PinchukArtCentre has invited Latitudes as one of a number of international non-profit arts organisations acting as platform partners, who will support the Prize by communicating with artists and arts professionals in their regions.

We just opened a Latitudes' YouTube Channel with ten 'behind the scenes' videos from 'Portscapes', the evolving series of art projects presented and produced throughout 2009 in and around the port of Rotterdam. The videos present short interviews with the artists (Lara Almarcegui, Jan Dibbets (part 1 and part 2), Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Ilana Halperin, Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller, Paulien Oltheten, Jorge Satorre, Hans Schabus) and an introduction to the project by SKOR curator Theo Tegelaers and Ria Haagsma, Senior Communications advisor of the Port of Rotterdam Authority.

Latitudes' YouTube Channel also includes documentation of an action with Lawrence Weiner in the context of his 2008 Fundació Suñol exhibition 'THE CREST OF A WAVE' as well as Ignasi Aballí whitewashing a window for his exhibition 'Something, or nothing' in the Suitcase Art Projects, Beijing.

The inaugural Portscapes project took place a year ago on Sunday 8 February with the filming of a new version of Jan Dibbets' 12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective, newly titled 6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective.

Dibbets realised the original version of this classic work on the Dutch coast near Zandvoort in February 1969 and this 'second attempt' (the artist rejects the notion of a ‘remake’) was shot forty years later to the month, in February 2009 on a beach that will disappear with the construction of Maasvlakte 2. The eight minute film was premiered in the FutureLand visitor centre every Sunday during June 2009 and was screened on loop in New York, during Latitudes' participation in the non-profit festival 'No Soul for Sale' (24–28 June).

6 Hours Tide Object... records the drawing of a trapezoid shape in the sand during low tide using a bulldozer which drives back and forth along the beach. The shape consequently appears as a rectangular ‘frame’ in the resultant film due to the angle of perspective distortion in being shot from an elevated platform. Subsequently, the incoming tide washes it away. A formalistic reflection on geometry, representational illusion and the camera-’eye’, Dibbets reasserts the freshness of this fleeting filmed action with no hint of nostalgia. Within the context of the development of Maasvlakte 2 the work allows our fresh interpretations: concerning the physical modification of Dutch coastline, or new perspectives of construction, destruction and change, for example.

Watch the 'making of' by Olaf Schuur.
6 Hours Tide Object... was produced in the context of 'Portscapes', an accumulative series of ten new commissions by initiated by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice and financial support from SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) curated by Latitudes, Barcelona.

An exhibition is currently on view at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen with the resulting works realised throughout 2009. On view until 25 April 2010 - free entrance.

Marjolijn Dijkman, 'Here be dragons' (2009), image presented on a billboard. The second part of her project, the film 'Surviving New Island' (2009–10) will be premiered during the exhibition.



'Portscapes'
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
30 January–25 April 2010. Reception: Friday 5 February, 8pm.
Free entrance
Project website: www.portscapes.nl
Projects chronology: http://www.dipity.com/latitudes/PORTSCAPES
 
Works by Lara Almarcegui (Spain/Netherlands), Bik van der Pol (Netherlands), Jan Dibbets (Netherlands), Marjolijn Dijkman (Netherlands), Fucking Good Art (Netherlands), Ilana Halperin (US/Scotland), Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller (Switzerland), Paulien Oltheten (Netherlands), Jorge Satorre (Mexico), Hans Schabus (Austria), as well as work by the website collaborators Maria Barnas (poetry) and Markus Miessen (interviews).

'Portscapes' will present the results of works commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam realised throughout 2009 by 10 (inter)national artists on the occasion of the beginning of the construction of Maasvlakte 2 – the 2,000-hectare land supplementation project to extend Rotterdam's port, Europe's largest seaport and industrial area. 'Portscapes' has encompassed new projects of various scales under the leitmotif itineraries and destinations – artist-led tours, film screenings, billboards and the production of film and photographic works, audio-guides, radio broadcast and field guides. + info...

The films by Rotterdam-based artists Bik van der Pol and Marjolijn Dijkman, 'Facts on the Ground' (2009–10) and 'Surviving New Land' (2009–10) respectively, will be presented for the first time coinciding with the exhibition.

Overtreders W, the designers of the exhibition, have created semi-transparent display structures for the museum’s Richard Serra Hall, using industrial materials based on the format of cargo containers.

A catalogue (€12,50) and a special-edition catalogue (€50) designed by Ben Laloua/Didier Pascal is co-published by SKOR and the Port of Rotterdam Authority on the occasion of the exhibition. The special-edition includes filmed interviews with the artists as well as the DVD of '6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective' (2009), the film produced by Jan Dibbets for 'Portscapes'. Publication available at the Museum Boijmans's shop or can be ordered via SKOR by writing to info@skor.nl or calling +31(0)20 672 25 25


Press enquiries: Nienke van Beers, Tel: +31(0)20- 672 25 25, nvanbeers@skor.nl

www.LTTDS.org

-Redesigned and wider navigation interface with a drop down menu replacing the previous floating menu bar | Interfaz rediseñada, amplia navegación con un menú desplegable que sustituye a la barra de menú

-Full integration with Latitudes' flickr photos – all website galleries are now embedded from flickr. Improved 'Newsletter archive' and 'Press' pages | Integración completa de las galerías de fotos con los álbums en flickr. Nuevo diseño del archivo newsletters y de la página prensa

-Streamlined 'Projects' navigation – 'Conferences, Talks and Residencies' have been moved out of 'Projects' into an expanded 'About' section | Mejora de la sección 'Proyectos': 'Conferencias, charlas y residencias' se han movido a una nueva y ampliada sección bajo 'Acerca de'

- iPhone/Touch/Android enabled, and for the technical or typographically minded, the website now features embedded webfonts for titles! – to see these, you'll need at least Firefox 3.5; IE 4; Safari 3.1; or Chrome 3 | La nueva web es compatible con la navegación en iPhone, Touch o Android, y para los más técnicos o amantes de la tipografía hemos integrado webfonts en los títulos (para verlo necesitarás Firefox 3.5, IE 4, Safari 3.1 o Chrome 3).

