManus Museum and Galleries in Dundee, Scotland, until February 17, 2019.
ARTIST ROOMS is a touring collection of over 1,600 works of modern and contemporary art. The collection is displayed in museums and galleries across the UK and is jointly owned by the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate.
The Dundee presentation will include the limited edition tote bag and three sugar sachets with the striking typographic rendition of the statement "A CLOTH OF COTTON WRAPPED AROUND A HORSESHOE OF IRON TOSSED UPON THE CREST OF A WAVE" in Catalan, Spanish, and English, the latter first commissioned in 2008 as part of Weiner's solo exhibition at the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona.
"Influential conceptual artist, Lawrence Weiner uses language as his medium. His text work takes many forms, but the core principle remains the same – his ideas should not be confined to the gallery but taken up by the viewer.
Photos: Latitudes.
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| Weiner's tote silkscreening process. Photo: Print Workers. |
A booklet of the exhibition, the invitation card, and an audio rendition of the statement (the track can be listed to here) based on a track by Ned Sublette and The Persuasions are also featured in Dundee.
(Above and below) Installation of Lawrence Weiner's "THE CREST OF A WAVE" at Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, October–November 2008. Photo: Latitudes.
Weiner with his work at the Fundació Suñol. Photo: Jean-Pierre Moulis.
One part of Lawrence Weiner's ‘THE CREST OF A WAVE’ project at the Fundació Suñol in 2008 consisted of an ephemeral sculpture distributed a few days prior to the exhibition opening. 300,000 7-gram sachets of sugar were printed and distributed throughout the most emblematic cafes around Barcelona. Photo: Latitudes.
100,000 sugar sachets ready for distribution. Photo: Latitudes.
Front and back of the 7-gram sugar sachet with Weiner's statement.
(Above and below) The last element of the project manifested as an intimate event realised by the sea during the opening week: an iron horseshoe was wrapped in a cotton cloth and was tossed upon a wave’s crest. Photos: Jean-Pierre Moulis.
Adopting this principle, The McManus has worked with the artist to present his texts in different forms. One cycle of wall texts will be presented in Scots – translated by distinguished author James Robertson. Texts, a selection of posters, drawings, artist books, and ephemera will also be installed within museum displays around the building – the text resonating alongside Dundee’s rich collections of natural history, archaeology, world cultures, industrial machinery and the spectacular architecture of The McManus itself." (text from Tate's website)
RELATED CONTENT:
Latitudes' full set of artists' totes were exhibited in 2015 at the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong as part of Ingrid Chu's 15th-anniversary programme "15 Invitations | a short history of the art book bag". Photo: Asia Art Archive.
- THE CREST OF A WAVE by Lawrence Weiner at the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, October–November 2008.
- Photographs of THE CREST OF THE WAVE project.
- Pdf online of the exhibition booklet
- Making of video
- Latitudes' limited edition tote bags exhibited in the Asia Art Archive's "A short history of the art book bag (and the things that go in them)" 24 August 2015
- Latitudes publications acquired by the Paul D. Fleck Library & Archives, The Banff Centre 2 August 2015
- Latitudes 10th Anniversary Tote Bags. Commemorative editions by Lawrence Weiner, Haegue Yang, Ignasi Aballí and Mariana Castillo Deball
- Archive Cover Story: Here’s to horseshoes: Lawrence Weiner and Sergi Aguilar 1 June 2015
- Latitudes contribution to Kadist Art Foundation's 'One Sentence Exhibition' 1 September 2015
- (Part 2/3) "The Encyclopedic Palace", 55th Venice Biennale in tote bags 14 June 2013
- FAQ: Where can I find the publications edited by Latitudes? 22 April 2012
Cover Story—February 2018: Paradise, Promises and Perplexities
Mon, Feb 5 2018
The February 2018 Monthly Cover Story "Paradise, Promises and Perplexities" is now up on www.lttds.org – after this month it will be archived here.
"This month marks ten years since the opening of Greenwashing, curated by Latitudes and Ilaria Bonacossa. Subtitled Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities, this exhibition at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, addressed the melding of corporate agendas and individual ethics in the wake of the exhaustion of traditional environmentalism." Continue reading
Cover Stories' are published on a monthly basis on Latitudes' homepage and feature past, present or forthcoming projects, research, writing, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects or field trips related to our curatorial activities.
