SAVE THE DATE
Private view: Wednesday 8 October, 19.30h
Exhibition: 'THE CREST OF A WAVE' by Lawrence Weiner
Dates: 9 October–15 November 2008
Venue: Nivell Zero, Fundació Suñol
Address: c/Rosselló, 24, 08008 Barcelona, SPAIN, www.fundaciosunol.org

After over two years of collaboration between Latitudes and New York artist Lawrence Weiner (1942, New York), the project ‘THE CREST OF A WAVE’ will be presented on 8 October at the Nivell Zero space at Fundació Suñol in October, coinciding with the beginning of the 2008–9 season.

‘THE CREST OF A WAVE’ is a four part project manifested as a distributed ephemeral sculpture, an installation, a sound work and an action – together each asks what might constitute a public sculpture. Weiner's new work triggers a chronicle of Spanish mercantile, maritime and equestrian power, textiles, trade and occupation.

In Barcelona his work has been seen in: 'Between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea', Fundació Espai Poblenou (1995); 'Behind the facts. Interfunktionen 1968-1975', Fundació Miró (2004) and the 'Public Space / Two Audiences. Works and Documents from the Herbert Collection', MACBA (2006). In Spain, his work can be seen until the 26 October in the solo show 'Forever And A Day' at the Centro Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga.

Recent reviews: Roberta Smith, 'The Well-Shaped Phrase as Art ' (New York Times, 16 November 2007) and Steven Stern's Frieze review (March 2008) on Weiner's travelling retrospective ‘AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE’ (Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and soon in K21 Kunsthsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf).


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Latitudes is in residence this month of August at the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt. During this time we are researching the local artistic context, developing some writing for magazines and catalogues as well as planning projects for this and next year such as Lawrence Weiner exhibition (opening 8 October), a series of artists' projects and commissions around the future extension of the Port of Rotterdam (from February 2009 onwards) and an exhibition around the notion of the future at the Arnolfini in Bristol (Summer 2009), amongst other things! – see future projects.



We are sharing the residency facilities with Oviedo-born artist Cova Macías and Athens-based curators and critics Xenia Kalpaktsoglou (co-director Athens Biennial and co-curator 1st Athens Biennial 2007) and Christopher Marinos (Athens-based art critic and curator).

The Frankfurter Kunstverein residencies are supported by the Deutsche Börse Residecy Program.

More on www.fkv.de

El viernes 25 de Julio se inaugura en el Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga la exposición individual 'Forever and a Day' (Siempre y un día) del artista norteamericano Lawrence Weiner (Nueva York, 1942), que se podrá visitar hasta el 26 octubre. Para crear esta instalación Weiner ha tomado como punto de partida la ubicación geográfica y la historia de la ciudad de Málaga. El artista utiliza símbolos de la mezcla de culturas que se han dado en esta ciudad – la herencia que dejaron fenicios, griegos, romanos y los árabes – al tiempo que reflexiona sobre el sur y las fronteras.

Latitudes está actualmente trabajando con el artista en su próximo proyecto: 'THE CREST OF A WAVE' que se presentará en la Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, el 8 de Octubre y que se podrá visitar hasta el 15 de Noviembre. Más información aquí.

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga (CAC Málaga)
c/ Alemania s/n 29001, Málaga, España
T: + 34 952 12 00 55
www.cacmalaga.org
prensa@cacmalaga.org

: Update 06.09.08 :
Reseña 'Vecindad con la historia' de Juan Bosco Díaz en el suplemento Babelia de El País, aquí.

[foto: Detalles de 'Cat. #976 (2008)' SOMEWHERE SOMEHOW/FOREVER & A DAY/SOMETHING SOMEWAY/FOREVER & A DAY/SOMETIME SOMEPLACE/FOREVER & A DAY. Materiales: LANGUAGE + THE MATERIALS REFERRED TO. Courtesy of the artist.]

* Gracias a Beatriz Lafuente, Responsable de Comunicación, CAC Málaga. *

Last weekend was a turbulent one for the Barcelona art scene. On Friday 11th the Culture Councillor Joan Manuel Tresserras announced the appointment of a new director for the Centre d'Arte Santa Mònica (CASM): Vicenç Altaió, who modestly describes himself as a 'poet, writer, catalan translator, theatre critic, art critic, opinion generator and cultural agitator' and until then the director of KRTU ("Culture, Research, Technology, Universal"). The trouble was, however, that CASM already had a director: Ferran Barenblit, appointed during the summer in 2002. If you'll excuse the football link, the act was not unlike FC Barcelona's recent appointment of 'the next' head coach Guardiola when Frank Rijkaard was still at the club. Invitations to leave are never easy, political muggings of a cultural institution are even harder to bear. On this occassion the news of this affair has hit the press and blogs with general signs of bewilderment, disappointment and bitterness.

