Photo: 'Amikejo' advert in Extra Babelia, El País, 19 March 2011
'Amikejo' exhibition season: Pennacchio Argentato: 29 January–3 April Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum: 9 April–12 June Uqbar Foundation: 25 June–11 September Fermin Jiménez Landa & Lee Welch: 24 September–15 January 2012
Throughout 2011 Latitudes is the guest curator of the exhibition season at the Laboratorio 987, titled 'Amikejo'. The series is structured around relational and spatial twinning and presents the work of four collaborative couples, involving various modes of binomial friendships – couples in life, dedicated duos, intermittent work partners and new allies.
The series encompasses a further register of doubling prompted by the relation with a specific remote location: Amikejo. In 1908, the territory then known as Neutral Moresnet located between the Netherlands, Belgium and Prussia, proclaimed itself to be the world's first Esperanto state becoming 'Amikejo' ('place of great friendship' in Esperanto). The association of the exhibition series to 'Amikejo' not only implicates the spatial functions of the ‘neutral’ spaces of art and the special characteristics of museum project spaces, yet also establishes a similitude with the desire to institute a shared and effective means of communication, between participants and with the world.
The first exhibition presented a new production by the Neapolitan duo Pennacchio Argentato, which included a group of rough 'muscular' sculptures. Together with poster images of former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger and a structure of metal bars, the space evoked an unreceptive gymnasium in which an abstract body was called upon to perform and exhibit itself.
Above: Installation views exhibition 'Amikejo: Pennacchio Argentato' at Laboratorio 987. Courtesy the artists. Photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org
For the second chapter of the exhibition series, Rotterdam-based artists Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum present a project around the changing values of labour and property, examining alternative personal and political readings of common cultural heritage. As the artists have explained, “Klaas’s grandfather belonged to a generation for whom ‘free time’ should be spent doing something productive. When he retired, he had his former colleagues at the factory weld together a lathe for him, so that he could take up woodturning. In old age, he was able to augment his modest pension by selling the products of his hobby to the community that formed his social network at that time. When he died, he left his son a cigar box filled with magazine clippings, sketches and blueprints of different objects made by turning wood, with the idea that it might come in handy some day.”
Jaio and van Gorkum have taken the contents of this box as the point of departure for a conceptual and reflexive exploration of the notion of artistic production. During the previous year they have been tracing what is left of the legacy of Gorkum’s grandfather, Jos van Gorkum (1911–1996), locating almost eighty items in the homes of an extended network of family, friends and former neighbours across the Netherlands. A selection of around thirty of these handcrafted artefacts – including candlestick holders, bowls, lamp bases, stands for houseplants and gavels – have been borrowed from their owners to be displayed in the exhibition at MUSAC, and are shown alongside photographs of these objects in their original home environment. (+ info...)
Amikejo (‘place of great friendship’ in Esperanto) is a series of four exhibitions taking place throughout 2011 at MUSAC’s Laboratorio 987 and structured around relational and spatial twinning. These artistic pairings involve various modes of binomial friendships – couples in life, dedicated duos, intermittent work partners, as well as new allies (+info...)
For the first of four exhibitions at the Laboratorio 987 neapolitan duo Pennacchio Argentato present a new installation based on expectations about performativity and interactivity in exhibition spaces. By transforming the exhibition space into an interior akin to an abstract fitness gymnasium, the duo frame their own activity as young artists alongside that of Amikejo by addressing the ideas of leisure and overproduction, a continuation to their recent research on apparent fakery, alternative economies and geometric abstraction.
A series of rough concrete ‘muscular’ sculptures, of dimensions that immediately relate to the human form. These seemingly promise engagement through, as the artists describe, they offer ‘different postures and gestures’ without leading to any specific mode of exercise. The unresponsive and non-receptive sculptures attempt to represent a kind of pleasure in suspenseful endurance or ‘abstract fatigue’, as the artists have termed it, a style which is set apart from acting and from making.
Alongside this seemingly inactive machinery, a companion sculpture focusses more specifically on body building. Images of former professional bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger proudly revealing his muscles prompts us to consider, within the context of an art space, a self-made aesthetics based on pose and theatricality.