—> RELATED CONTENT:
Archive of Monthly Cover Stories
Cover Story – January 2018: I'll be there for you, 2 January 2018
Cover Story – December 2017: "Tabet's Tapline trajectory", 4 December 2017
Cover Story – November 2017: "Mining negative monuments: Ângela Ferreira, Stone Free, and The Return of the Earth", 1 November 2017
Cover Story – October 2017: Geologic Time at Stanley Glacier 11 October 2017
Cover Story – September 2017: Dark Disruption. David Mutiloa's 'Synthesis' 1 September 2017
Cover Story – August 2017: Walden 7; or, life in Sant Just Desvern 1 August 2017
Cover Story – July 2017: 4.543 billion 3 July 2017
Cover Story – June 2017: Month Light–Absent Forms 1 June 2017
Cover Story – May 2017: S is for Shale, or Stuart; W is for Waterfall, or Whipps 1 May 2017
Cover Story – April 2017: Banff Geologic Time 3 April 2017
Cover Story – March 2017: Time travel with Jordan Wolfson 1 March 2017
Cover Story — February 2017: The Dutch Assembly, five years on 1 February 2017
Cover Story – January 2017: How open are open calls? 4 January 2017
Latitudes contribution to Kadist Art Foundation's 'One Sentence Exhibition'
Tue, Sep 1 2015
Recognizing that not everyone can visit Kadist Art Foundation venues in Paris or San Francisco, Kadist recently inaugurated a series of online projects with artists and curators around the world.
First of these initiatives is the One Sentence Exhibition (OSE), for which the foundation invites curators to write or choose a single sentence, making each word in the sentence a hyperlink to an image, video, text or website. As a result, the One Sentence Exhibition becomes a compact architecture, accompanying the reader as they explore far-reaching corners of the internet.
Following on from the contributions by Rudolf Frieling (Media Arts Curator at SFMOMA) and Nato Thompson (Chief Curator at Creative Time) to OSE series, Latitudes has chosen the statement "A CLOTH OF COTTON WRAPPED AROUND A HORSESHOE OF IRON TOSSED UPON THE CREST OF A WAVE" by Lawrence Weiner in English, Spanish and Catalan, commissioned for his 2008 solo exhibition THE CREST OF A WAVE at the Fundació Suñol in Barcelona.
Sugar packets where freely distributed during the duration of the exhibition around Barcelona. Photo: Pierre-Jean Moulis.
Originally distributed as a free ephemeral sculpture on 300,000 sugar sachets and presented on the wall of the exhibition space, Weiner’s striking typographic rendition of the statement triggers a chronicle of mercantile, maritime and equestrian power, of trade and occupation, of spheres of influence and change, a memory of matter and of language.
Lawrence Weiner tote bag. Available from http://www.lttds.org/totes/weiner/
The statement is also silkscreened on the commemorative limited edition tote bag that celebrated Latitudes' 10th anniversary in Spring 2015.
As elaborated by Latitudes in the exhibition guide, "A CLOTH OF COTTON WRAPPED AROUND A HORSESHOE OF IRON TOSSED UPON THE CREST OF A WAVE indicates an object record of early human technologies (woven textiles, reusable protection for the hooves of working animals) and a marine setting. Weiner’s phrase facilitates a richly ambiguous material and symbolic universe. Why is the horseshoe wrapped? What story, personal or historical, might account for the event that is described? The artist’s statement leaves such questions open for us to consider. It is known that muslin and calico was brought to Spain by the Arab traders in the 1st Century. After the Conquest of Hispania during the 7th Century, facilitated by the Muslim cavalry’s more agile horses, cotton was cultivated by the Moors in Spain. Barcelona’s industrialization in the late 1700s and early 1800s was driven by the printing of calico and later the spinning and weaving of cotton. [1]
Poster of the exhibition at Fundació Suñol's Nivell Zero space, Barcelona.
In the manner of a biography of substances, such as Mark Kurlansky’s books Cod and Salt, A CLOTH OF COTTON... thus triggers a chronicle of mercantile, maritime and equestrian power, of trade and occupation, of spheres of influence and change, a memory of matter and of language. [2]" (...)
(...) The statement is distributed on a sugar packet throughout a selection of Barcelona bars and cafés during the city's Mercè Festival and for the duration of the exhibition – a sweet gift to accompany one’s café con leche,
cortado, carajillo, or conversation. Printed on hundreds of thousands of standard 7 gram white sugar sachets – sugar production technology too was spread into Spain by Moorish occupation – Weiner’s striking typographic rendition of the phrase in red and yellow (the colours of both the Catalan and the Spanish flag) is accompanied by an emblem which evokes the trajectory of a certain horseshoe over a wave in diagrammatic form.
