Opening of the exhibition "Notes for an Eye Fire" at MACBA
Thu, Oct 21 2021
The exhibition Notes for an Eye Fire opens on 22 October 2021 (preview 21 October) at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and will remain on view until 27 February 2022.
Notes for an Eye Fire is the first exhibition of a new series of triennial transdisciplinary projects entitled Panorama, focusing on artistic practices in and around Barcelona. As the “notes” of the title suggests, this group exhibition attempts to jot down, to lay out and to connect without seeking to be in any way definitive.
Notes for an Eye Fire brings together a group of specially commissioned works and recent productions being shown in Barcelona for the first time. It comprises a wide range of disciplines, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, video installation, performance, photography and textiles, and is driven by a desire to defend and verify the making of on-site exhibitions as experiences that envelop us as whole sensing bodies in space.
Participants: Ana Domínguez, El Palomar (Mariokissme & R. Marcos Mota), Laia Estruch, Arash Fayez, Antoni Hervàs, Rasmus Nilausen, nyamnyam (Ariadna Rodríguez & Iñaki Álvarez) with Pedro Pineda, Claudia Pagès, Aleix Plademunt, Marria Pratts, Stella Rahola Matutes, Eulàlia Rovira, Ruta de autor (Aymara Arreaza R. & Lorena Bou Linhares), Adrian Schindler, Rosa Tharrats, Gabriel Ventura, and Marc Vives.
Exhibition leaflet (pdf)
Exhibition website
Social media archive
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)
#PanoramaMACBA
#apuntsperaunincendidelsulls
#macbaBCN
→ RELATED CONTENT:
- Press Release: Co-curators of the exhibition “Panorama 21: Notes For An Eye Fire”, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 22 October 2021–27 February 2022, 9 Feb 2021.
- Curators, solo exhibition “José Antonio Hernández-Díez. I will fear no evil ”, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2016.
- Curators, Film programme ‘What are we going to do after we have done what we are going to do next?’, part of the programme ‘The Uncertainty Principle’, Capella MACBA, 1–7 June 2009.
- Latitudes' publications available for consultation from MACBA's study centre
- Proyecto de investigación, “Itinerarios transversales. Entrevista con Sònia López y Anna Ramos”, #OpenCurating, Barcelona Producció 2012–13. (pdf)
- Latitudes in conversation with Yasmil Raymond, MACBA auditorium, 19 March 2013.
Episode #16: Incidents (of Travel) from Beirut, Lebanon
Sun, Oct 3 2021
This is the latest dispatch of the series produced by KADIST and edited by Latitudes since 2016, exploring the chartered itinerary as a format of an artistic encounter between curators and artists.
In the 16th dispatch, curator Marie-Nour Hechaime navigates Beirut with artist-filmmaker Panos Aprahamian a year after the August 2020 explosion, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored for six years without safekeeping in the port of the Lebanese capital were set on fire and exploded. The blast killed more than 200 deaths, 6,500 wounded, 300,000 displaced and great destruction in the city [1]. “I say that I am living with ghosts—of people, places, memories, stories”, she reflects. “He answers that Beirut is disintegrating in front of our very eyes.”
Incidents (of Travel) is presented in one continuous immersive read interwoven with images and short videos in a mobile-friendly format.
[1] https://www.who.int/emergencies/funding/appeals/lebanon-explosion-2020
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Incidents (of Travel) was conceived in 2012 when Latitudes commissioned 5 day-long artist-led tours around Mexico City in the framework of their short residency at Casa del Lago. The project had sequels in 2013 in Hong Kong with live dispatches published through social media, including soundscapes, and in 2015 in San Francisco with daily posts as part of Kadist's Instagram take over initiative “Artist Not In The Studio Curator Not At The Office”.
In 2016 KADIST and Latitudes partnered in a new ‘distributed’ phase of Incidents (of Travel) extending the invitation to curators and artists working around the world and publishing their dispatches as part of KADIST's Online Projects.
