LONGITUDES

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

Publication "Robert Smithson: Art in Continual Movement" (Alauda Publications, 2012) includes essay by Max Andrews

 Cover of the publication. All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org

We just received a copy of the wonderful and long-awaited publication "Robert Smithson: Art in Continual Movement" (Alauda Publications, 2012) for which Max Andrews of Latitudes contributes the essay "A Dark Spot of Exasperation: From Smithson to the Spime" (an essay which was the basis of his recent lecture at the Royal College of Art in London).

Pages 44-45, with the section "Art, Research, Ecology".

Robert Smithson's seminal Land Art work Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (Emmen, The Netherlands, 1971) is treated as a case study that opens up to a number of topics, still relevant in contemporary art: 'Models of Spectatorship', 'Art, Research, Ecology', 'Documentation', 'Museum, Media, Society' and 'The Cinematic'." 

 Above: pages with Max Andrews' essay "A Dark Spot of Exasperation: From Smithson to the Spime".

Max Andrews' essay "A Dark Spot of Exasperation: From Smithson to the Spime". 

In his text, Andrews stresses that Smithson's innovations in terms of post-studio practice are not about "the question where, or what is the work of art?", but about investigating the structure of the multiple elements which constitute the form of an art project and its place in the world. According to Andrews, the essential feature of Smithson's kinship to post-studio practice is not so much his institutional critique, but a move away from the museum and the curator as existing power structures to a "curatorial function which incorporates a social ecology: a new meaning- and value-generating system in and around art." In his essay, Andrews traces the points of congruence between Smithson and the practices of contemporary artists like Lara Almarcegui, Jorge Satorre and Cyprien Gaillard.

 Documentation pages, clippings from 1987.

  Pages 150-151, Section "A Living Archive – Film"

 Page 194-195, Section "A Living Archive"

 Pages 208-209, Section "A Living Archive"

The 240-page monograph publication will be launched on 30 March 2012 in The Hague during the symposia Rethinking Robert Smithson organised by the publishers in cooperation with Leiden University Institute for Cultural Disciplines.

Initiator and publisher: Alauda Publications
Edited by: Ingrid Commandeur and Trudy van Riemsdijk-Zandee
Authors: Max Andrews, Eric C.H. de Bruyn, Stefan Heidenreich, Sven Lütticken, Anja Novak, Vivian van Saaze
Design: Esther Krop
ISBN: 9789081531481
Price: 39,95 Euro
Available in bookshops or order online: alaudapublications.nl


Related links: 



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(Part 2) In pictures: Art Dubai, 21–24 March 2012

One of the entrances to Art Dubai. All photos Latitudes.

After concluding the three days of the 2012 March Meeting in Sharjah (see part one of our Emirati posts), we made our way to the neighbouring Emirate to visit Art Dubai (21–24 March), which took place at the Madinat Jumeirah hotel resort.  

 View of the Madinat Jumeirah hotel resort where Art Dubai took place.


Opening of Art Dubai. Busy hall of the Madinat Jumeirah hotel.

 Corridors of Art Dubai. Right: Lombard Freid Projects, New York.

 Corridor of Art Dubai. Left: Green Cardamom Gallery showing Ayaz Jokhio, Nazgol Ansarinia and Anwar Jalal Shemza.

Entourage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai leaves the fair.
 Low point: large paintings of horses’ heads presented on easels adorned the entrance to the fair.

Cartier lounge. Two models pose wearing jewels of the luxury firm.

Global Art Forum 6 "The Medium of Media" directed by writer, curator, Editor-at-Large at Tank magazine and contributing editor at Bidoun magazine Shumon Basar was co-hosted by the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (18–19 March) and was followed by four consecutive days during Art Dubai (21–24 March).

On stage (left to right) Douglas Coupland, Shumon Basar and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Full house with the keynote by Douglas Coupland.

