LONGITUDES

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

Cover Story—December 2019: Curating in the Web of Life

 Tue, Dec 3 2019
Latitudes' homepage www.lttds.org

The December 2019 monthly Cover Story ‘Curating in the Web of Life' homepage: www.lttds.org 

‘Last month Latitudes gave a lecture entitled “Curating in the web of life” at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, as part of the public program for the exhibition The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100. The presentation argued that modern art and modernist art history largely imagined humanity and the humanities making their own history by themselves while hiding the fact that their productions, relations, and economy were always teeming with biophysical processes.’

 → Continue reading
→ After December 2019, this story will be archived here.

Cover Stories' are published on a monthly basis on Latitudes' homepage featuring past, present or forthcoming projects, research, texts, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects or field trips related to our curatorial activities.

→ RELATED CONTENTS: 
 2019, cover story, Curatorial Practice, flowers, Lecture, MOMA, Moscow, web of life, world ecology
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Jurado premios, 3a edición del Dart Festival de cine documental sobre arte contemporáneo 2019

 Sun, Dec 1 2019

Latitudes ha tenido el placer de ser miembro del jurado de la ‘Sección Explora by Laie Llibreria!’ de la tercera edición del Festival de Cine Documental sobre Arte Contemporáneo 2019 junto al crítico de cine Quim Casas y la artista visual Núria Güell.

Los ganadores son los documentales ‘Elliott Erwitt - Silence Sounds Good’ de Adriana López Sanfeliu como mejor producción nacional, y ‘Barbara Rubin & The Exploding NY Underground’ de Chuck Smith, como mejor producción internacional. 


Elliott Erwitt ha pasado toda su vida adulta haciendo fotografías de presidentes, papas y estrellas de cine, así como de personas an´ y también de sus mascotas. Mientras que su trabajo es icónico en la cultura mundial,  su vida es en gran parte desconocida. ‘Elliott Erwitt - Silence Sounds Good’ es un retrato amable e íntimo de un artista en su trabajo, mostrando ser alguien que valora la compañía de todo tipo por encima de la conversación ociosa. Su trabajo vital es un importante testimonio del poder de la imagen. Con su primera película, Adriana López Sanfeliu logra crear un retrato íntimo de un fotógrafo de primer nivel.



 El documental “Christmas on Earth” (1963) conmocionó la escena del cine experimental de Nueva York. Su autora, la cineasta experimental Barbara Rubin, realizó la película cuando solo tenía 18 años. Durante su trayectoria, trabajó con el cineasta Jonas Mekas en la Filmmaker’s Coop, colaboró con Andy Warhol y fue fundamental en la creación de la próspera comunidad de cine underground de Nueva York. Durante años Mekas, que en la película tenía 94 años (falleció con 96), guardó todas las cartas de Barbara y atesoró su memoria. Trabajando con las imágenes de Mekas y los extraños clips de los archivos de Warhol, ‘Barbara Rubin & The Exploding NY Underground’ nos transporta dentro del mundo y la mente de Barbara Rubin, una cineasta que realmente creyó que el cine podría cambiar el mundo.
Proyección en el Cinema Girona. Cortesía: DART Festival 2019.

→ CONTENIDO RELACIONADO:
  • Mariana Cánepa Luna vocal del jurado del Premi Ciutat de Barcelona 2017 en el ámbito de las Artes Visuales 1 Febrero 2018
  • Antoni Hervàs's exhibition "El Misterio de Caviria" awarded the Visual Arts prize of the Premis Ciutat de Barcelona 2016 1 February 2017
  • Jurado y equipo tutorial de Barcelona Producció 2017 – Anuncio de los proyectos ganadores 25 Mayo 2017
  • Jurado y equipo tutorial de BCN Producció 2016, La Capella, Barcelona. 2 Febrero 2016
  • Latitudes-nominee artist Annette Kelm shortlisted for the Aimia | AGO Photography Prize 2015 24 June 2015
    Resolución Convocatoria 2012 de Artes visuales y Tutorial de la Sala d'Art Jove 7 Diciembre 2011
  • Fallo Jurado Premios Casablancas 2008, 20 Junio, 20h 16 junio 2008
  • Otros jurados – véase sección "About"
 2019, cinema, DART Festival, documentary, festival, Film programme, jury, latitudes
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Max Andrews' Valencia Feature in frieze magazine, November-December 2019

 Sat, Nov 2 2019
Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM), 1989. Courtesy: Institut Valencià d’Art Modern. Photograph: Juan García Rosell.