Since 2016, sixteen extended conversations between curators and artists have taken place in Beirut (Lebanon), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Singapore (Singapore), Cabo Rojo (Puerto Rico), Tbilisi (Georgia), Panama City (Panama), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Reykjavík (Iceland), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Hobart (Tasmania), Yerevan (Armenia), Terengganu (Malaysia), Lisbon (Portugal), Suzhou (China), Jinja (Uganda) and Chicago (US).
The first dispatch launched in April 2016 with an itinerary by curator Yesomi Umolu and artist Harold Mendez from Chicago – a day photographed by Nabiha Khan.
The second dispatch came from Jinja in Uganda, where curator Moses Serubiri invited photographer Mohsen Taha to explore Jinja's Indian architectural legacy and Idi Amin's notorious expulsion of Uganda's Asian minority in 1972.
The second dispatch came from Jinja in Uganda, where curator Moses Serubiri invited photographer Mohsen Taha to explore Jinja's Indian architectural legacy and Idi Amin's notorious expulsion of Uganda's Asian minority in 1972.
The third episode took place while curator Yu Ji and poet Xiao Kaiyu hiked on Dong Shan (East Mountain), 130 km west of Shanghai, on a peninsula stretching into Tai Hu lake near the city of Suzhou, China.
The fourth dispatch came from Lisbon, where Galician curator Pedro de Llano visited key locations that marked the life and work of Luisa Cunha.
The fifth episode took place in April 2016, when curator Simon Soon and artist chi too visited the Malaysian North Eastern state of Terengganu, where chi spent some time in 2013, surrounded by “men and women who work(ed) multiple jobs as fishermen, housebuilders, boat builders, farmers, coconut pickers, food producers, and everything else that matters.”
The sixth episode narrates a walking itinerary conducted by curator Marianna Hovhannisyan with Vardan Kilichyan, Gohar Hosyan, and Anaida Verdyan in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, documenting the transformed, disappeared, or permanently-closed art institutions in the city centre.
The seventh episode comes from Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. It is narrated by curator Camila Marambio, following an itinerary devised by artist Lucy Bleach. They spent the day "encircling the outer limits of human understanding by visiting the histories, both past, and present, of attempts to reach beyond our sensory capacities through governance, technology, and reverie", and ended the day cooking at Lucy's home-sharing their mutual love for quinces.
In the eighth 'Incidents (of Travel)' dispatch Móvil co-founder and curator Alejandra Aguado followed the itinerary devised by the artist Diego Bianchi around Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Their exploration took them from the self-regulated community Velatropa to the buzzing commercial area of Once, identifying human and non-human flows and interactions. This became an entry point for discussing Bianchi's interests in how, as consumers, we define a particular zeitgeist and appropriate trends that enable us to affirm our identities.
In the ninth dispatch, Canadian curator Becky Forsythe and Icelandic artist Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir navigate Reykjavík's surroundings considering Þorgerður's “current interest in Icelandic Spar (a form of transparent calcite), its double refraction and light-polarizing properties. In a race with daylight, they travel between sites collecting moments and considering the ways in which geologic time surfaces in the context of human time.”
Desktop view of → http://incidents.kadist.org/rio
The tenth dispatch begins with an itinerary proposed by Barcelona-born, Rio de Janeiro-based artist Daniel Steegmann Mangrané and is followed by images and videos recording a day roaming Rio's natural and artistic landscapes with Bogotá-born, Mexico City-based curator Catalina Lozano, who narrates their day spent together.
Desktop view of → http://incidents.kadist.org/panama
In the 11th episode, Swiss curator Sandino Scheidegger (Random Institute) visits Panama City in preparation for a solo exhibition by Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker at Casa Santa Ana in 2021. Conlon and Harker collaboration since 2006 (while also pursuing their own individual art practices) has resulted in seventeen video works to date. The places Sandino, Donna and Jonathan visited together pointed to the origin of some of their video works, the ideas behind them, or simply served as stages in their pieces, turning into “an exercise in sneaking through fences to reach former recycling plants, imagining how things looked before the skyscrapers took over, and navigating the complex social fabric of Panama City — all while getting a taste of local food between every stop.”