The programme was the real highlight of Art Dubai and included a focused and well-balanced programme of guests (novelists, curators, artists, journalists, filmmakers, commentators, film producers...) and formats (interviews, 15 minute readings, presentations of commissions). Amongst the highlights was a panel with Canadian novelist and artist Douglas Coupland who discussed Marshall McLuhan’s legacy alongside Shumon Basar and Hans Ulrich Obrist; Michael Rakowitz's dialogue with Jack Persekian on their collaboration for 'The Breakup', a project which revolved around the intricacies of The Beatles' 1969 breakup, taking the form of a ten-part radio programme that took place in Ramallah's Radio Amwaj in 2010; and the PowerPointsTM Your Creative Medium Potencial (CMP) series of commissions curated by Victoria Camblin, which included powerpoint works by writers and artists Ayshay+Kari Altmann, Douglas Coupland, Goldin & Senneby, LuckyPDF (see their "School of Global Art" web and powerpoint) and Alex Provan (Triple Canopy).

 Shumon Basar (left) photographing the audience and tweeting #GAF2012; Hans Ulrich Obrist (right).

 Global Art Forum 6, 22 March: Conversation between Georgina Adam, Art Market Editor at The Art Newspaper and Art Marker correspondent at The Financial Times, and geo-strategist/author Parag Khanna - discussed how information shapes value in the financial marketplace and the differences between the art and the financial market.

Journalist and Bidoun's editor Negar Azimi asking "What is to be done by artists in the face of turbulent historical times when it's the media, arguably, that posseses today's power to shape our imaginations and idealogies the most".

Jack Persekian (left) and Michael Rakowitz (right) discuss their collaboration for 'The Breakup", a multi-part event at the Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem.

The Abraaj Art Capital Prize exhibition at Art Dubai, with works by Taysir Batniji, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige (who had a solo show at The Third Line), Wael Shawky, Risham Syed, and Raed Yassin. Curated by Nat Muller.

Elsewhere in Dubai, The Third Line gallery presented the exhibition "Lebanese Rocket Society: Part III, IV, V" by 2012 Abraaj Capital Art Prize winners, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.

The Pavilion Downtown Dubai hosted the show "Living with Video" curated by Paris-based galleriest Chantal Crousel and a banner commission by Lara Baladi curated by Juan A. Gaitán. More on the exhibitions at The Pavilion Downtown on our following post.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, is the third largest mosque in the world fits over 7,000 worshippers...

...and features the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet hand-crafted by 1,200 artisans in Iran, 7 gold-coloured chandeliers from Germany made of thousands of Swarovski crystals from Austria and glasswork from Italy...

...1,000 columns in its outer areas cladded with more than 20,000 marble panels inlaid with semi-precious stones, including lapis lazuli, red agate, amethyst, abalone shell and mother of pearl... phew!...
 
Our final visit: Manarat Al Saadiyat a 15,000 sqm venue with an exhibition about the Saadiyat Cultural District, which in the future will host the Zayed National Museum, the Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi by Frank Gehry and The Performing Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid (see maquettes below). Besides the exhibition of a timeline of Abu Dhabi's history and impressive panoramic screens, the show is a place for international hotels and resorts chains (Mandarin, St. Regis, Park Hyatt...) to present their maquettes and 3D renderings of future facilities nearby the museums. Two days before our visit Human Rights Watch reported that "Abuses Are Continuing" for Workers at Abu Dhabi's Museum Island.


More images on Art Dubai and Abu Dhabi in this link.

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(Part 1) In pictures: Fifth March Meeting, 17–19 March 2012, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Sign marking directions to the March Meeting venues.

Latitudes participated in the March Meeting (17–19 March 2012), a three-day symposium organised by the Sharjah Art Foundation which featured presentations by around 80 artists, art professionals and institutions working on the production and presentation of art. The programme of this fifth edition focused on Working With Artists and Audiences on Commissions and Residencies and comprised a series of lectures, debates and breakout sessions that took place in Dar Al Nadwa and other locations around Sharjah's Heritage Area.