Max Andrews, co-director of Latitudes and contributing editor to frieze magazine, has written the feature-length article ‘The Rise, Fall and Reinvention of Spain’s First Modern Art Museum’ for the November–December 2019 (issue 207) of frieze. 
The article focuses on the rise, fall, and reinvention of the city’s trailblazing Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) through the cultural and (often notorious) political agents that have forged its institutional history since it opened in 1989. It also touches on the roles of other important institutions in the contemporary art landscape in Valencia, such as the Centre del Carme, the galleries Luis Adelantado, espaivisor, and Rosa Santos, and the private art foundation Bombas Gens Centre d'Art, that opened in 2017 in a former 1930s hydraulic pump factory.

Fermín Jiménez Landa, ‘Salvar el foc’ (Save the Fire), 2018, public sculpture and performance documentation. Courtesy: the artist.

"On the night of 19 March 2017, artist Fermín Jiménez Landa lit a match from the embers of a smouldering monument in a square within the Spanish city of Valencia. From that flame, he lit a candle, then a lantern, then a gas heater, keeping the fire alive through various technologies for 365 days and nights, until it sparked the incineration of his own monument, a wooden representation of an apartment block. Jiménez Landa’s action was done as part of Valencia’s fabled fallas festivities, which culminate each Saint Joseph’s night with a vast spectacle of burning all over the city, as hundreds of elaborate sculptures, conventionally groups of clownish figures, go up in smoke. The fallas have long brought a satirical zest, and an irresistibly primal symbolism, to Spain’s third-largest city. They’re a searing reminder of the transience of art." 

→ Continue reading here.


View of the collection gallery ‘Matter, space and time. Julio González and the avant-gardes’, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM). Photo: Latitudes, May 2019.
(Above and below) Views of the collection show ‘TIMES OF UPHEAVAL. Stories and microstories in the IVAM collection’, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM). Photo: Latitudes, May 2019.
View of the exhibition ‘The Gaze of Things. Japanese Photography in the context of Provoke’ at Bombas Gens Centre d’Art, Valencia. Photo: Latitudes, May 2019. 


→ RELATED CONTENT:
       2019, Bombas Gens, Fermin Jiménez Landa, Frieze, IVAM, Max Andrews, report, rethinking institutions, Valencia, writing
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      Cover Story—November 2019: ‘Fighting fires in Valencia: the 30-year story of the IVAM’

       Fri, Nov 1 2019
      Latitudes' homepage www.lttds.org

      The November 2019 monthly Cover Story ‘Fighting fires in Valencia: the 30-year story of the IVAM’ on Latitudes' homepage: www.lttds.org       

      "How does a museum recover from scandal? What imperatives exist for regional institutions outside of capitals? When, in 1989, the IVAM (Institut Valencià d’Art Modern) opened the doors to its imposing, new, slab-like building on the edge of what was once Valencia’s medieval walled core, it became the first public museum in Spain dedicated to collecting and exhibiting 20th-century art. Discussing IVAM’s rise, fall and reinvention, an article in the current frieze (issue 207, November–December) by Latitudes' Max Andrews (also a frieze Contributing Editor) is a case study on how right-wing politics impacted an entire city art ecology."
      → Continue reading
      → After November 2019, this story will be archived here.

      Cover Stories' are published on a monthly basis on Latitudes' homepage featuring past, present or forthcoming projects, research, texts, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects or field trips related to our curatorial activities.

      → RELATED CONTENTS: 
       1989, 2019, case study, cover story, Frieze, IVAM, Max Andrews, museums, rethinking institutions, Spain, text, writing
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      Lecture ‘Curating in the web of life’ in Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 7 November 2019 at 7:30pm

       Mon, Oct 28 2019

      Image: Dan Perjovschi.

      On November 7, 2019, at 7:30pm Latitudes will present the lecture ‘Curating in the web of life’ in the context of the public programme related to the group exhibition ‘The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100’ on view at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, until December 1, 2019. 

      Curated by Snejana Krasteva and Ekaterina Lazareva, the exhibition ‘The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100’ currently occupies the entire Museum and presents historical and new works by over 50 Russian and international artists—from a 16th-century tapestry to works using VR.
      Roman Keller and Christina Hemauer, ‘A Road Not Taken. The Story of the Jimmy Carter White House Solar Installation’, film still, 66 min., 2010. Courtesy of the artists.