For those not entirely familiar with the Barcelona art landscape, CASM has followed the kunsthalle model with funding from the local government (Generalitat de Catalunya) and occasional sponsors. Under Barenblit's directorship, a series of adjunct local curators (Montse Badia, David G. Torres, Frederic Montornés) and international guest curators (Miguel Von Hafe Pérez, Jacob Fabricius) have produced exhibitions and projects by artists such as Christian Jankowski, Tomás Saraceno, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Dora García, Maria Eichhorn, Joao Tabarra, Filipa César, Nedko Solakov, Runa Islam, Maria Nordman, Cabelo, Juan López, Peter Liversidge, Carles Congost, Antoni Abad, Francesc Ruiz, Joan Morey, Mike Nelson, Joachim Koester, Toni Matelli, Jill Magid, Ceal Floyer and Jiri Kovanda (see our blog from 20.11.07) amongst many other group shows (Think, Hamsterwheel...). Currently, CASM is one of the institutions invited to participate in 'Lucky Number Seven' Site Santa Fe with a compelling project by Martí Anson.

Manolo Borja-Villel, the recently appointed director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid (see our post 23 December) has declared in El País that, "the fact that the government imposes a project ... at best, as an instrument of propaganda, indicates a regression to dark times" (this and other quotations translated from the Spanish / Catalan). According to El Pais (12 July) during the presentation of the new director, Culture Councillor Tresserras insisted "there are no victims left along the way" and that the centre and the general budget (750,000 Euros/annum) will still exist, but in a new location (still to be discussed with the townhall). He added "Barenblit's programme was interesting, but the centre didn't have the social performance required". Barenblit was not invited to the presentation, and, the promise of the new location not being confirmed, he handed in his resignation. Later Barenblit declared "it is the best moment [to resign], after receiving the compromise that the new centre is under discussions. I'm coinvinced that my departure is the best guarantee that this process takes place; I always said that directors should have an expiry date ... CASM collaborated with many artists and local entities and promoted Catalan art abroad".

There had been rumours for several months (see El Periodico, 18.02,08 or even earlier this month the possible relocation of CASM was discussed with the president of the Visual Artists Association (AAVC), see El País 05.07.08) claiming that CASM was going to be taken over by the Generalitat and would be converted into a center for Catalan culture, speculation that has prompted numerous strongly-worded responses by various art associations (visual artists association, association of museum directors, art gallery associations...). With this shadow looming over CASM, the programme in recent months has sufferred an inevitable slide.

The new CASM director Vicenç Altaió will take his position in January 2009 and turn CASM into what is described in the vaguest of terms as "a multidisciplinary center for art, science, thought and communication". The questions are, what place 'the new CASM' can take on the Barcelona art landscape? Does the city need another venue for diluted cultural programming? What happened to the 'código de buenas prácticas' (code of good practice) that was decided last year by the Ministry of Culture, whereby "made" appointments were to be replaced by an open-application advisory-panel system based on merit? Where else will ambitious new work be produced in the city? In recent years Barcelona has suffered from the abrupt disappearance of art spaces including Sala Metrònom, the 'relocation' of Sala Montcada from the city centre – its now sited at Caixafòrum– and the failure of Espai 13 in Fundació Miró to produce relevant and informed projects. There is sadly little space for experimentation, fertile discussion or risk-taking.

What is most dismaying is the utter control the Barcelona politicians seem to have over publicly funded cultural programmes. There is, it seems, a lack of support and respect for the work of experienced and trained art professionals and as there is always an ominous cloud hanging over institutions or initiatives when a (4-yearly) change of administration takes effect, there is little continuity and plenty of suspicion. Working within such constant bureaucratic insecurity is never productive and it undermines confidence and creativity. Instead cultural programmes should have their own administrative cycles, their own secured funding, their own staff who are independent from state workers and protected from temporary or mileuristas contracts and their own governing board. It should go without saying that directors should be free to foment long-term creative relationships with the local scene as well as with national and international contexts.

Many questions remain unanswered: where will the proposed new Kunsthalle be? Why didn't CASM have an independent administrative and advisoary board to prevent such undemocratic moves and defend the exhibition programme? Who will now steer and programme such a space? And admist this political-cultural debacle, another factor has been unleashed: who will take control over the first Catalan Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennial in the Magazzini del Sale? Incidentally, the proposals (open submission until 2 September) for the pavilion will be assessed by a jury of six artists and curators and the decision will be made public on 1 October.