More images of the fifth March Meeting and other related events on our Flickr.

 Arrival day – Tour to the Barjeel Art Foundation (collection of Sultan Bin Sooud Al-Qassemi) and the Maraya Art Centre, Al Qasba.

The opening of the exhibition "Ziad Antar: Portrait of a Territory" by Lebanese artist Ziad Antar, Collections Building, Heritage Area, Sharjah. Curated by Christine Macel, Chief Curator, Musée National D’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou Paris.
 
 Day 1 – Registration desk at Dar Al Nadwa in Sharjah's Calligraphy Square, the venue where most of the talks took place.

As announced in a previous post, Latitudes presented on the first day two case studies of commissions and residencies as participants in the panel "Minding the Gap: the Critical Role of Smaller Organisations" alongside Hu Fang (Vitamin Creative Space, China), Daniella Rose King (MASS Alexandria, Egypt) and moderated by Samar Martha (ArtSchool Palestine, Palestine). 

 Panel "Minding the Gap: the Critical Role of Smaller Organisations". Photo: Alfredo Rubio/Sharjah Art Foundation 

Latitudes during their presentation. Photo: Alfredo Rubio/Sharjah Art Foundation.

Firstly, Latitudes introduced the commission in the context of 'Portscapes' that was developed from its invitation to the Rotterdam-based artist and editorial duo Fucking Good Art (FGA) to live and work for a month in Rotterdam's Maasvlakte, and secondly, presented a commission addressed to Latitudes in the context of 'The Last Newspaper' in which we worked in the New Museum galleries for 3 months editing a weekly newspaper which became an incremental catalogue based on the micro-community of the exhibition.

 Lunch breaks took place at the beautiful Bait Al Naboodah, a two-storey house from 1845.

Plaque marking the entrance to the Bait Obaid Bin Eissa Al Naboodah house.

 Guests were treated to wonderful Emirati food.

At the end of the first day, the film "1395 Days without Red" by Anri Sala was premiered at Sharjah's Institute of Theatrical Arts. Šejla Kameric's film was screened on the 18 March at the courtyard of Bait Al Shamsi, Arts Area, Sharjah. Commissioned by UK's Artangel.

 Second day – Panellists getting ready for the discussion on "The Importance of Site". With Yusaku Imamura (Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan), Adam Sutherland (Grizedale Arts, UK), Khalil Abdulwahid (Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, UAE), Lu Jie (Long March Space, China) and moderated by Anne Barlow (Art in General, USA).

Day 2 – Panel "Artist as nomad" with Basma Alsharif, Ziad Antar, Šejla Kamerić, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen and moderated by Sama Alshaibi (University of Arizona, USA).

Day 3 – Panel "The Biennial as Commissioning Agent" with Paul Domela (Liverpool Biennial, UK), Yuko Hasegawa (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan & curator of the forthcoming Sharjah Biennial 2013), Abdellah Karroum (independent art researcher, publisher and curator, Morocco), Riyas Komu (Kochi Biennale Foundation, India) and moderated by Marieke van Hal (Biennial Foundation, Greece).

Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi, President of the Sharjah Art Foundation, giving her closing remarks of the March Meeting 2012.

 Day 3 – Final drinks and snacks at Bait Al Naboodah before Tarek Atoui's performance at the Calligraphy Square. During the drinks, Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi announced the recipients of the 2012 Production Grants worth a total of 200,000 U$: Sean Gullette, Mario Rizzi and Lindsay Seers. The grants were judged by PS1 curator Peter Eleey, artist Isak Berbic, and Sharjah Art Foundation President Hoor Al Qasimi. More here.

Impressive setting for Tarek Atoui's performance "Revisiting Tarab" at the Calligraphy Square. Photo: Sharjah Art Foundation.