Desktop view of → Incidents (of Travel) from Tbilisi
The 12th episode from Tbilisi, Georgia, set a different tone in the online series as it was programmed to take place in late May 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The itinerary set by Tbilisi-based artist Nino Kvrivishvili to lead Melbourne-based Associate Professor Tara McDowell became a WhatsApp video tour/conversation around Nino's artistic practice and the Georgian silk industry — a production that began in Tbilisi in the 5th century and continued until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
Desktop view of → Incidents (of Travel) from Cabo Rojo
In the 13th dispatch, and on week 23 of lockdown, Sofía Gallisá and Marina Reyes begin their day together driving to the Cabo Rojo Salt Flats where Sofía researched her 2018 film ‘Assimilate & Destroy I’. They later end up in Poblado de Boquerón, the queer capital of Puerto Rico's south where a large public beach and a usually busy street still show traces of 2017’s devastating Hurricane Maria.
In the 14th dispatch, Singapore-based curator Kathleen Ditzig joins artists Fyerool Darma and Nurul Huda Rashid nearby ‘Safe Entry‘ (2020), a mural presented at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) by the artist Heman Chong that repeats a single, enlarged QR code, “the new digital skin of the city”, as Nurul points out. From there, they head towards the boardwalk connecting Harbourfront with Sentosa Island, the pleasure island home to many tourist attractions. Fyerool and Nurul weave in stories of past pirates and deities against the backdrop of the glass-green waters that stage the “blue aesthetics against the imported sands [from Indonesia] of reclaimed lands.”
Desktop view of → http://incidents.kadist.org
In the 15th dispatch curator Àngels Miralda (current participant of de Appel's Curatorial Programme 2020-21) and artist Salim Bayri (current resident at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten 2019–21) follow a tour created during the winter 2021 Covid-19 restrictions in the Netherlands. Their day together features public sport locations as social meeting spaces, as well as urban architecture, a visit to a supermarket chain, and a food takeaway.
→ RELATED CONTENT:
Episode #15 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Àngels Miralda and Salim Bayri from Amsterdam, 13 May 2021
Episode #14 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Kathleen Ditzig and artists Fyerool Darma and Nurul Huda Rashid from Singapore, 21 December 2020
Episode #12 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Nino Kvrivishvili and Tara McDowell from Tbilisi, 25 Jun 2020
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=7159211982397983135/episode-12-of-incidents-of-travel
Episode #11 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Sandino Scheidegger and Donna Conlon & Jonathan Harker from Panama City, 9 April 2020
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=4425215029591365006/11-episode-of-incidents-of-travel
Tenth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Catalina Lozano and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané from Rio de Janeiro,
29 January 2020
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=144735152408473327/tenth-episode-of-incidents-of-travel
The ninth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Becky Forsythe and Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir, 8 February 2019
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=6371927610418460689
The eighth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Alejandra Aguado and Diego Bianchi, 6 September 2019
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=8721104601538735691
Seventh episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Camila Marambio and Lucy Bleach from Hobart, Tasmania, 28 June 2018
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=1055853895543348027
The sixth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Marianna Hovhannisyan and students from the National Center of Aesthetics from Yerevan, Armenia, 1 March 2018
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=5887133486742947361
The fifth episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Simon Soon and chi too from Terengganu, Malaysia, 26 April 2017
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=4083951540089486920
The fourth episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Pedro de Llano and Luisa Cunha from Lisbon, Portugal, 2 March 2017
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=4185860148466062617
The third episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Yu JI and Xiao Kaiyu reporting from Suzhou, China, 6 September 2016
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=1437935620149738144
Second 'Incidents (of Travel)' dispatch by Moses Serubiri and Mohsen Taha reporting from Jinja, Uganda, 30 June 2016
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=2504250800654900933
Kadist and Latitudes present 'Incidents (Of Travel)' online, 31 May 2016