Marisa Argentato (born Naples, Italy, 1977) & Pasquale Pennacchio (born Caserta, Italy, 1979). Live and work in Berlin and Naples). Solo exhibitions include: 'Five o’clock shadows', T293, Rome (2010); 'The New Boring', Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2010); 'Landings 4', Landings, Vestfossen, Norway (2010); 'Do It Just', Galerie Opdahl, Berlin (2009); 'Estate', T293, Naples (2007) and 'Blind Date', Viafarini, Milan (2002). Group exhibitions include: 'SI - Sindrome Italiana', Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble (2010); 'Dude, where's my Career?', MMK Zollamt / Portikus, Frankfurt (2009); 'A long time ago, last night', Gallery Kortil, Rijeka, Croatia (2008); 'Aspen Project' (Part III), Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt am Main (2007); 'Cinema infinito / Neverending Cinema', Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea, Trento (2006).
MUSAC - Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León Avenida de los Reyes Leoneses, 24 - 24008 León www.musac.es
Invitaciones de las 6 exposiciones que inauguran en MUSAC el 29 Enero 2011.
El Laboratorio 987 de MUSAC inicia una nueva etapa en su programación. Cada año MUSAC invitará a un pequeño número de comisarios a presentar un proyecto anual para la sala de proyectos del museo, con la premisa de desarrollar una propuesta conceptual a través de cuatro exposiciones en el Laboratorio 987.
Amikejo, la serie inaugural de esta nueva etapa, está comisariada por Latitudes. Amikejo está estructurada en cuatro exposiciones conceptualizadas entorno a los nexos relacionales y espaciales. Amikejo('lugar de amistad' en Esperanto), se fundó sobre el anhelo de propiciar una comunicación internacional más efectiva mediante el lenguaje sintético del Esperanto. Este territorio 'neutral' en forma de cuña de 3,5 km2 situado entre los Países Bajos, Bélgica y Prusia (entorno a una importante mina de zinc) existió entre 1816 y 1920. Tras la Primera Guerra Mundial, Alemania renunció a sus pretensiones sobre el territorio en disputa y consecuentemente Amikejo-Moresnet desapareció del mapa, y fue absorbido por Bélgica, si bien las balizas fronterizas siguen visibles a día de hoy. Este episodio-lugar, y en última instancia fracaso, fue una síntesis única de cartografía, lengua, nación, política, economía y subjetividad brinda sus fronteras conceptuales y se ha designado como ubicación gemela al Laboratorio 987 durante esta temporada.
Para la primera exposición, 'Amikejo: Pennacchio Argentato' (29 Enero–27 Marzo 2011), el dúo napolitano Pennacchio Argentato presentará una instalación de nueva producción basada en las expectativas de teatralidad e interactividad en los espacios expositivos. Al transformar el espacio del Laboratorio 987 en interior semejando a un gimnasio absurdo y abstracto, el dúo entronca su propia actividad artística con el proyecto Amikejo, abordando las ideas de ocio, interactividad y sobreproducción, trabajo y el no-trabajo.
+info sobre la temporada aquí y aquí. Programación y calendario de 'Amikejo':
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC) Avenida de los Reyes Leoneses, 24 24008 León, Spain (T) +34 987 09 00 00 (F) +34 987 09 11 11 musac@musac.es www.musac.es
LAST WEEK... 'The Last Newspaper' exhibition at the New Museum continues until 9 January. As a partner organisation Latitudes edited the exhibition catalogue over the course of 10 weeks from a micro-newsroom installed in the exhibition space. The catalogue is now available from the New Museum Store ($15, $13.50 for museum members).
Amikejo: Pennacchio/Argentato (29 January–27 March 2011) Amikejo: Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum (9 April–12 June 2011) Amikejo: Uqbar Foundation (25 June–11 September 2011) Amikejo: Fermin Jiménez Landa & Lee Welch (24 September 2011–15 January 2012)
| UK |
Amikejo is a series of four exhibitions at the Laboratorio 987 of MUSAC that is structured around relational and spatial twinning. These artistic pairings involve various modes of binomial friendships – couples in life, dedicated duos, intermittent work partners, as well as new allies. The artist partnerships involve an overall 50–50 split of male and female practitioners, as well as Spanish-speaking and foreign origins.