Tarek Atoui's (Lebanon 1980, lives in Paris) 5.5-hour-long incredible performance "Revisiting Tarab" involved the participation of 17 musicians and sound artists. Atoui writes: 

"Tarab" is used in Arab culture to describe the emotional effect of music, and refers to the older repertoire rooted in the pre-World War I musical practice of Egypt and the East Mediterranean Arab world. In the occasion of Performa 2011, Atoui invited musicians and sound artists to travel to Beirut to explore the world's most extensive collection of Classical Arab music owned by Lebanese collector Kamal Kassar, which comprises over 5,000 old 78rpm shellac discs and tapes dating from 1903 to 1950s. Participants selected excerpts from the collection and independently composed their own interpretations of both the content and its possibilities in relation to the history of "Tarab". 

(...) The structure and orchestration of the "Re-visiting Tarab" performance is inspired by the rules of the traditional wasla –literally meaning a connection or chaining together. In Egyptian music and Near East is a suite of several vocal and instrumental pieces composed and improvised anchored to the same maqam or harmonic mode– that compiles and shifts between musical forms such as the dulab – a short melodic and rhythmic introduction – the taqsim – an instrumental solo improvisation– and the muwashah – a song based on an Arab-Andalusian or Oriental poem. The performance was produced by Sharjah Art Foundation with the support of AMAR Foundation. More info: http://www.visitingtarab.com

20 March: Guests waiting to take the bus to Kalba opposite the Sharjah Art Museum.

On the last day a group of guests and journalists were taken 110km from Sharjah city to Kalba, the third most important city in the Emirate, on its east coast, whose road extends up to the border with Oman. Here the Sharjah Art Foundation is currently readapting a 200m2 concrete building by the creek to become the Kalba Art Centre, planned to open in a years time. (Ziad Antar’s ongoing exhibition "Portrait of a Territory" at Sharjah's Collection Building, includes photo documentation of this coastline taken between 2004 and 2011.)

 Judith Greer, Associate Director of International Programmes at the Sharjah Art Foundation,
holds a map of the area where Kalba's future art centre will be while Hisham Al Madhloum, director of the Sharjah Directorate of Art, points out the location and particularities of Kalba and its surroundings.
Bus nearby Kalba's creek, a mangrove swamp.

The future site of the Kalba Art Centre occupies a total area of 13,000 m2 and in the 1970s was originally intended to be used as a fish fertiliser factory but is now intermittently used as an ice factory and a boat repair shop. The former factory will have a space for exhibitions, a cafeteria, spaces for workshops and host artist residencies, and will be managed and programmed by the Sharjah Art Foundation.

  
 Façade of the future Kalba Art Centre. This triple height pitched space overlooks the protected mangroves and heritage area across the creek.

 Interior space of the future Kalba Art Centre.

Back in Sharjah, we did a final tour to see the show "What should I do to live in your life?" at Bait Al Serkal, opposite the Sharjah Art Museum, which presented film works by Lee Kit, Minouk Lim, João Vasco Paiva, Part-time Suite and Yuk King Tan.

Entrance to Bait Al Serkal exhibition space.


All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except where noted otherwise in the photo caption)

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Lecture by Max Andrews "From Spiral to Spime: Robert Smithson, the ecological and the curatorial", 13 March, 2pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Royal College of Art, London

Poster announcement at the Royal College of Art galleries.

On Tuesday 13 March (2pm, Lecture Theatre 1), Max Andrews of Latitudes will give the lecture "From Spiral to Spime: Robert Smithson, the ecological and the curatorial" as part of the "Art and Globalisation" lecture series programmed by MA Curating Contemporary Art by Jean Fisher and Michaela Crimmin.

Starting out from Robert Smithson's Broken Circle / Spiral Hill (1971), this lecture looks at projects by Lara Almarcegui, Jorge Satorre and Cyprien Gaillard to speculate on the 'when' and the 'shape' of art after Smithson in relation to synchronic concepts of post-environmental ecological thinking, and the flux between work and curatorial context. Based on an essay in the forthcoming publication 'Robert Smithson: Art in Continual Movement' (Alauda Publications, 2012).

