LONGITUDES

Longitudes cuts across Latitudes’ projects and research with news, updates, and reportage.

Haegue Yang at Sala Rekalde & 2009 Korean Pavilion Venice Biennale


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).

HAEGUE YANG

'Symmetric Inequality'
18 December 2008 - 19 April 2009
sala rekalde
Alameda de Recalde 30
48009 Bilbao, Spain
www.salarekalde.bizkaia.net




Stacks Image 39


Erick Beltrán at Galería Joan Prats, Nati Bermejo at Estrany de la Mota, Peter Piller at ProjecteSD



This past Wednesday 17 December saw the opening of three compelling exhibitions in Barcelona. Erick Beltrán's "Calculum Series" was a precise suite of objects and texts (including Rasputin's finger nails and a bone die) which circulated around a consideration of value. The show continues at Galería Joan Prats until late January 2009. Nati Bermejo presented an exquisite set of large scale black-and-white drawings at Estrany de la Mota ("Look Left / Look Right" continues until February 12th 2009). Meanwhile at ProjecteSD, Peter Piller showed "Swiss Landscapes" – photographs gleaned from over 500,000 images taken for insurance claims purposes from the digital archives of the Swiss insurers Bâloise.

All images: Latitudes | www.lttds.org
Stacks Image 39


Gone with the wind: on the 'art crunch' and the Centre d'Art de Barcelona, the saga continues...




Happy Christmas.

The dark cloud looming over the art world in recent months is how the worldwide economic recession is going to hit. We've already seen some of its consequences (from the dire situation of MoCA LA's finances to the apparent 'return to painting' in the art market), but what about daily practicalities? How is the lack of cash flow or
collapse of the British pound, for instance, going to affect programming in art centres and museums? Is waning support for new productions, residencies, research and travel obvious already?

In the Nov–Dec. Frieze, Dan Fox wrote around the last recession in the 1990s, when "
newspapers and television talked about art rather than the art market and how dynamic or corrupt it might be" and when there were "fewer of everything: fewer artists, curators, galleries, magazines, art consultants, private foundations." As Fox states, the credit crunch is also a "content crunch". Having exchanged "crunchy" opinions with a few artists and curators recently, one senses that the relentless rhythm of e-fluxes and the like, and the constant proliferation of and aspiration to travel to and from biennials/triennials/quadrennials, art fairs, symposiums, gala dinners, discussion platforms, art auctions, etc. are feeling increasingly, well, just too much. Maybe a downsizing will have its benefits?


Bringing in some examples close to home, one wonders how are the many Spanish museums that have appeared in the last decade facing up to the new economic year. In Catalunya alone, there has been a flourishing of art centres (Lleida, Granollers, Girona (with temporary venues)), and soon there will be further venues in Vic and Tarragona. On the other side of the coin, in Barcelona already a few key art spaces, which offered invaluable support for new commissions, have already 'gone with the wind' and there is a clear lack of infrastructure and of competitive study programmes (La Vanguardia, 30/11/08). Sala Montcada, for instance, has gone. Operating since 1981, it has just had its two final seasons at Caixaforum after much revolt within the artistic community when, in 2005, 'La Caixa' foundation announced its closure and then stayed its execution – at least until now.
After two lacklustre seasons with works produced by Le Fresnoy, Espai 13 in Fundació Miró, began to show signs of life again last October with a programme curated by Jorge Díez. But most notably there was the sudden closure (or 'reconversion'/new orientation in the words of the politicians) of the Centre d'Art Santa Mònica (CASM), whose programme limps on until early 2009. The pre-Christmas news (El País, 10.12.08) was that the announcement of the new venue for the long-awaited replacement kunsthalle space (renamed as Centre d'Art de Barcelona - see post 17.07.08) will be located in a 1,200m2 space in the newly-opened 'Imagina' building. Built in the former site of a textile factory, Ca l'Aranyó in the new-technology branded district called 22@, east of the city, the site is near the future Disseny Hub Barcelona, the Auditori, the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, and Hangar, Barcelona's only surviving production and residency centre, in Poblenou. According to councillor Joan Manuel Tresseras, the new art centre will be a joint force of the Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council) and the Conselleria de Cultura (Art Department of the Catalan Government). But, two days later the Ajuntament said they knew nothing about this new venture (El País, 12.12.08) becoming clear that Tresseras wanted to close the 'open wound' that began with the 'reconversion' of CASM, before its new director, Vicenç Altaió, announces the new exhibition programme.