Jorge Satorre's project for Portscapes had its beginnings in the eastern part of the Netherlands with a 3-tonne gneissic granite rock from the Svecofennian age, approximately 1.9 billion years ago. Following the artist’s fascination with the environmental compensation practices being instigated alongside the construction of Maasvlakte 2, his project consisted of returning the rock to where it once came from in Sweden – an act of synthetic restitution and transnational sculptural offsetting. 

The boulder has now found a permanent home at the Wanås Foundation, near Knislinge in southern Sweden [1]. The boulder was transported from Erica, in the northeast of The Netherlands, to Knislinge at the beginning of January (see report on the Swedish newspaper Kristianstadsbladet).


 
Not insignificantly, the celebrated Land art work 'Broken Circle' (1971) by Robert Smithson, sited in a working quarry near Emmen, incorporates such a seemingly immovable boulder at its centre. Satorre’s reverse geological gesture is also reflected in the fact that much of the existing and future sea defence in the port area will be made from rock brought from Scandinavia. The artist offers an account of the process through drawings, which incorporates both actual and imagined details. One such detail depicts an imagined protest at the beginning of the boulder’s homeward journey – see post 2 October 2009.


Jorge Satorre's project was produced in the context of 'Portscapes', an accumulative series of newly commissioned projects produced in the context of the 2,000-hectare extension to the Port of Rotterdam, the project Maasvlakte 2.

An exhibition with 'Portscapes' projects will be on view at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam between 30 January and 25 April 2010 (Reception: Friday 5 February, 20h).

Portscapes was commissioned by the Port of Rotterdam Authority with advice and support from SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space, Amsterdam) and was curated by Latitudes.

The year-long exhibition project DOMINÓ CANÍBAL will use a single venue, the 18th century convent church Sala Verónicas, over a period of twelve months. Starting with the sculptor, essayist and poet Jimmie Durham, each successive artist [Cristina Lucas (March 26th), The Bruce High Quality Foundation (May 21st – see images of their 'temporary office' for Latitudes' participation in 'No Soul for Sale'), Kendell Geers (July 9th), Tania Bruguera (September 24th), Rivane Neuenschwander (November 12th) and Francis Alÿs (December 17th)] will create his/her work based on what was created by the preceding artist, either destroying it, appropriating or reinterpreting it.

Jimmie Durham's exhibition will open on Monday 25th January, and will be preceded by a conversation between him and Cuauhtémoc Medina, curator of 'Dominó Caníbal', on Friday 22 January, 6pm at CENDEAC. Below images of the artist during his recent site visits to Murcia and surroundings. 


 As PAC 2010 curator Cuauhtémoc Medina has stated “my starting point is the operation of the game of dominoes, which is a very widespread transcultural point of production. (...) From the ideological use of the so-called “domino effect” brings to mind the terrors of the Cold War and beyond”. Here "the creative process depends on observation and interaction with the previous moves, instead of viewing itself as the production of some unique and conclusive image." (1)


The ongoing creative process taking place in Sala Verónicas will be filmed in real time and on view at the PAC MURCIA website (www.pacmurcia.es).

As with the previous PAC in 2008 (see Latitudes' posts here and here) a series of activities are running parallel to PAC 2010: a seminar organised in collaboration with CENDEAC (Centro de Documentación y Estudios Avanzados de Arte Contemporáneo), a programme of exhibitions in art galleries in the region and series residences for artists from Murcia in Europe and America.

Coinciding with this edition of PAC, the European Biennial for Contemporary Art Manifesta 8 will also take place in Murcia and open on October 1st . The event is curated by three collectives Alexandria Contemporary Art Forum (Egypt), Chamber of Public Secrets (Denmark, Italy, Lebanon) and Tranzit (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) (see Latitudes post here and here) with the "aim to engage with Europe’s present-day boundaries with Northern Africa and its interrelations with the Maghreb region." (2)

'Dominó Caníbal', January–December 2010, Sala Verónicas, Murcia
Artists: Jimmie Durham (January 22nd) Cristina Lucas (March 26th), Bruce High Quality
Foundation (May 21st), Kendell Geers (July 9th) Tania Bruguera (September 24th),
Rivane Neuenschwander (November 12th) and Francis Alÿs (December 17th).
Curator: Cuauhtémoc Medina
Project Management: Carlos Urroz
Production: PAC Murcia is an initiative of the Department of Education and Culture of the Región de Murcia through its Directorate General of Fine Art and Cultural Goods.
Organiser: Department of Culture & Tourism, Region of Murcia
Press & Communication: Urroz Proyectos, T + 34 915 648 856, info@urrozproyectos.com, www.urrozproyectos.com
Project website: www.pacmurcia.es

UPDATE - images of Jimmie Durham's installation. Photos: La Lobera
(1) Curatorial text, available on http://www.pacmurcia.es
(2) Manifesta website

Newsletter #19 – January 2010
English | Español

– Portscapes exhibition reception 5th February, 8pm, at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Exhibition runs between 30 January – 25 April 2010.
– Latitudes in the press: article by Teresa Sesé, 'De profesión, comisario, 'La Vanguardia', 2 January 2010, pp. 38-39. Read full article here (in Spanish).
If you would like to read previous newsletters, click here.
Check also our Latitudes' at www.lttds.org/blog for further news.
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