The series encompasses a further register of doubling prompted by a critical reflection on the conditions and expectations of a ‘project space’ such as Laboratorio 987 within today’s contemporary art museum. Such a site is typically annexed from a hosting institution, independent yet attached, with the understanding that different, more ad-hoc and agile laws apply. Nonconformist and at the same time authorized, and following spatial theories such as Michel Foucault’s ‘heterotopia’, a project space is a typology that is neither here nor there. Shadowing Robert Smithson’s concept of the ‘non-site’ (an indoor artwork physically and mentally paired with an outdoor site), the Laboratario 987 space has been assigned a relation with a specific remote location for the 2011 season: Amikejo. Amikejo was an anomalous in-between state which never entirely existed, and was founded on a desire to foster more effective international communication through the synthetic language Esperanto. Following treaties of the early 19th Century, a tiny 3½ km2 wedge of land between the Netherlands, Belgium and Prussia was established as a neutral area because of an important zinc mine. In 1908 the 2,500 identity-less citizens of Neutral Moresnet, as it was known, declared it to be the world’s first Esperanto state: Amikejo (‘place of great friendship’ in Esperanto). A national anthem was constituted and stamps and a flag were designed. Yet in the wake of the first World War, Germany relinquished its claim to the disputed territory, and Amikejo-Moresnet disappeared from the map as it became part of Belgium, although border markers still exist to this day. This episode-place, between pragmatic and conceptual borders of cartography, language, nationhood, and subjectivity, is entreated as a twin site to Laboratorio 987 and lends its name and symbolic implications to the exhibition series. For the first exhibition of the season, Neapolitan duo Pennacchio Argentato will present a new installation based on an exhibition's expectations of performance and interactivity. By transforming the Laboratorio 987 space into an absurd and abstracted gym, the duo will frame their own activity by addressing the ideas of leisure and overproduction. Marisa Argentato (born Naples, Italy, 1977) & Pasquale Pennacchio (born in Caserta, Italy, 1979). Live and work in Naples and Berlin. Solo exhibitions include: 'Five o’clock shadows', T293, Rome; 'The New Boring', Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2010); 'Landings 4', Landings, Vestfossen, Norway (2010); 'Do It Just', Galerie Opdahl, Berlin (2009); 'Estate', T293, Naples (2007) and 'Blind Date', Viafarini, Milan (2002). Group exhibitions include 'SI - Sindrome Italiana', Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble (2010); 'Dude, where's my Career?', MMK Zollamt / Portikus, Frankfurt (2009); 'A long time ago, last night', Gallery Kortil, Rijeka, Croatia (2008); Aspen Project (Part III), Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt am Main (2007); 'Cinema infinito / Neverending Cinema', Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea, Trento (2006).
Iratxe Jaio (born Markina-Xemein, Basque Country, 1976) & Klaas van Gorkum (born Delft, the Netherlands, 1975). Live and work in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Solo projects include 'Quédense dentro y cierren las ventanas/ Stay inside. Close windows and doors', produced by consonni, Bilbao, and the municipality of Utrecht (2008); 'Let me hold your hand', Centre for Visual Introspection, Bucharest (2008) and 'Meanwhile, in the living room...', Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz. Group exhibitions include 'The People United Will Never Be Defeated', TENT Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2010); 'Gure Artea 2008', Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2008); 'Wij waren in Overvecht / We were in Overvecht', Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2008) and 'Radiodays', De Appel, Amsterdam (2005).
Uqbar Foundation [Mariana Castillo Deball (born 1975, Mexico City, Mexico) & Irene Kopelman (born 1976, Córdoba, Argentina)]. Live and work in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Uqbar Foundation projects include 'Zeno Reminder', Cabinet Magazine Space / Performa 09, New York (2009); 'Principle of Hope', Manifesta 7, Rovereto, Italy (2008); 'Transacciones Filosóficas', Museo Astronómico de Córdoba, Argentina (2007); 'Blackmarket for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge', 10th International Istanbul Biennial (2007); 'A for Alibi', Utrecht University Museum, Utrecht & De Appel, Amsterdam (2006–8).