Dejà vu? How can Tresseras insist on providing a transparent procedure of selection for a new director for the art centre, when there is a clear and alarming lack of transparency, dialogue and set of priorities amongst the cultural agents operating within the same city? How can an independent management and operational funding be secured to attract a competitive bunch of professionals to apply following an open-call selection process? Ideally it should also establish an open call not only for its head figure, but for its whole team, from organisers to restaurant caterers. Find the best, by offering the best.
Stacks Image 39


Jordi Mitjà at Bòlit, Centre d'Art Contemporani in Girona

"From Excess. Recipes for an architecture of accumulative thought" is the title of Jordi Mitjà's contribution to the group show In construction. Recipes from Scarcity, Ubiquity and Excess, the inaugural show – in two temporary spaces – of BÒLIT, the soon-to-open Centre d'Art Contemporani in Girona, Spain, directed by Rosa Pera.


Mitjà's project comprises the installation Espai Diògenes (see images above; last two from Santiago Cirugeda's Niu project); the documentary cycle Diogenes Cinema and Anatomia Diògenes, a beautiful publication published by Crani (www.crani.org) that compiles photographic material accumulated in the Empordà region between 1988 and 2008.

Mitjà's Espai Diògenes continues the investigative spirit of previous projects such as the film Concèntric. Poble petit, infern gegant (presented in 2006–7 at Espai Zero1, Olot) drawing on found documents, films from amateur film-makers, articles, books, notes, photographs, etc., that he has been gathering from abandoned sites, rubbish, or simply given by friends or family throughout the past years. Mitjà is as persuaded by these materials as he is curious to dissect the history and stories behind each found object. Espai Diògenes presents an esquisite selection of works (collages, slide projections, objects including slide projectors, photographs, films...) in a nest-like space, "a defence structure, a protection from the outside world, an infinite skin" (1) - "nests" recalling the claustrophobic spaces created by those that suffer from Diogenes syndrome.
Capella de Sant Nicolau
Plaça de Santa Llúcia s/n
17007 Girona
Exhibition dates: 10 October 2008 - 11 January 2009

(1) 'Runa', by Jordi Mitjà. In "Anatomia Diògenes. Obres inèdites acumulades entre 1988-2008. Ed. Crani, October 2008.
Stacks Image 39


Manifesta 8, 2010, in Murcia?

 

Hot on the heels of Manifesta 7 which took place throughout the Trentino-South Tyrol region of northern Italy this summer and autumn, the applications for host city for the 8th edition of this European Biennial of Contemporary Art - Manifesta 8 would take place in 2010 - closed a little more than a month ago. According to the Polish newspaper Gazeta, the contenders in what increasingly feels like an Olympics-style bid, are ... Gdansk, Poland; Riga, Latvia and Murcia in Spain. The same paper reports that the Polish bid was someway short of the 3.3 million Euro price tag.

In contrast, the southern Spanish city of Murcia, doubtless keen to shake off its image of golf resorts and vegetable growing, is seemingly very flush with money for contemporary art. Rather improbably, the city already has something of a track record for bringing home major projects and attracting some big names. And as many in the arts seem to be cutting budgets in credit crunch times -- not least the State-funder SEACEX who recently announced a 22% cut in its provision for Spanish artists abroad -- Murcia seems to be spending and investing in contemporary art more than ever.