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=1076947282278624159
Episode #13 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Marina Reyes and Sofía Gallisá from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, 27 Sep 2020
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=7159211982397983135/episode-12-of-incidents-of-travel
Episode #11 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Sandino Scheidegger and Donna Conlon & Jonathan Harker from Panama City, 9 April 2020
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=4425215029591365006/11-episode-of-incidents-of-travel
Tenth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Catalina Lozano and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané from Rio de Janeiro,
29 January 2020
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=144735152408473327/tenth-episode-of-incidents-of-travel
The ninth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Becky Forsythe and Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir, 8 February 2019
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=6371927610418460689
The eighth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Alejandra Aguado and Diego Bianchi, 6 September 2019
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=8721104601538735691
Seventh episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Camila Marambio and Lucy Bleach from Hobart, Tasmania, 28 June 2018
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=1055853895543348027
The sixth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Marianna Hovhannisyan and students from the National Center of Aesthetics from Yerevan, Armenia, 1 March 2018
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=5887133486742947361
The fifth episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Simon Soon and chi too from Terengganu, Malaysia, 26 April 2017
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=4083951540089486920
The fourth episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Pedro de Llano and Luisa Cunha from Lisbon, Portugal, 2 March 2017
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=4185860148466062617
The third episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Yu JI and Xiao Kaiyu reporting from Suzhou, China, 6 September 2016
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=1437935620149738144
Second 'Incidents (of Travel)' dispatch by Moses Serubiri and Mohsen Taha reporting from Jinja, Uganda, 30 June 2016
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=2504250800654900933
Kadist and Latitudes present 'Incidents (Of Travel)' online, 31 May 2016
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=1076947282278624159
Cover Story, October 2021: Fear and Loathing in Lebanon
Fri, Oct 1 2021
October 2021 cover story on www.lttds.org
The October 2021 monthly Cover Story “Fear and Loathing in Lebanon” is now up on our homepage: www.lttds.org
“The Beirut River, at least in its current state, is a testament to infrastructural failure in Beirut”, writes artist and filmmaker Panos Aprahamian in his itinerary for the latest edition of Incidents (of Travel), from the Lebanese capital.”
→ After October 2021 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 projects and activities.
→ RELATED CONTENTS:
- Archive of Monthly Cover Stories
- Cover Story, September 2021: Erratic behaviour—Latitudes in conversation with Jorge Satorre, 31 August 2021
- Cover Story–July-August 2021: Panorama: a wide view from a fixed point, 2 July 2021
- Cover Story–June 2021: ‘Fitness food: Salim Bayri’s Amsterdam’, 1 June 2021
- Cover Story–May 2021: RAF goes viral, 2 May 2021
- Cover Story—April 2021: Cover Story – April 2021: Lara Almarcegui at La Panera, 2 Apr 2021
- Cover Story—March 2021: Eulàlia Rovira's ‘A Knot Which is Not’ (2020–21), 1 mar 2021
- Cover Story—February 2021: ‘Straits Time: narrative smuggling in Singapore’, 1 Feb 2021
- Cover Story–January 2021: ‘Things Things Say’: VIP's Union’, 1 Jan 2021
Conversación en línea con Jorge Satorre, 22 de septiembre a las 19h UTC
Tue, Sep 14 2021
Jorge Satorre, “The Erratic. Measuring Compensation” (2009). Cortesía del artista.
El 22 de septiembre 2021 a las 19h (UTC -5) se transmitirá a través de Facebook Live del Museo Amparo una conversación que mantuvimos con el artista Jorge Satorre (Ciudad de México, 1979). La conversación quedará registrada en el canal Youtube del museo.
Programada dentro del ciclo ‘‘Diálogos con artistas de la Colección de Arte Contemporáneo”, la conversación se enmarca dentro de la programación de la exposición “El tiempo en las cosas” curada por Tatiana Cuevas en las Salas de Arte Contemporáneo del Museo Amparo en Puebla, México.
La conversación giró entorno al proceso de producción de “The Erratic. Measuring Compensation” (2010), actualmente incluída en la exposición “El tiempo en las cosas”, realizada por Satorre y comisionada por Latitudes como uno de los diez proyectos producidos a lo largo del 2009 en el espacio público del Puerto de Rotterdam, en los Países Bajos.