Fermín Jiménez Landa (born Pamplona, Spain, 1979. Lives in Valencia, Spain) & Lee Welch (born Louisville, USA, 1975. Lives in Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Jiménez Landa's solo exhibitions include 'No muy a menudo, ni muy poco', Galería Valle Ortí, Valencia (2010); 'Actos oficiales', Sala Montcada, Caixaforum, Barcelona (2008). Group shows include 'Welcome Home', Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz, Pamplona (2010); 'Kairós: Moments de Claredat', Sala Muncunill, Terrassa, Spain (2009); 'Nostalgia del futuro', Centro del Carmen, Valencia; 'Creación Injuve 09', Cículo de Bellas Artes, Madrid (2009); 'Entornos próximos', Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz (2006).
Solo exhibitions by Lee Welch include 'At the still point of the turning world', Galway Arts Centre, Galway (2009); and 'Never Odd or Even and other pieces', The LAB, Dublin (2008). Group exhibitions include 'We have the final proof', Andreiana Mihail Gallery, Bucharest; Clifford Irving Show, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2009); work.in.space, Connaught House, Dublin (2009); 'It’s not for reading. It’s for making', FormContent, London (2009); 'Non-knowledge', Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2008); and 'Play', Draíocht Arts Centre, Dublin (2008).
Pennacchio Argentato, view of the exhibition 'Five o'clock shadows', T293 Rome. Courtesy of the artist and T293, Naples.
| ES | Amikejo: Pennacchio/Argentato (29 Enero–27 Marzo 2011) Amikejo: Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum (9 Abril–12 Junio 2011) Amikejo: Uqbar Foundation (25 Junio–11 Septiembre 2011) Amikejo: Fermin Jiménez Landa & Lee Welch (24 Septiembre 2011–15 Enero 2012) Amikejo es una serie de cuatro exposiciones en el Laboratorio 987 del MUSAC estructurada entorno al hermanamiento relacional y espacial. Estas parejas artísticas implican distintos modos de amistades binomiales - parejas de vida, dedicados dúos, socios intermitentes y nuevos aliados. Las colaboraciones se dividen en un 50% de profesionales masculinos y un 50% femeninos, así como una mezcla equitativa de orígenes de hispanos y extranjeros.
La serie incluye además un registro adicional de desdoblamiento a raíz de una reflexión crítica sobre las condiciones y expectativas que genera un espacio museístico destinado a proyectos como es el Laboratorio 987. Este lugar normalmente figura como anexo de la institución anfitriona, independiente y al mismo tiempo adjunto, con el entendimiento de que leyes diferentes o ritmos más ágiles son aplicables. Partiendo de las teorías acerca de la ‘heterotopia’ de Foucault, este ‘project space’ no es ni aquí ni allí. Siguiendo la teoría del ‘non-site’ (una obra de arte está vinculada física y mentalmente con un sitio al aire libre) de Robert Smithson, se planteará una relación del Laboratorio 987 con una ubicación remota y al mismo tiempo específica: Amikejo. Amikejo (‘lugar de gran amistad’ en Esperanto) fue un anómalo estado que nunca existió del todo, fundado con el deseo de fomentar una comunicación internacional más eficaz a través de un idioma sintético, el Esperanto. A raíz de los tratados de principios del siglo XIX, una pequeña cuña de 3,5 km2 de terreno entre los Países Bajos, Bélgica y Prusia se fundó como Moresnet Neutral gracias a los intereses que surgieron entorno a una importante mina de cinc. En 1908 sus 2,500 ciudadanos apátridas, se autodeclararon como el primer estado Esperanto: Amikejo. Se creó un himno nacional y se diseñaron sellos y una bandera. Sin embargo, a raíz de la primera guerra mundial, Alemania renunció a su derecho al territorio en disputa y Moresnet Neutro/Amikejo, desapareció del mapa y se convirtió en parte de Bélgica, aunque los límites de su frontera todavía existen hoy en día. Este episodio, entre las fronteras de lo pragmático y lo conceptual de la cartografía, del idioma, la nacionalidad y la subjetividad, se convertirá en un sitio hermanado al Laboratorio 987 y prestará su nombre y las implicaciones simbólicas a la temporada de exposiciones del 2011 del MUSAC.