Earlier this year the city staged Estratos, (see posts from 03.02.08 and 28.05.08) a twenty-artist project curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, the first 'PAC' (Proyecto de Arte Contemporáneo) a biennial-like format alongside residencies and exchanges supported by the Region of Murcia. Anish Kapoor's 'Islamic Mirror' curated by Rosa Martinez, continues at the Santa Clara Convent until January 2009 (organised by Culture and Tourism Department of the Region), and in May the SOS 4.8 Festival, with curators including Rirkrit Tiravanija was also funded by the Region. With the debacle of Manifesta 6 and the dispersed and difficult to navigate recent edition, what is clearly going to be a well-financed bid from an ambitious Murcia (with the 2nd 'PAC' already in place for 2010, and doubtless supported again by the communications skills of Urroz Proyectos), will surely take a lot of beating. And rumours are already beginning to circulate that a decision has already been made. We'll find out shortly before Christmas.

––

UPDATE:

The Region of Murcia's selected "en diálogo con África del Norte" as the host of Manifesta 8. There will be a presentation on the 11 February, at 14h at their Stand de la Región de Murcia in ARCO, Madrid. See e-flux announcement (11/02/09)

[Image: http://flights.jet2.com/Murcia/weather.htm]
Stacks Image 39


Inauguración proyectos derivados del Premi Miquel Casablancas 2008, Centre Cívic Sant Andreu, Barcelona

Todas las fotos: Latitudes. Ver más en esta galería.

Mañana se presentarán los tres proyectos derivados de la edición 2008 del Premi Miquel Casablancas: la presentación de la edición de 'Vade Retro' de Jordi Mitjà y Joan Morey y 'De tú a tú. Tres puntos colega' de BErreaCUandoPUedas y Alex Brahim y la exposición La, la, la, la: sobre ganar y perder comisariada por Aimar Arriola y Latitudes.

La, la, la, la: sobre ganar y perder
reúne una selección de trabajos de Verónica Aguilera, Fermín Jiménez Landa, Daniel Rodríguez Castro y Oriol Vilanova que reflexionan entorno a la representación social del binomio éxito o fracaso, tanto en la vida privada como en la pública.




El título de la exposición toma inspiración de un concreto episodio de la historia popular y política reciente: la victoria de España en el Festival de Eurovisión de 1968 con la canción 'La, la, la' interpretada por Massiel. La canción iba a ser interpretada por Joan Manel Serrat, quien se negó a participar pues no se le permitió cantarla en catalán. Finalmente, con la mediación del régimen franquista, su comprometida letra fue sustituida por una versión más edulcorada en castellano, cantada por Massiel y que finalmente ganó el concurso. Recientemente se ha sugerido que los votos pudieron ser amañados por Franco y el escándalo ha saltado a la palestra internacional, e incluso Cliff Richard – que quedó segundo lugar por un voto con su popular y oportuno 'Congratulations!' (Felicitaciones!) – ha pedido ser reconocido como justo ganador. Más allá de la anécdota, esta irónica historia de victorias y derrotas resulta un buen ejemplo de la relatividad de los logros y fracasos en sentido amplio.

 
La exposición se presenta en el contexto de un certamen para artistas menores de 36 años y en un contexto internacional donde ha aumentado considerablemente la orientación hacia los premios de reconocimiento en la esfera de la cultura, desarrollando una economía de la producción cultural y del prestigio. ¿Es posible que premios como este refuercen la suposición de que el prodigioso éxito sólo se logra a una temprana edad?, ¿necesita el sistema artístico que los artistas reciban reconocimientos públicos para ser considerados de interés?, ¿provoca esto que los artistas sean más estratégicos respecto a sus opciones? y finalmente ¿cómo se mide y representa dicha glorificación en la práctica artística?





 
Los participantes no examinan el fenómeno del valor ni del juicio en el mundo artístico directamente sino que mediante distintos discursos narrativos y soportes técnicos extrapolan su análisis a esferas como la representación de estos valores en monumentos históricos, los concursos de mascotas y de belleza, el ambiente de jerarquía corporativo y universitario e incluso lo llevan a un terreno aún más abstracto y poético: la caída como el inevitable vencimiento de la fuerza de gravedad.