Robert Smithson, Broken Circle/Spiral Hill. Opening September 17, 2011. Emmen, The Netherlands. Photo by Jan Anninga. Courtesy SKOR.

Following the lecture, Andrews will lead a seminar to first years students of the MA Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art. 

[Please note that the lecture is only open to students and college staff.]

Tuesday 13 March 2012, 2pm
Lecture Theatre 1
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore 
London SW7 2EU, UK


All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
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Latitudes participates in the fifth annual March Meeting organised by Sharjah Art Foundation, 17–19 March 2012, Dar Al Nadwa, Heritage Area, Sharjah


Latitudes' 3-month residency at the New Museum in 2010. Photo: Latitudes

 FGA month residency at the Maasvlakte in 2009. Photo: FGA

March Meeting, a three-day symposium featuring presentations by artists, art professionals and institutions on the production and dissemination of art. March Meeting 2012: Working With Artists and Audiences on Commissions and Residencies will take place March 17–19, in Sharjah's scenic Heritage Area.

Latitudes will present two case studies of commissions and residencies. Firstly, a Latitudes commission in the context of 'Portscapes' that was developed from their invitation to the Rotterdam-based artist and editorial duo Fucking Good Art (FGA). Based from a shipping container the extremity of Rotterdam port for a month, FGA initiated a temporary web radio and research station. And secondly, a commission addressed to Latitudes in the context of 'The Last Newspaper' in which the curatorial duo worked in the New Museum galleries for 3 months editing a weekly newspaper which became an incremental catalogue based on the micro-community of the exhibition. Both residencies explored editorial and curatorial approaches as well as formats of publishing or broadcasting and highlight how small organisation can operate flexibly and critically within a larger structure – whether a huge industrial infrastructure project or a museum exhibition.

Speakers of the three-day symposium include: Abed Al Ju'beh, Director, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre (KSCC) (Palestine); H.E. Abdul Rahman Al Owais, UAE Minister of Culture; Noura Al-Sayeh, Architect & Curator (Bahrain); Palmina D'Ascoli, Manager of Department of Residencies, Institut Français (France); Shezad Dawood, Artist; Peter Eleey, Curator, MoMA/PS1 (USA); Amal Khalaf, Edgware Road Project: Assistant Curator of Serpentine Gallery (UK); Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT) (Japan); Louise Hui-Juan Hsu, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (Taiwan); Danda J, Director, Kuona Trust Centre for Visual Arts (Kenya); Lu Jie, Founder & Director, Long March Space (China); Eungie Joo, Curator, New Museum (USA); Riyas Komu, Director of Programmes, Kochi-Muziris Biennale (India); James Lingwood, Co-Director, Artangel (UK); Salwa Mikdadi, Head of Arts & Cultural Program, Emirates Foundation (UAE); Ayeh Naraghi, Cultural Programmes Specialist, UNESCO Doha Office (Qatar); Susan Pfeffer, Curator, KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin); Andrea Rose, Head of Visual Arts, British Council (UK); Beatrix Ruf, Director/Curator, Kunsthalle Zürich (Switzerland); Anri Sala, Artist; Ramin Salsali, Founder, Salsali Private Museum (UAE).

The March Meeting and related events are free and open to the public. Registration is recommended at marchmeeting@sharjahart.org Read more here

March Meetings 2012
Dar Al Nadwa, Heritage Area
Sharjah
United Arab Emirates
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Selected press coverage of 'The Dutch Assembly' at ARCOmadrid 2012

Rubén Grilo during his performance at 'The Dutch Assembly'. Space designed by Jasper Niens and Thijs Ewalts. Photo: Latitudes | www.lttds.org

(ES) Bea Espejo, "ARCO 2012, cifras y letras", El Cultural online, 23 November 2011