      ‘Curating in the web of life’
      — A lecture by Latitudes

      Modern art and modernist art history largely assented to the ontological and epistemological lie which imagined humanity and the humanities making their own history by themselves, while hiding the fact that their productions, relations, and economy were always teeming with biophysical processes. The increasing violence by which the limits of the planet, its feedback loops and tipping points, are forcing themselves into world events has profound consequences for how we narrate (art) history and curate exhibitions in the web of life. 

      New disciplines are broaching the separation between human activities and Earth systems – environmental law, political ecology, ecological economics, and so on. Likewise, what is at issue when artists, curators, exhibitions, and museums venture into new formations and shared rather than adjacent perspectives? What is at stake in a curatorial ecology, an environmental art history, or in integrating socio-natural processes into an institution’s account of itself, and so on? Turning to a world-systems approach as well as the insights of micro-history, Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna will present a series of curatorial and artistic perspectives on such questions, drawing from “uncomfortable objects” and “dishonest research” [1] across their exhibitions “4.543 billion. The matter of matter” (2017–18), “Hemauer Keller​: United Alternative Energies” (Kunsthal Aarhus, 2011) “Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities” (Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, 2008), and related projects such as the residency “Geologic Time” (Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity​, 2017).
       
      [1] “Uncomfortable objects” is a notion borrowed from artist Mariana Castillo Deball, and “dishonest research” from artist Mercedes Azpilicueta.
       
      → RELATED CONTENTS:

       2019, Ecology, environmentalism, global trade, latitudes, Lecture, world ecology
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      Report: Trip to Chicago and Detroit in pictures, 18–25 September 2019

       Wed, Oct 23 2019
      Good morning Chicago!

      As we shared in our recent newsletter, in mid-September we had the opportunity to visit Chicago and Detroit, thanks to an invitation from Stephanie Cristello, Artistic Director of EXPO Chicago, who we met last year during the 2018 Amsterdam Art Weekend. As participants of the inaugural collaboration between EXPO CHICAGO and Red Bull Arts Detroit Global Curatorial Initiative, a smaller selection of participants had the opportunity to extend their trip to Detroit (21-23 September), in an effort to foster dialogue with the greater Midwest.


       18 September 2019: Visiting the Chicago Cultural Center (photo above), the main venue of ‘And Other Such Stories’ the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial curated by Yesomi Umolu, Sepake Angiama and Paulo Tavares. Personal highlights: works by Forensic Architecture, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Theaster Gates, Vincent Meessen, performances by Jimmy Robert, Alexandra Pirici, and the powerful collaboration between the Settler-Colonial City Project and the American Indian Centre. In the afternoon, we visited the Art Institute Chicago and attended a performance by Samson Young at the Chicago Symphony Center.
      (Above and below) Museum of Oil— The American Rooms by Territorial Agency on display in the Chicago Cultural Center's Exhibit Hall.
      (Above) Work by Oscar Tuazon.
      (Above) Work by Clemens von Wedemeyer. 

      (Above and below) Room with works by Theaster Gates and Vincent Meessen.
      (Above) Works by Wendelien van Oldenborgh (left) and Do Ho Suh (right).
      (Above) Movimento Sem Teto do Centro (MSTC) fights on behalf of families experiencing homelessness.
      One of the examples of the impactful collaboration between the Settler-Colonial City Project and the American Indian Centre.

      The American Indian Centre also contributed with a Land Acknowledgement.
       Performance ‘Descendance du nu (Chicago)’ by Jimmy Robert.

       ‘Re-collection’, 2018–ongoing, a performance by Alexandra Pirici situated in the Grand Army of the Republic Rotunda of the Chicago Cultural Center, a memorial to Civil War veterans.
      (Above and three below) ‘In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernist in Mexico at Midcentury’ at the Art Institute Chicago, exploring the impact Mexico had on the lives and artistic practices of Clara Porset, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Cynthia Sargent, and Sheila Hicks. 
      Also at the Art Institute Chicago we were surprised to see that this work by Andrés Jaque on Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona pavilion that recently entered the collection. Can't help to think such work should have been acquired by a Spanish collection, not to mention a Barcelona collecting institution?
      A great exhibition with very few photographs by Sara Deraedt at Art Institute Chicago. Since 2008 the artist has been photographing vacuum cleaners as she encounters them in places where they are sold. 
      The Flax project started in 2012 by Dutch artist Christien Meindertsma.
      Before Samson Young's performance and Q&A at the Chicago Symphony Center.