 
La presentación de las obras en una estructura horizontal, a modo de tarima, alude a la disposición de los juegos de mesa o incluso a altares, podios o hitos construidos para conmemorar un suceso, ya sea una victoria o una derrota histórica, arquitecturas efímeras o permanentes que formalmente se acomodan de modos similares aunque conmemoren ocasiones tan distintas.


Exposición: 29 Noviembre – 17 Enero 2009
Artistas
: Verónica Aguilera (ES/DE, 1976), Fermín Jiménez Landa (ES, 1979), Daniel Rodríguez Castro (ES, 1984), Oriol Vilanova (ES,1980)

Comisariado
: Aimar Arriola & Latitudes

Dirección
: c/Gran de Sant Andreu, 111 | 08030 Barcelona | Mapa


Descargar
el folleto de la exposición (textos Catalán/Castellano).

Blog de Sant Andreu Contemporani aquí.
Stacks Image 39


Update: PORTSCAPES, a programme of art interventions in the port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands


As announced on a previous post from 27 May, at the invitation of the Amsterdam-based agency SKOR and the Port Authority of Rotterdam, Latitudes is curating a series of artists projects throughout the next year, coinciding with the beginning of the construction of 'Maasvlakte 2' (MV2), an entirely new area of land being reclaimed as a 2,000 hectare expansion to the already existing port of Rotterdam [51° 55' N 4° 29' E], the largest seaport in Europe.

Following site visits and meetings in May, July, September and last week, 13 Rotterdam-based and international artists have been invited to visit the area and to develop project proposals to take place throughout 2009.


PORTSCAPES
will approach Europe’s largest port as a vast exhibition venue to be experienced through itineraries and destinations and will involve projects and
events, lectures and workshops, screenings and temporary sculptures, etc. It will be introduced during Art Rotterdam (5–8 February 2009) by a ‘prologue’ publication designed by Ben Laloua / Didier Pascal, and a website. A cluster of projects will take place in April coinciding with the official presentation of MV2 and in September, coinciding with Wereldhavendagen (World Port Day on the 4, 5 and 6 September) and the Rotterdam Architecture Biennial (24 September 2009–10 January 2010).

PORTSCAPES is commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority advised by SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space) and is curated by Latitudes.

More on Maasvlakte 2: www.maasvlakte2.com
More on the Port of Rotterdam: www.portofrotterdam.com
More on SKOR: www.skor.nl
Stacks Image 39


Press coverage: Lawrence Weiner's 'THE CREST OF A WAVE', Fundació Suñol, Barcelona


Following is a selection of the press reviews, radio and TV programmes that have covered the four part project 'THE CREST OF A WAVE' by Lawrence Weiner on view at Fundació Suñol until Saturday 15 November:
Full list of press clippings, press releases, etc. related to the exhibition and a slideshow of the project. Download the small publication of the exhibition (Catalan, Spanish and English, pdf, 600 KB).

[Images: Jean-Pierre Moulis, the artist and Latitudes]
Stacks Image 39


Turin Triennale (T2) & Artissima 15


50 Moons of Saturn: 2nd Turin Triennial (6 November 2008–1 February 2009)



Coinciding with this year Artissima 15 Art Fair, the second Turin Triennial (6 November 2008–1 February 2009) titled '50 Lune di Saturno' (50 Moons of Saturn) opened last week presenting the works of 50 artists, spread throughout 3 venues: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and the Palazzina della Società della Promotrice delle Belle Arti (no website).

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.

Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Piazza Mafalda di Savoia, Rivoli
Open: from Tuesday to Thursday from 10 am to 5 pm, from Friday to Sunday from 10 am to 9 pm

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Via Modane 16, Torino
Open: from Tuesday to Sunday 12 to 8 pm; Thursday from 12 to 11 pm;

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...