Durante el verano de 2009, Satorre buscó y localizó una de las gigantescas rocas que los glaciares llevaron a los Países Bajos desde Escandinavia durante la última Edad de Hielo. A raíz de la fascinación del artista por los proyectos de compensación medioambiental que se llevaron a cabo durante el proyecto de ampliación portuaria Maasvlakte 2 (2008–13), Satorre con la ayuda de un equipo de científicos identificó el lugar de origen de un bloque errático y lo devolvió a su lugar de origen, un acto de restitución sintética y compensación escultórica transnacional.
El gesto geológico inverso de Satorre además de reflejar la construcción monumental de Maasvlakte 2 como una escultura de la forma de la tierra que, como la acción del deshielo pero en un tiempo mucho más corto, está alterando para siempre la morfología de los Países Bajos. La acción también se refleja en el hecho de que gran parte de la defensa marítima existente y futura en la zona portuaria se hará con roca traída de Escandinavia. Satorre ofrece un relato del proceso de devolución a través de dibujos que incorporan detalles reales e imaginarios. Uno de estos detalles representa una protesta imaginada al comienzo del viaje de vuelta a casa de la roca y fue presentado a modo de prólogo del proyecto en una valla publicitaria en el Puerto de Rotterdam, el puerto más grande de Europa.
Portscapes fue un encargo de la Autoridad Portuaria de Rotterdam con el asesoramiento y apoyo de la desaparecida organización SKOR (Fundación Arte y Espacio Público, Ámsterdam), y fue curado por Latitudes. En este contexto se encargaron proyectos a Lara Almarcegui, Bik van der Pol, Jan Dibbets, Marjolijn Dijkman, Fucking Good Art, Ilana Halperin, Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller, Paulien Oltheten, Hans Schabus y a Jorge Satorre, quien realizó “The Erratic. Measuring Compensation” (2010).
Jorge Satorre, “The Erratic. Measuring Compensation” (2009). Cortesía del artista. Foto: B. Wind.
→ CONTENIDO RELACIONADO:
- Cover Story, September 2021: Erratic behaviour—Latitudes in conversation with Jorge Satorre, 31 August 2021
- Portscapes project page
- Portscapes photo documentation
- Web of the artist about ‘The Erratic. Measuring Compensation’
- Review of the exhibition "What cannot be used is forgotten" in the May issue of frieze 29 April 2015
- Publication "Robert Smithson: Art in Continual Movement" (Alauda Publications, 2012) includes essay by Max Andrews, 28 Mar 2012
- 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, 12 March 2012
- Interview with Erick Beltrán & Jorge Satorre published in 'Atlántica' magazine #52, 13 Feb 2012
- Proyecto producido por Jorge Satorre para 'Portscapes' (2009) expuesto en la exposición colectiva 'Fat Chance to Dream', Maisterravalbuena, Madrid, 29 Mar 2011
- 2009 Video of the making of Jorge Satorre's project
- Portscapes news: Jorge Satorre's billboard on the A15 and Paulien Oltheten small exhibition at the visitor centre Futureland and surroundings, 2 October 2009
Cover Story, September 2021: Erratic behaviour—Latitudes in conversation with Jorge Satorre
Tue, Aug 31 2021
September 2021 cover story on www.lttds.org
The September 2021 monthly Cover Story “Erratic behaviour—Latitudes in conversation with Jorge Satorre” is now up on our homepage: www.lttds.org
“In 2008 the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the largest in Europe, began a dramatic project to extending its land by 20% into the sea. Known as Maasvlakte 2, the construction involved bringing more than 5 million tons of rock from Scandinavia for the construction of dikes and dams, alongside a programme of ecological offsetting. ”
→ After September 2021 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 projects and activities.