      19 September 2019: Morning session at the Graham Foundation. But first, stop at their beautiful bookstore and their current show by Tatiana Bilbao. In the afternoon, we visited EXPO CHICAGO until we got fair exhaustion and later caught Abraham Cruzvillegas' impressive solo show at The Arts Club of Chicago.

      "Tatiana Bilbao Estudio: Unraveling Modern Living" at the Graham Foundation.
      Marking the commencement of the 2019 Curatorial Exchange and Curatorial Forum was a keynote lecture by Artistic Director Zoe Butt from The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Ho Chi Minh City.
      Mid-morning tour around EXPO CHICAGO.

      One of the best stands was this presentation by Brazilian gallery Bergamin & Gomide, an art and architecture atlas of modernist and contemporary Brazil. Curated by Sol Camacho.
      “In/Situ” section curated by Jacob Fabricius (artistic director of the Kunsthal Aarhus in Denmark) around EXPO CHICAGO.

      We caught ourselves in this picture by Casa Bosques browsing at books in the Index Art Book Fair. 
      (Above and below) Solo show ‘The Ballad of Etc.’ by Abraham Cruzvillegas at The Arts Club of Chicago.

      20 September 2019: On our last day in Chicago, we joined closed-door presentations by the  2019 Curatorial Exchange participants, moderated by Art Institute Dittmer Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Hendrik Folkerts (Above). Later we attended a lunch at EXPO CHICAGO, and in the afternoon took off with a couple of colleagues, to enjoy the impressive wealth of exhibition-centres the University of Chicago campus has to offer: the Logan Center, The Renaissance Society, the SMART Museum, the Oriental Institute, and the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society.

      Above: Assemble and Duval Timothy in collaboration with Demond Melancon and the Material Institute, New Orleans, an exhibition at the Logan Center, The University of Chicago.
       (Above and below) LaToya Ruby Frazer's "The Last Cruze" at The Renaissance Society also in The University of Chicago campus. 
       (Above and two below) Michael Rakowitz's work in one of the galleries of the Oriental Institute also in The University of Chicago campus.
      (Above and below) Frederick C. Robie House, aka The Robie House, a landmark building by Frank Lloyd Wright on 5757 S Woodlawn Ave, in the University of Chicago campus.
      (Above) Exhibition by Martha Rosler at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society (also in The University of Chicago campus) centred primarily on her interest in flowers, gardens, and related “green” motifs. 
      (Above and two below) "Samson Young: Silver Moon or Golden Star, which will you buy of me?" at the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago campus.

      University of Chicago campus.
      In the evening, we attended the opening of the solo exhibition by Vienna-based artist Sarah Ortmeyer at the project space Chicago Manual Style, curated by Stephanie Cristello, artistic director of Expo Chicago. Latitudes collaborated with Ortmeyer in the 2011 exhibition ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs...’ at Meessen de Clercq, Brussels.

      One of the outdoors installations at the MBAD African Bead Museum, Detroit.

      21 September 2019: Upon arriving in Detroit in the afternoon, our local host Scott Campbell took us to visit the MBAD African Bead Museum, 18 outdoor installations using iron, rock, wood and mirrors by visual storyteller Olayami Dabls on the corner of Grand River and West Grand Blvd, Detroit. (above and three below)



       22 September 2019: (Above and 8 photos below) Morning tour by Laura Mott, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Design, and curator of the exhibition ‘Landlord Colors: On Art, Economy, and Materiality’ at the Cranbrook Art Museum. "Materiality, a large-scale exhibition and public engagement series that brings together artworks from five international art scenes that have experienced economic and societal upheaval: Italy (the 1960s-80s), Korea (1970s-80s), Cuba (1990s–present), Greece (2009-present), Detroit, USA (1967-present). The exhibition showcases the work of more than 60 artists from a wide variety of backgrounds to highlight shared themes of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and resistance highlighting seminal historic works and new work from contemporary artists such as Reynier Leyva Novo, Zoë Paul, Kostis Velonis, Matthew Angelo Harrison, and Scott Hocking."

      Matthew Angelo Harrison, ‘Dark Povera Part 1’, 2017.
      Two chairs by Olayami Dabls of the Dabls’ MBAD African Bead Museum.