T2 artists and venues in the user-unfriendly website www.torinotriennale.it
Artissima 15: www.artissima.it
Stacks Image 39


Text on Lara Almarcegui's project for Expo Zaragoza 2008 and exhibition at Pepe Cobo, Madrid


'Open Ground on the Banks of the Ebro' (2008) by Lara Almarcegui. Courtesy the artist.


Latitudes contributed a short text on Lara Almarcegui's work for the recently released publication 'Intervenciones artísticas en las riberas del Ebro' ('Artistic interventions around the riberas del Ebro'), printed on the occasion of the commissions series produced by Expo Zaragoza 2008.

Almarcegui's 'Un descampado en la Ribera del Ebro' (Open Ground on the Banks of the Ebro) was commissioned by ExpoAgua Zaragoza 2008 and produced in collaboration with The Centro de Arte y Naturaleza–Fundació Beulas in Huesca
Here an extract of the text:

(...) “Almarcegui’s project for Expo Zaragoza 2008 started from an agreement to preserve a section of land in an untouched state for as long as possible. The artist has set up a legal stipulation whereby an otherwise unremarkable 700 sq.m. ‘wasteland’ is put beyond the control of developers for 75 years. This project takes its place among several sites that she has sought to preserve, including Rotterdam Harbour, 2003-2018; Genk, 2004-2014 and Arganzuela Public Slaughterhouse, Madrid, 2005-2006, for example. Each place seems banal yet beautiful while confounding what we understand as ‘wild’. They are what they are: what they have left to be.

(...) The terrain is located within the boundaries of the Parque del Agua, in the Sotos del Río area where the Expo fair itself takes place. Almarcegui chose this area as she was attracted by its proximity to the Ebro river and to the idea that the flux of the currents during the seasons would slowly modify its appearance―blurring the margins where land becomes water. This interstitial, entropic site was picked without the intention of “trying to experiment with new ideas”. As she has described, “The project is something I thought necessary ... given the speed of construction ongoing in Spain and also the construction involved in the Expo, I somehow felt compelled to stop and preserve something in its raw state.”

Other artists included in the publication: Javier Peñafiel, Federico Guzmán, Christopher Janney, Klaus Bury, Nicolás Camoisson y Marion Coudert, Isidro Ferrer & Batlle i Roig, Atelier Van Lieshout, Miguel Ángel Arrudi, Fernando Sinaga, Dan Graham, Miquel Navarro, Jeppe Hein, Jaume Plensa, Tony Cragg and Richard Deacon.

Editor: Expoagua Zaragoza 2008, S.A.
Languages: Spanish, English, French
Pages: 240 pp.
Format: 22 x 27 cm
ISBN: 978-84-93657-23-9
Price: 35 Euros
Distributed by: Actar D, Turner, FNAC, Casa del Libro, Librería Central, Barrabes, amongst others.

On 23 October 2008, Lara opened the solo exhibition 'Ruins in the Netherlands' at Galeria Pepe Cobo, Madrid, where she presented a selection of 26 photographs of sites in ruin (an abandoned open theatre, a barn, a bunker, a windmill, a ferry station, an IBM tower, a swimming pool...) which are featured in her publication 'Ruins in the Netherlands XIX–XXI' (Episode, 2008, ISBN 978-90-5973-092-2) – also present in the exhibition.

Alongside this, a photograph of her recent project 'Removing the outside wall of a ruined house' is included, as well as a slideshow of 80 images, 'An empty terrain in the Danshui River', accompanied by a small guide analysing this particular area – three elements related to her presentation at the 2008 Taipei biennial.

Read Mariano Navarro's review 'Lara Almarcegui. Memoria de los lugares vacíos' here ('El Cultural' suplement, week 30 october, in Spanish).



Above and below: Installation views of the exhibition 'Ruins in the Netherlands' in Galeria Pepe Cobo, Madrid. Photos: Latitudes.



Stacks Image 39



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.