View of Lawrence Weiner's piece at the patio space of Fundació Suñol, Barcelona.
(...) On the five metre-high wall of the exterior space [of Fundació Suñol’s Nivell Zero] we read A CLOTH OF COTTON WRAPPED AROUND A HORSESHOE OF IRON TOSSED UPON THE CREST OF A WAVE painted in Catalan, Spanish and English. The use of the same stencil font as the sugar packet layout suggests a method of functional and clear application which reinforces the fact that Weiner is dealing with the language in terms of modification and use. [3] The word for a company which produces typefaces – a foundry – neatly preserves a link to a time when type was cast from metal, in much the same way as horseshoes are made from iron."
Ceremony of the 2008 ACCA (Art Critics Association) awards which granted Fundació Suñol the best art programme of the year – a season that included two projects curated by Latitudes.
[1] See J.K.J. Thomson, A Distinctive Industrialization: Cotton in Barcelona 1728-1832, Cambridge University
Press, 2003.
[2] Salt: A World History, Walker and Co., 2001; Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Walker
and Co., 1997.
[3] The font is FF Offline Regular, designed by Roelof Mulder in 1988.
–
This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Archive Cover Story (May): Here’s to horseshoes: Lawrence Weiner and Sergi Aguilar
Mon, Jun 1 2015
May 2015 Cover Story dedicated to Lawrence Weiner and Sergi Aguilar.
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Cover Story #2: Beneath the Connaught Road West flyover, Hong Kong, 19 January 2013 (4 May 2015)
Cover Story #1: Wilfredo Prieto's work "Grease, Soap, Banana" (2 April 2015)
Latitudes participates in the "Readers Circle: 100 Notes–100 Thoughts" programme organised by the Maybe Education and Public Programs of dOCUMENTA (13) (31 August 2012)
dOCUMENTA (13) artists and Latitudes (24 August 2012)
Lawrence Weiner, 'Under the Sun', Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló (25 October 2009)
Latitudes' "out of office" photo album 2008-9 (30 July 2009)
SAVE THE DATE: 8 October, Lawrence Weiner, Fundació Suñol, Barcelona (29 August 2008)
'UN PAÑO DE ALGODÓN ...' de Lawrence Weiner (22 September 2008)
–
This is the blog of the independent curatorial office Latitudes. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption).
Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Sharjah Biennial 8 (2007) part 2 publication with proceedings of the 3-day conference organised by Latitudes and the RSA, London
Mon, Oct 26 2009
Edited by Joseph R Wolin
Paperback
567 pages, 299 visuals. Softcover 350g. Art Matt Card
Paper: 80g. offset wood free and 135 g. Art Matt24 x 16 cm
English and Arabic
Published by Sharjah Biennial, 2008ISBN 978-9948-04-328-6 Part II
The recently published vol. II of the catalogue of the Sharjah Biennial 8 [25º 22’N, 55º 24’E] titled 'Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change (Part II)' includes installation shots of the exhibition as well as proceedings of the 3-day conference Latitudes organised in collaboration with the Royal Society of Art's Arts & Ecology programme (today the RSA Arts and Ecology Centre) (+ info). The book is a companion to volume I, published to coincide with the Biennial’s opening.
The symposium (images here) considered today’s uses and abuses of the ‘eco-’, notions of artistic agency and critical practice, as well as the role of the public realm in today’s artistic and institutional practices. How has it become fashionable (or profitable) to be seen to be eco? How has what we mean by ecology been transformed and evolved through the uses of terms such as ‘environmental’, ‘green’, ‘ethical living’, and so on?; How do some artists desire palliative results, while others offer strategies of friction or resistance? How far are the sources of materials a consideration for artists, designers and architects? And how does this relate to broader questions of resources—water, energy, oil in the Emirate and beyond?
The symposium included focused presentations by keynote speakers such as Bruce Sterling (read his paper here), critical panels by biennial artists Sergio Vega or Peter Fend as well as by Van Abbemuseum director and Sharjah Biennial juror Charles Esche, or Smart Museum's Curator of Contemporary Art Stephanie Smith, as well as breakout seminars with biennial artists Tomás Saraceno and Michael Rakowitz.
You can download the symposium programme, the exhibition guide and view press-related materials in this archive.
The recently published vol. II of the catalogue of the Sharjah Biennial 8 [25º 22’N, 55º 24’E] titled 'Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change (Part II)' includes installation shots of the exhibition as well as proceedings of the 3-day conference Latitudes organised in collaboration with the Royal Society of Art's Arts & Ecology programme (today the RSA Arts and Ecology Centre) (+ info). The book is a companion to volume I, published to coincide with the Biennial’s opening.