      Afternoon visiting Red Bull Arts Detroit studio and gallery space. We are taken around their current show ‘Sick Time, Sleepy Time, Crip Time: Against Capitalism’s Temporal Bullying’ by the Red Bull Arts Detroit Curatorial Fellow Taraneh Fazeli.
      Anders Ruhwald’s installation occupies an entire apartment in Detroit’s Eastern Market neighbourhood. 
      In the afternoon we had time to squeeze in a visit to The Heidelberg Project, in the McDougall-Hunt neighbourhood on Detroit's east side. (Above and 10 below) Since 1986 artist Tyree Guyton (1955) has progressively transformed vacant houses and lots on Heidelberg street into one large outdoor installation. Guyton's "grotesque materialism" project is one of the most visited sites in Detroit, attracting 200,000 visitors annually.



      23 September 2019: Morning studio visit with artist Matthew Angelo Harrison (no photos), and pm appointment with Executive Director Elysia Borowy-Reeder and current
      Ford Curatorial Fellows Jova Lynne and Tiziana Baldenebro of The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, which was in between shows. MOCAD is the keeper of Mike Kelley's ‘Mobile Homestead’, "located on the grounds of the museum, it is a full-scale replica of the home in which Kelley grew up: a single-story, ranch-style house in the Detroit suburb of Westland. Kelley, who died in Los Angeles in 2012, sought to ensure that the Mobile Homestead remain relevant to the cultural interests and concerns of its local communities. In that spirit, the home was designed with a detachable facade, allowing it to be driven to neighbourhoods throughout the city, offering public services during its travels."



      The official programme finished and we had time to visit the Michigan building on 220 Bagley Avenue (above and two below) which was designed for Detroit philanthropist and movie theatre tycoon John H. Kunsky. It opened in August 1926 with the film "You Never Know Women" with Florence Vidor and Lowell Sherman, and could seat over 4,000 people who enjoyed a programme of five shows daily. It hosted live performances by The Marx Brothers, Betty Grable and Bob Hope, and many others. The theatre was built on the site of the small garage where automobile industrialist Henry Ford built his first automobile, the quadricycle (the garage was later disassembled and moved to The Henry Ford Museum in the nearby suburb of Dearborn). It closed in 1976 after operating as a nightclub named The Michigan Palace. In 1977 the building's owners paid $525,000 to gut the theatre and build a three-level, 160-space parking deck inside it. The site of Ford Motor's birthplace replaced by a movie theatre, reclaimed by the automobile.


      Evening walk to see Canada on the other side of the river.

      24 September 2019: (Above and below) On our last day, we visited the Detroit Institute of Arts, home to Diego Rivera murals and an impressive 19th and 20th Century collection. The "Detroit Industry" murals (1932-1933) were conceived by Diego Rivera (1886-1957) as a tribute to the city's manufacturing base and labour force of the 1930s. Rivera completed it in 11 months and was paid a 20,000 U$ fee. Rivera's murals show the automobile manufacturing process, Coaltulicue (the Aztec goddess of creation and war), the production of the 1932 Ford V-8, personnel involved in the industry as well as managers and Henry Ford, giving all of them equal stature.


      Our last expedition was to John K. King Used & Rare Books on 901 W Lafayette Blvd, holding over a million books in stock. No computer search, just browsing.


      → RELATED CONTENT:
       2019, architecture, art fairs, biennale, Chicago, decolonise institutions, detroit, invitational programme, LaToya Ruby Frazer, Michael Rakowitz, report, Samson Young, travel, visiting programme
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      Conferencia ‘4.543 miles de millones y la naturaleza social abstracta’, Jornadas Eremuak, Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, 17–19 octubre 2019

       Mon, Oct 14 2019
      Imagen gráfica de las jornadas. Cortesía eremuak.

       Latitudes ha sido invitada a participar en las jornadas 2019 de eremuak, que tendrán lugar en la primera planta de Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, entre el 17 y el 19 de octubre del 2019. 

       Tituladas ‘-K/-S naturak / naturalezas’, el comité de eremuak (formado por Maider Lopez, Aimar Arriola e Iñaki Imaz), pretende hacerse eco de los ‘variados aspectos de lo que tradicionalmente se ha denominado naturaleza. Desde el abandono de los espacios institucionales en busca de un afuera comprometido y renovador, hasta la inclusión de procesos u organismos vivos en esos mismos espacios, el deseo de exterioridad parece evidente.’