(UK) The Netherlands is the guest country at ARCOmadrid 2012, art-agenda.com, 13 February 2012

(ES) "ARCO 2012: Entrevista a Latitudes, comisarios de "The Dutch Assembly", Blog www.camilayelarte.blogspot.com, 15 Febrero 2012

(ES/UK) Álvaro Calleja, 'Un puente entre dos naciones/A bridge between two nations', ABCDArco, 16 Febrero 2012, p.7

(ES) Roland Groenenboom, "Holanda, reinventarse para sobrevivir", El Cultural, 17 Febrero 2012

(ES/UK) 'Kunstbeeld interviews Latitudes', special ARCOmadrid 2012 issue y en español aquí

(UK) Jolien Verlaek, "State of the arts: Spain - the Netherlands. Interview Mariana Cánepa Luna", Metropolis M, 18 February 2012

(ES) Entrevista con Mariana Cánepa, www.masdearte.com, 18 Febrero 2012

Videos ('The Dutch Assembly' related events/participants):

(ES) Entrevista a Lara Almarcegui, www.hoyesarte.tv, 15 Febrero 2012

(ES) Entrevista a Mariana Cánepa, www.hoyesarte.tv, 15 Febrero 2012

(ES) Entrevista a Adrià Julià, www.hoyesarte.tv, 18 Febrero 2012

'Care', performance by Rory Pilgrim at 'The Dutch Assembly' at ARCOmadrid, Metropolis M


+ info: 
The Dutch Assembly and programme details here.
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Launch of the monograph 'Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010', edited by Latitudes at 'The Dutch Assembly', ARCOmadrid, 15 February, 19-20h

Cover of the monograph edited by Latitudes. Photo: Latitudes.

Title: 'Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010'
Editor: Latitudes
Publisher & Design: Archive Books, Berlin
Texts: Cuauhtémoc Medina, Lars Bang Larsen and Latitudes
Format: 224 pages, colour, 21 x 27.5 cm. Black-and-white and colour illustrations. Flexicover, English.
ISBN: 978-88-95702-05-6

Published by Berlin-based Archive Books, 'Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010' is the first monograph presenting an overview of the last fifteen years of Almarcegui's artistic practice. The main part of the publication is formed by detailed documentation of the artist’s works and publications companioned by new descriptive texts written by the editors and the artist. These are presented in the following sections: ‘Demolition’, ‘Excavation’, ‘Construction materials’, ‘Ruins’, ‘Wastelands’ (survey, access, and preservation). (+ info...)

Lara Almarcegui (1972, Zaragoza. Lives and works in Rotterdam, the Netherlands) has had solo shows at Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen (2011); Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla (2011); TENT, Rotterdam (2011); Secession, Vienna (2010); Ludlow 38, New York (2010); the Centro Arte Contemporaneo, Málaga (2007), FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon (2004) and at INDEX, Stockholm (2003). She participated in group exhibitions such as Radical Nature – Art & Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009, Barbican, London (2009); Taipei Art Biennial, Taiwan (2008); Estratos, Murcia (2008); Sharjah Art Biennial 8, Sharjah (2007); 27th São Paulo Bienal, São Paulo (2006); Frieze Art Fair Projects, London (2006) and the Liverpool Biennial (2004). In 2008 she presented the guidebook 'Ruins in the Netherlands XIX-XXI' published by Episode. Almarcegui studied Fine Arts in Cuenca (1991–95) and at the Ateliers 63, Amsterdam (1996–98). She has recently been awarded the Dolf Henkes Prize, Rotterdam (2011). In 2012 Almarcegui will have solo shows at the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Móstoles and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC).


Spreads of the publication:
















 

The publication has been possible thanks to the support of the former Fonds BKVB (Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture), currently Mondriaan Fund. 

All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)


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Interview with Erick Beltrán & Jorge Satorre published in 'Atlántica' magazine #52

Installation view of 'Modelling Standard' at Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona. Jorge Satorre and Erick Beltrán (Illustrations by Jorge Aviña), “Modelling Standard”, 2010. 58 photocopies pasted on the wall. Variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artists.