Marisa Argentato (Nápoles, Italia, 1977) & Pasquale Pennacchio (Caserta, Italia, 1979). Viven y trabajan en Nápoles y Berlin. Exposiciones individuales incluyen: 'Five o’clock shadows', T293, Rome; 'The New Boring', Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2010); 'Landings 4', Landings, Vestfossen, Norway (2010); 'Do It Just', Galerie Opdahl, Berlin (2009); 'Estate', T293, Naples (2007) and 'Blind Date', Viafarini, Milan (2002). Group exhibitions include 'SI - Sindrome Italiana', Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble (2010); 'Dude, where's my Career?', MMK Zollamt / Portikus, Frankfurt (2009); 'A long time ago, last night', Gallery Kortil, Rijeka, Croatia (2008);Aspen Project (Part III), Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt am Main (2007); 'Cinema infinito / Neverending Cinema', Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea, Trento (2006).
Iratxe Jaio (Markina-Xemein, País Basco, 1976) & Klaas van Gorkum (Delft, Holanda, 1975). Viven y trabajan en Róterdam, Holanda. Exposiciones individuales incluyen: 'Quédense dentro y cierren las ventanas/ Stay inside. Close windows and doors', produced by consonni, Bilbao, and the municipality of Utrecht (2008); 'Let me hold your hand', Centre for Visual Introspection, Bucharest (2008) and 'Meanwhile, in the living room...', Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz. Group exhibitions include 'The People United Will Never Be Defeated', TENT Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2010); 'Gure Artea 2008', Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2008); 'Wij waren in Overvecht / We were in Overvecht', Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2008) and 'Radiodays', De Appel, Amsterdam (2005).
Uqbar Foundation [Mariana Castillo Deball (1975, México DF, México) & Irene Kopelman (1976, Córdoba, Argentina)]. Viven y trabajan en Amsterdam, Holanda. Proyectos de Uqbar Foundation incluyen: 'Zeno Reminder', Cabinet Magazine Space / Performa 09, New York (2009);'Principle of Hope', Manifesta 7, Rovereto, Italy (2008); 'Transacciones Filosóficas', Museo Astronómico de Córdoba, Argentina (2007); 'Blackmarket for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge', 10th International Istanbul Biennial (2007); 'A for Alibi', Utrecht University Museum, Utrecht & De Appel, Amsterdam (2006–8).
Fermín Jiménez Landa (Pamplona, 1979. Vive en Valencia) & Lee Welch (Louisville, Estados Unidos, 1975. Vive en Róterdam, Holanda). Exposiciones individuales de Jiménez Landaincluyen: 'No muy a menudo, ni muy poco', Galería Valle Ortí, Valencia (2010); 'Actos oficiales', Sala Montcada, Caixaforum, Barcelona (2008). Exposiciones colectivasincluyen: 'Welcome Home', Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz, Pamplona (2010); 'Kairós: Moments de Claredat', Sala Muncunill, Terrassa, Spain (2009); 'Nostalgia del futuro', Centro del Carmen, Valencia; 'Creación Injuve 09', Cículo de Bellas Artes, Madrid (2009); 'Entornos próximos', Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz (2006). Exposiciones individuales de Lee Welchincluyen: 'At the still point of the turning world', Galway Arts Centre, Galway (2009); y 'Never Odd or Even and other pieces', The LAB, Dublin (2008). Exposiciones colectivasincluyen: 'We have the final proof', Andreiana Mihail Gallery, Bucharest; Clifford Irving Show, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2009); work.in.space, Connaught House, Dublin (2009); 'It’s not for reading. It’s for making', FormContent, Londres (2009); 'Non-knowledge', Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2008); and 'Play', Draíocht Arts Centre, Dublin (2008).
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo deCastilla y León (MUSAC) Avenida de los Reyes Leoneses, 24 24008 León, Spain (T) +34 987 09 00 00 (F) +34 987 09 11 11 musac@musac.es www.musac.es
Cookies Advice: We use cookies. If you continue browsing, we consider that you accept their use. Aviso de Cookies: Utilizamos cookies. Si continua navegando, consideramos que acepta su uso.