       Evitando recurrentes simplificaciones o la reducción del eje temático a binomios humano/no- humano, los organizadores aportan al término el matiz de la pluralidad (la –k de naturak, o la –s de naturalezas) con la intención de ‘atender a una diversidad más acorde a la realidad del mundo del arte y todas las naturalezas que genera o con las que se enfrenta.’

      El programa incluye la participación de una docena de conferenciantes, así como la presentación de la revista eremuak#6, Cuaderno de artista, y a modo de clausura, un concierto de Hidrogenesse (entrada libre con invitación, recoger en Azkuna Zentroa). Las jornadas son de libre acceso hasta completar aforo.
      Sala de la exposición colectiva ‘4.543 billion. The matter of matter’, CAPC musée d'art contemporain, 2017–18. Photo: Latitudes/RK.

      Tomando como referencia una de las diez salas de la exposición colectiva ‘4.543 milliards. La question de la matière’ (CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, 2017–18), Latitudes analiza la noción de "naturaleza social abstracta" acuñada por el historiador ambiental e historiador geógrafo Jason W. Moore mediante la obra de cuatro de los artistas participantes: Lara Almarcegui, Pep Vidal, Lucas Ihlein y Amy Balkin.

      Actualización: 
      Jornadas Eremuak 2019 en vimeo.
      Video de la presentación y turno de preguntas.


      → CONTENIDO RELACIONADO:
       2019, 4543 billion, Bilbao, conference, Ecology, latitudes, talk, world ecology
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      Helene Romakin interviews Latitudes for artfridge.de

       Tue, Oct 8 2019


      Over the course of the Summer, Helene Romakin (PhD candidate at the Institute for the History and Theory of the Architecture, ETH Zurich) interviewed us for the Berlin-based online platform www.artfridge.de run by the art historian and curator Anna Lena Werner.

      As Helene mentions in her introduction, we met last July in Valencia, after Mariana's conversation with Lara Almarcegui on the occasion of her solo exhibition “Agras Volcano. Mining Rights” at the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM). Afterwards, we had a lively discussion on several topics surrounding Lara's practice, our thoughts on other artistic practices tackling a range of environmental issues, the Extinction Rebellion, etc. so we were happy to continue our conversation when she proposed doing this interview looking back at several projects we produced in the mid-two thousands. 


      → RELATED CONTENTS:

      • Conversation for the exhibition catalogue "Limits to Growth" by Nicholas Mangan (Sternberg Press, 2016) 31 October 2016
      • In conversation with Lucas Ihlein for Artlink Magazine 5 September 2016
      • Witte de With and Spring Workshop's 'Moderation(s)' publication 'End Note(s)' is out! 5 March 2015
      • Interview with Nicholas Mangan in Mousse Magazine #47, February–March 2015 11 February 2015
      • "Focus Interview: Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum", frieze, Issue 157, September 2013 14 September 2013

       2019, 4543 billion, Barcelona Gallery Weekend, Composiciones, Harald Szeemann, interview, Lara Almarcegui, latitudes, Mariana Cánepa Luna, Max Andrews, press coverage, world ecology
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      Report: Latitudes' participation in the festival TODAY IS OUR TOMORROW initiated by PUBLICS in Helsinki

       Fri, Oct 4 2019
      Poster announcing the festival in a street in central Helsinki. Photo: Latitudes.

      As partner organisation in the transdisciplinary festival ‘Today Is Our Tomorrow’ initiated by PUBLICS, Latitudes' participation consisted in inviting Argentinian-born, Amsterdam-based artist Mercedes Azpilicueta, to perform at Club Kaiku on September 13, 2019.

      Façade of Kaiku, Helsinki.

      A day earlier, on September 12, 2019, Latitudes and Mercedes maintained an open conversation introducing her artistic practice and, in particular advancing details of both her ‘Yegua-Yeta-Yuta’ performance taking place a day after, as well as her forthcoming solo exhibition at CentroCentro, Madrid, opening October 3, 2019, and her solo presentation as part of Van Abbemuseum's ‘Positions #5’, a series of exhibitions presenting the work of artists working in the Netherlands.

      September 12, 2019, 5:30–6:30h: (Above and below) Mercedes, Mariana and Max (Latitudes) in conversation at Club Kaiku. Photo: Jonni Korhonen/PUBLICS.
      Photo: Jonni Korhonen/PUBLICS.
      Photo: Aman Askarizad/PUBLICS.