In the current issue of the 'Atlántica' magazine #52 (to be launched on 16 February at 4pm, at the Sala de Amigos, Hall 8, ARCOmadrid), there is an interview between Erick Beltrán, Jorge Satorre, and Latitudes conducted in November 2011 during the installation week of the exhibition at Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona. Below is an abstract of the 4,000 words on phantom limbs, microhistory, devil's drool, apophenia, collaboration, information systems, Sigmund Freud's dog Jo-Fi, collage, döppelgangers, Fantomas, mirror neurons, unorthodox research methods, validation...

– PART I –

Latitudes (L): Your exhibition at Galería Joan Prats in Barcelona is the latest installment of your Modelling Standard project, as well as being a group show which includes the work of other artists. [1] Where should we begin the story, where does it start for you?

Jorge Satorre (JS): At the core of Modelling Standard is our interest in the methodology proposed by Italian microhistory during the seventies as well as its precedents. Specifically, the essay of Carlo Ginzburg ‘Clues: Roots of an Evidential Paradigm’, which was published in 1979, functioned as one of the main pillars of our project. In the text, he tried to explain a new way of making history in which there are three basic methods to follow: first, reducing scale; second, in-depth investigations of the few sources at hand; and third, exploitation of hints and traces – working like a detective. [2] Ginzburg supported his theory by alluding to the fathers of this paradigm: Sigmund Freud, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Giovanni Morelli. These three people worked in very different fields, though they shared a medical background and operated in the manner of a detective: deciphering clues through symptoms and finding hidden meaning in details. From this trigger, Erick and I started opening up a web of relations.

L: It is now a fascinatingly complex project which involves a whole host of characters and has evolved through an exhibition at FormContent in London in 2010 and a comic book that you produced for Casa Vecina in Mexico City earlier this year. Integral to the project are the amazing drawings of Jorge Aviña, who we’ll come onto specifically in a moment, which you commissioned as illustrations of certain concepts. But as Charles Fort said, ‘one measures a circle, beginning anywhere’... so, let’s pick one drawing and one character – Vilayanur Ramachandran?


Erick Beltrán and Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran. Courtesy the artist.

Erick Beltrán (EB): Ramachandran represents a really curious phenomenon that gets further explored in the comic – the analyses of the phantom limb and mirror neurons. He found out that there are cells in the brain that possess a representative image of our body. If those cells are electrically stimulated, one starts to feel different parts of the body. Via Wilder Penfield’s understanding of the part of the brain called the cortical homunculus, neuroscientists concluded that this representation is distorted, it’s not to scale with how the body really is. Some parts have more sensory neurons than others, hence they appear bigger in the brain’s body image: for instance, the hands of ‘Penfield’s homunculus’ are too big and the torso is way too small. 

L: What is the relation between the individual line drawings and the comic?

JS: For instance, the misperception Erick mentioned really became the centre of the comic, which is titled El Hallazgo del Miembro Fantasma (The Discovery of the Phantom Limb). The 58 individual drawings were the first part of the project and are pasted on the wall like posters here in Barcelona as they were similarly in London. Their structure and relations are set out more like a draft. The comic is basically a story talking about the power of the images in which we incorporated some of the characters from the first part of the project. 

L: The comic format must have posed a different challenge; rather than jumping from drawing to drawing as with the talk-performances you have done during the openings of the projects, a narrative has to be set out and digested linearly?

EB: We made a sort of ‘game of shadows’ with the comic by encompassing the narrative and the visual part. A novel however is something we are going to do at some point.