→ RELATED CONTENTS:
- Archive of Monthly Cover Stories
- Cover Story–July-August 2021: Panorama: a wide view from a fixed point, 2 July 2021
- Cover Story–June 2021: ‘Fitness food: Salim Bayri’s Amsterdam’, 1 June 2021
- Cover Story–May 2021: RAF goes viral, 2 May 2021
- Cover Story—April 2021: Cover Story – April 2021: Lara Almarcegui at La Panera, 2 Apr 2021
- Cover Story—March 2021: Eulàlia Rovira's ‘A Knot Which is Not’ (2020–21), 1 mar 2021
- Cover Story—February 2021: ‘Straits Time: narrative smuggling in Singapore’, 1 Feb 2021
- Cover Story–January 2021: ‘Things Things Say’: VIP's Union’, 1 Jan 2021
Latitudes’ "out of office": wrap up of the 2020-21 season
Mon, Aug 2 2021
‘Keep the faith’ banner hanging at the entrance of La Escocesa studio facilities. All photos by Latitudes (unless otherwise noted in the photo caption).
This end of the season post is the thirteenth of the series – see 2008-9, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20 posts. Unlike past years, there was no clear beginning to the 2020–21 season. As many of us experienced, the pandemic put our work and life plans on hold, at worst cancelled. August is usually a strange month for freelancers (at least in our sector and in these southern latitudes), as nothing much happens work-wise. Yet it can be a blessing if one has other activities to push through, such as writing or research, as hardly any work e-mails come into the inbox – even e-flux’s periodicity is reduced!— but it’s also a fearful period for income.
We have been lucky to be able to work throughout this year on two group exhibitions: ‘Things Things Say’ at the Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona Fabra i Coats (October 2020–January 2021) and the forthcoming ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’ at Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) opening October 21, 2021, which has not only kept us afloat but also made it possible for us to work within our immediate context in times when travel has not been possible or even desired. Here's our 2020-21 from behind the scenes:
5 August 2020: Max’s (Contributing editor, frieze magazine since 2015) review of Daniel G. Andújar show at La Virreina coincided with the new launch of frieze redesigned website.
13 August 2020: Eulàlia Rovira sends us a view of the improvised recording studio she managed to set up at home in order to become the voice of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’. We are deeply thankful to her for her flexibility and endurance in recording our texts in three languages deep in the summer heat and in the small hours of the night to avoid neighbourhood noises. #ThingsThingsSay
31 August 2020: Between June and December 2020, Max was Editor of Season 01 of st_age and TBA21’s social media. Pictured a "new normality" Zoom with the TBA21 team across Madrid and Vienna offices, plus team members in Prague, London, Ibiza, Barcelona, etc.
7 September 2020: After months of communicating by phone and email with Pere Fernàndez Bori, president of the Friends of Fabra i Coats, we were finally able to meet IRL as he showed us around the association offices and archives. We are very thankful to Pere and the Friends of Fabra i Coats for their time and willingness to lend us materials for the exhibition at the Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Center of Barcelona.
7 September 2020: First meeting with Rasmus Nilausen in the museum galleries. #PanoramaMACBA
15 September 2020: Conversation between Lola Lasurt and Rosa Maria Subirana Torrent, moderated by Ángel Calvo Ulloa, as part of Lasurt’s solo exhibition ‘Children's Games’ at La Capella. The conversation focused on Subirana’s meticulous inventory of the holdings of the first collections of contemporary art donated to the city as coordinator of Miró Year, which included the organisation of Joan Miró’s 1968 retrospective on the grounds of the former Hospital de la Santa Creu, the current venue of La Capella. Video here (Catalan and Spanish). Lasurt’s project was tutored by Latitudes as part of the 2020–21 season of Barcelona Producció.
23 September 2020: Self-timer selfie during our first studio visit with Marria Pratts in L’Hospitalet. #PanoramaMACBA
24 September 2020: As a culmination of Lasurt’s solo exhibition ‘Children’s Games’ at La Capella, and as part of Jordi Ferreiro’s mediation programme Exedra εξέδρα, Lasurt offered to paint a “transitional object” and to display it in a balcony of a neighbour of the Ciutat Vella district. In this case, the transitional object is a train from the cartoon series ‘A Little Engine That Could’ (1991) that Meritxell used to watch on VHS with her grandparents as a child.
Photos: Eva Carasol.