      Azpilicueta performed ‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ (2015-ongoing), an evolving solo performance that is part scripted, part improvised. Composed from a litany of hundreds of pejorative, abusive, and vulgar insults directed at women in Argentina, it transforms the everyday language of misogyny and harassment into a kind of tragicomic exorcism. Many of the words derive from the street slang of Buenos Aires, especially Lunfardo, a colloquial and cryptic dialect that first arose among working-class Italian-immigrant and tango communities in Argentina and Uruguay during the late 1800s. For example, yegua literally means a mare – a female horse, a slur for a “difficult” woman. A yeta is a person who brings bad luck, while a yuta is someone corrupt or unscrupulous, and slang for the police. Accompanied by a percussive beat, Azpilicueta reclaims the power to offend, distorting and distending the epithets into something powerful and playful rather than weak and degrading. Azpilicueta performed to the beat of a new soundtrack produced for the occasion in collaboration with Chilean choreographer Rodrigo Sobarzo de Larraechea. 

      See documentation on our photo gallery.

      Photo: Aman Askarizad/PUBLICS.

      Mercedes Azpilicueta during her performance ‘Yegua-Yeta-Yuta’ (2015-ongoing) for TODAY IS OUR TOMORROW festival, organised by PUBLICS, Helsinki. Photo: Latitudes.
      Photo: Jonni Korhonen/PUBLICS.

      Photo: Aman Askarizad/PUBLICS.


      Photo: Kush Badhwar/PUBLICS.


      Photo: Kush Badhwar/PUBLICS.
      Photo: Kush Badhwar/PUBLICS.

      Photo: Kush Badhwar/PUBLICS.

      Photo: Latitudes.


      Mercedes Azpilicueta is an Argentinian visual and performance artist based in Amsterdam. Her practice has spanned theatrical mises-en-scènes and video installations, textile sculptures and drawing, sound works and 3D animation. With a particular interest in notions of the vulnerable or collective body, and the primal or dissident voice, her works have drawn inspiration from sources as diverse as Baroque painting, text messaging, medieval tapestries, street slang, and literary fiction, as well as singular figures including the Italian art critic and feminist activist Carla Lonzi (1931–1982), the Argentine-French performance artist Lea Lublin (1929–1999), the French futurist Valentine de Saint-Point (1875–1953), and the Costa Rican-born Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas (1919–2012). A major survey of Azpilicueta’s work to date, ‘Cuerpos Pájaros’ (Body-birds) was recently staged by the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (November 2018–April 2019 — see Latitudes' Buenos Aires report). On October 3, 2019, she presents ‘Bestiario de Lengüitas’ (Bestiaire of Tonguelets), curated by Virginie Bobin, at CentroCentro, Madrid, an exhibition which will then tour to Museion, Bozen, and CAC Brétigny in 2020. Later in 2019, she will have a solo presentation as part of ‘Positions #5’ at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
      (Above) Mercedes during her performance ‘Oh, Eduarda!’ on April 14, 2019, presented at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires. Photo: Latitudes.

      → RELATED CONTENTS
       2019, conversations, documentation, Helsinki, in photos, Latitudes-curated, Mercedes Azpilicueta, partner organisation, performance, PUBLICS, report
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      Cover Story—October 2019: Mercedes Azpilicueta in Helsinki

       Tue, Oct 1 2019
      Latitudes' homepage www.lttds.org

      The October 2019 monthly Cover Story ‘Mercedes Azpilicueta in Helsinki’ is now up on Latitudes' homepage: www.lttds.org

      “Buitre! burra! cabeza! cabezona! cabrona! cachivache! cachucha! cachufleta! cagada! cagadora! cagona! cajeta!…” Mercedes Azpilicueta’s performance ‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ (2015–ongoing) is a part scripted, part improvised litany of hundreds of pejorative, abusive, and vulgar insults directed at women in Argentina. Performed on the inauspicious date of Friday 13th September, it was Latitudes’s contribution to the collectively-curated and inaugural Today is Our Tomorrow festival initiated by PUBLICS at Club Kaiku and neighbouring venues in Helsinki, Finland.”

       → Continue reading
      → After this month will be archived here.

      Cover Stories' are published on a monthly basis on Latitudes' homepage featuring past, present or forthcoming projects, research, texts, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects or field trips related to our curatorial activities.

      → RELATED CONTENTS:
       2019, cover story, Helsinki, Mercedes Azpilicueta, performance, PUBLICS
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