UPDATE 30.07.08:
Ferran Barenblit appointed director of the recently opened Centro Dos de Mayo, Móstoles (Madrid). His proposal was selected amongst 26 candidates by a committee of experts (Rafael Doctor, director of MUSAC, León; Lourdes Fernández, director of ARCO; José Guirao, director of La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Isabel Rosell, general director of Archives, Museums & Libraries of the Comunidad de Madrid and Carlos Urroz, advisor of Fine Arts to the Consejería de Cultura y Turismo de la Comunidad de Madrid). He will take up his new job in September. More here and here (all links in Spanish).

To read responses from different parties around Barcelona's cultural politics, read posts on http://cassantamonica.wordpress.com and on http://www.culturadebase.net (in Spanish and Catalan)

[Photos: Kris Martin, 'The End' (2005) (included in the SantaMòniCA 2007 summer show 'PENSA/PIENSA/THINK' curated by Montse Badia, Ferran Barenblit, Jacob Fabricius and Frederic Montornés) and below Ferran Barenblit (left) with Christian Jankowski talking to Joan Manuel Tresserras (right) in May 2007 during the launch of Jankowski's Living Sculptures]

For those who visit our website (www.lttds.org) regularly, you would like to know that we have enhanced the photo galleries with a larger slideshow format: at the top a caption explaining what you see and at the bottom the usual back and forth arrow to navigate, as well as a thumbnail panel.

An example of this is this one: http://www.lttds.org/projects/current/stake/stakegallery/stakegallery.html, where we just uploaded photos from the recent film & video screenings at the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona and at the Wilheminapolder in Holland, when 130 people attended the screenings in this beautiful 18th Century barn.

We have also updated other gallery sections like that of Greenwashing, where you'll be able to see the exhibition catalogue designed by The Bookmakers Ed., Turin (slideshow of the works in the exhibition on the Greenwashing web). And of course, we keep feeding our various archives, such as this or this or this or this!

Latitudes' Max Andrews reviews Alexandra Navratil's (17.06.08 > 20.09.08) show at Àngels Barcelona for Frieze.com

"Navratil’s curious exhibition ... prompts a filmic response throughout – each element, including drawings and two videos, might be read as parts of the same arcane, deconstructed movie production. Yet ..."
http://www.frieze.com/shows/review/alexandra_navratil/

Después de las presentaciones en México, Vigo, Basilea y Sevilla continuamos con la itinerancia del ciclo de film y video 'Una estaca en el lodo, un hoyo en la cinta. El campo expandido del Land Art, 1968-2008'. La próxima proyección será en el Nivell Zero de la Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, el 7 y 8 Julio a las 19.30h.

El ciclo se divide en dos partes: la primera proyección (7 Julio, 1h 38m duración) muestra obras clásicas del Land Art realizadas en los sesenta y setenta (algunas son post-producciones del 2004 y 2005) y la segunda parte (8 Julio, 1h 15m duración) incluye obras contemporaneas producidas en los últimos 6 años. Para más información sobre los films que se proyectan, véase programa (castellano) o la invitación (catalán).

Aforo limitado | 2 € por sesión | Reserva previa: 93 496 10 32

Nivell Zero de la Fundació Suñol
c/ Rosselló 240
08008 – Barcelona
T 93 496 10 32
www.fundaciosunol.org

Programas anteriores y prensa, aquí.

El viernes 11 de Julio, a las 11.30am presentaremos el programa en una granja en la Wilheminapolder (véanse fotos), Holanda, como parte de una serie de encargos artísticos que está llevando a cabo SKOR (la Fundación de arte y espacio público de Amsterdam) en la zona. Para más información (en inglés).

SKOR organiza un autobús desde Amsterdam hacia la Wilheminapolder. El bus saldrá a las 9am desde sus oficinas en Ruysdaelkade 2. Coste transporte: € 10.00 (evento y comida = € 17.50). Para registrarse escribir a info@cbkzeeland.nl o llamar al: +31 0118-611443.

Durante el trayecto se podrá escuchar la banda sonora realizada especialmente para la ocasión por Rutger Zuydervedt, conocido como Machinefabriek.

 

Opening today, Håkansson's exhibition at the Museo Tamayo (until 20 September) is the outcome of recordings carried out at the Montes Azules, El Triunfo, and Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserves, and photographs and videos obtained over four weeks by twelve remote cameras placed by the artist in different spots throughout the southern Lacandon Rainforest, Mexico.

Curated by Tatiana Cuevas for the Tamayo, the catalogue features an extended essay by Latitudes' Max Andrews. See photos of the catalogue here.

Read about the show on ARTFORUM critics' picks.