The symposium (images here) considered today’s uses and abuses of the ‘eco-’, notions of artistic agency and critical practice, as well as the role of the public realm in today’s artistic and institutional practices. How has it become fashionable (or profitable) to be seen to be eco? How has what we mean by ecology been transformed and evolved through the uses of terms such as ‘environmental’, ‘green’, ‘ethical living’, and so on?; How do some artists desire palliative results, while others offer strategies of friction or resistance? How far are the sources of materials a consideration for artists, designers and architects? And how does this relate to broader questions of resources—water, energy, oil in the Emirate and beyond?
The symposium included focused presentations by keynote speakers such as Bruce Sterling (read his paper here), critical panels by biennial artists Sergio Vega or Peter Fend as well as by Van Abbemuseum director and Sharjah Biennial juror Charles Esche, or Smart Museum's Curator of Contemporary Art Stephanie Smith, as well as breakout seminars with biennial artists Tomás Saraceno and Michael Rakowitz.
You can download the symposium programme, the exhibition guide and view press-related materials in this archive.
Cover and Back Cover, 'Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change (Part II)'. Photos: Sharjah Biennial.
Text on the film programme 'Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel: Land Art’s Expanded Field, 1968–2008', Art&Co #5 (Winter 2009)
Wed, Jan 28 2009
"(...) Latitudes developed the film programme 'A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel: Land Art’s Expanded Field, 1968–2008' at the invitation of the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City. Premiering there in April 2008 as part of the Tamayo’s 'Panorámica' series, 'A Stake in the Mud...' has since toured to several venues throughout Europe within an auditorium-based screening format, presenting historical works alongside those produced in the last six years.
What were the possibilities for augmenting preordained definitions of so-called Land Art through relation with contemporary practices, and social and environmental ecologies? Though the cycle had its germination in our work on a publication – 'Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' (2006) – the dimension of film clearly proposed additional sets of concerns. The title of the programme was drawn from the words of Robert Smithson in which he speculates on the site and film of perhaps the most renowned – and certainly most photogenic – of the works associated with Land Art, 'Spiral Jetty' (1970). It attempts to surmise the programme’s dual concern with sheer materiality and physical processes together with the lacunae of filmic representation. Where artists’ use of film or video might appear as a solution to the problem of how to represent something that would otherwise be inaccessible (an intervention in a remote area, for example) or otherwise ephemeral, it apparently creates another – what, or where, does the artwork consist of? Accordingly, what is the status of each film: informal artefact, ‘making of’ movie, documentary, autonomous fiction or something else?
(...)Accordingly, the programme enhanced several ‘Smithsonian’ dialogues across time but rarely was the magnetism openly declared or intentional. Included in part two of the programme, 'Zênite invertido/Inverted Zenith' (2005) by Brazilian artist Thiago Rocha Pitta portrayed a mesmerising vortex of water in a metal vessel which slowly diminishes in volume before a steady resurgence. The work supports a tacit mythical connection to Spiral Jetty and its own narratives of mirroring and reversal, but also to the cosmic whirlpools evoked in Edgar Allan Poe’s tale ‘A Descent into the Maelström’. A concern with remoteness, together with the powerful allure of specific sites, threaded throughout the cycle. The itinerary took in the sewers of New York City and Vienna (through works by Gordon Matta-Clark and Hans Schabus), the deserts of the US (Mario Garcia Torres or Walter De Maria), high mountain zones (Ibon Aranberri, Maria Thereza Alves), as well as the paradisiac beaches of Taveuni (Nikolaj Recke), for example. Territorial sculptural acts (Barry Flanagan or Walter de Maria, for example) were encountered, as well as displacements more legible as social or political actions (in the work by Francis Alÿs). Absurd gestures (Damián Ortega) met touristic views of natural phenomena (Nancy Holt & Smithson) while perspectival experiments (Jan Dibbets) greeted ecological remarks (Donna Conlon)."
'Mono Lake' (1968/2004) by Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt is one of the films included in the first part of the programme which we just learned was acquired in 2007 by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. Here is an acquisition entry on the piece (in Spanish).
The full article is available for download from Latitudes' writing archive here.
Further documentation such as hand programmes, press reviews, adverts, etc. here; Photodocumentation of the screenings here.
Art&Co is a bilingual Spanish/English quarterly magazine published by the Asociación Amigos de ARCO.
Editorial Director: Ángela Molina
Contact: artandco@artandco.es or (+34) 917 225 102
More info: http://www.arco.ifema.es (see 'Publications')