JS: The whole project has also set out a new problem for us: we began with the analysis of microhistory, yet as we mentioned before, now we realise this has evolved into considering the power of images. All the characters somehow tackle this problem in one way or another, and with the comic, we created a detective story where the characters are victims and perpetrators of a crime related to images. It has been a ping-pong of ideas between us, but we have also let chance be a part of the process. We have had to confront our decisions and integrate characters. Jorge Aviña is the illustrator who, as you said, has produced all the drawings for the project, and we realised that he had a lot to do with Fantomas, a fictional character in a Mexican comic series of the 1960s, based on the French character Fantômas. One of the writers of Fantomas, Gonzalo Martré, who is now 84, becomes the criminal in our comic and also is the co-writer of El Hallazgo del Miembro Fantasma.  

EB: By then we had realised we had gathered a sort of ‘dream team’ of what Fantomas could represent today. 

Jorge Satorre and Erick Beltrán (Illustrations by Jorge Aviña), “Modelling Standard”, 2010
58 photocopies pasted on the wall. Variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artists.


[1]  Modelling Standard, an exhibition organized by Jorge Satorre and Erick Beltrán. With the participation of Christoph Keller, Raphaël Zarka, Paloma Polo, Bernardo Ortiz, Efrén Álvarez, Meris Angioletti, Jose Antonio Vega Macotela, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Jorge Aviña and Florian Göttke. Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona, November–December 2011.
[2]  Carlo Ginzburg, ‘Clues: Roots of an Evidential Paradigm’, in Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method, translated by John Tedeschi and Anne C. Tedeschi (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), p. 102. The Italian edition is ‘Spie: Radici di un paradigma indizario’, in Aldo Gargani and Carlo Ginzburg, Crisi della ragione. (Einaudi, 1979).
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Pasado, presente e (incierto) futuro del Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona

Selección de artículos recientes entorno al pasado, presente e (incierto) futuro del Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona:

"Fontcuberta dice que cancelar el Canòdrom es un paso hacia un sistema artístico "totalitario", La Vanguardia, 6 Febrero 2012 (incluye video acción reivindicativa)

Roberta Bosco, "Los artistas visuales consideran pedir la dimisión de Ciurana", El País, 6 Febrero 2012

Bea Espejo, "El Canódromo en blanco", El Cultural, 6 Febrero 2012

(...) A las 16h, una manifestación convocada por la Asociación de Artistas Visuales de Catalunya pretende presionar a los políticos y hacerlos cambiar de opinión. Se leerá un manifesto y se pintarán de blanco los cristales del Canódromo, como se hace con los escaparates de los establecimientos cerrados. – Bea Espejo

Fotos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org


Se empiezan a pintar los cristales del Canòdrom...

 
Lectura del manifiesto (leer aquí, en catalán) por Joan Fontcuberta, Presidente de l'Associació d'Artistes Visuals de Catalunya (AAVC):

 

Los medios entrevistan a Francesca Llopis, Vocal de l'Associació d'Artistes Visuals de Catalunya (AAVC):




...y una hora después...llegan los camiones de BCN neta



Elena Vozmediano, El día después, blog 'Y que tú lo veas', 3 febrero 2012

Acció en defensa del Canòdrom com a Centre d’Art Contemporani, blog Associació d’Artistes Visuals de Catalunya

Roberta Bosco, "Moritz Küng, el director amordazado", El País, 1 Febrero 2012


"El arte en Barcelona", Cartas al director, La Vanguardia, 23 Enero 2012

Elena Vozmediano, El neodirigismo catalán, blog 'Y que tú lo veas', 21 Noviembre 2011


CONTENIDOS RELACIONADOS:
  • Gone with the wind: on the 'art crunch' and the Centre d'Art de Barcelona, the saga continues... 16 December 2008
  • Notas presentación de Latitudes expuestas durante las "Jornadas internacionales de debate para El Canòdrom, el nuevo Centro de Arte en Barcelona", 6–7 Julio 2009 (10 julio 2009)
  • Jornadas entorno al Canòdrom, el futuro Centro de Arte en Barcelona, 6–7 Julio 2009 (3 julio 2009)
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