28 September 2020: New episode of Incidents (of Travel) from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico went live! In the latest ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ dispatch from Cabo Rojo, in the southwestern corner of Puerto Rico, and on week 23 of lockdown, Sofía Gallisá and Marina Reyes begin a day together by driving to the Cabo Rojo Salt Flats where Sofía researched her film ‘Assimilate & Destroy I’ (2018).
Incidents (of Travel) is an online project produced by KADIST that explores different corners of the world through chartered day-long travel itineraries as a form of artistic encounters and an extended conversation between a curator and an artist. #IncidentsofTravel
29 September 2020: First video call with El Palomar (Mariokissme and R. Marcos Mota). #PanoramaMACBA
1 October 2020: Beginning of installation of ‘Things Things Say’. Arrival of the works by Stuart Whipps, Sarah Ortmeyer and Annette Kelm at Fabra i Coats. Arterri team transported the pieces from Berlin, Dunkerque and Birmingham to the art centre and were assisted by JBM Muntatges i produccions crew on-site to accommodate the works in the exhibition space.
A socially distant download of Stuart Whipps's car.
JBM Muntatges i produccions crew constructing walls.
Painting by J. Roscolor.
(↑↓ Above and two below) Wall texts and vinyl production by DPR Producció i Exposicions.
17 October 2020: New restrictions against the spread of COVID-19 begin – bars and restaurants would end up closing for a month. The exhibition doors opened with little fanfare at Fabra i Coats although we were grateful that some familiar faces come to join us on this sunny autumn day.
With curators Veronica Valentini, Andrea Rodriguez and Anna Manubens (curator of Wendelien van Oldenborgh's exhibition on the first and second floor).
19 October 2021: Max’s (Contributing editor, frieze magazine since 2015) review of Eulàlia Rovira’s exhibition ‘Esmorteir l'esmorteït’ at EtHALL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) publishes on frieze online.
21 October 2020: 365 days left to open Panorama at MACBA. Co-curators are already in sync! #PanoramaMACBA
Hiuwai and Mariana taking a break after two Zoom conversations.
26 October 2020: Video call with Laia Estruch and MACBA’s Eva Font, Hiuwai Chu. #PanoramaMACBA
30 October 2020: New restrictions apply in Catalonia against the spread of COVID-19 provoking the cancellation of all the activities programmed for ‘Things Things Say’, most importantly the one-time screening of Adrià Julià’s ‘Popcorn’ (2012) at Zumzeig Cinema on November 6 – finally able to be rescheduled and screened on January 8, 2021. Guided tours planned for La Nit dels Museus on November 14 (as well as tours planned for November 25, rescheduled for December 9), all have been cancelled, as well as the weekend free tours of the exhibitions at Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona.
Adrià Julià, ‘Popcorn’ [Palomita], (2012). Vídeo HD, color, sonido. 90 min. Cortesía del artista.
13 November 2020: Continuing with online conversation-studio visits, this time with Arash Fayez. #PanoramaMACBA
23 November 2020: Site visit of Laia Estruch to MACBA to discuss options for her sculptural intervention for Panorama 21. #PanoramaMACBA
24 November 2020: Second round of photo documentation of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ / ‘Cosas que las cosas dicen’ / ‘Coses que les coses diuen’ at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, with photographer Eva Carasol.
→ Photo documentation of the show.
26 November–8 December 2020: One more year, we collaborate with DART Festival 2020 as jury members awarding the best national and international documentary: ‘Tierras construídas’ by Arturo Dueñas (España, 2019. 81 min. Castellano) and ‘The Proposal’ by Jill Magid (México, 2019. 82 min. Inglés). We are accompanied by film critic Quim Casas, and visual artist Jordi Colomer.
1 December 2020: Visiting Stella Rahola’s studio at Piramidón, with fantastic views over the city. #PanoramaMACBA
Photo: Eulàlia Rovira.
7 December 2020: Follow-up meeting with Arash Fayez at the museum. #PanoramaMACBA
10 December 2020: Recording a guided visit of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ on view at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona as a proxy to the three cancelled guided visits of the show.
Photo: Mónica López.
21 December 2020: Meeting with Toni Hervàs to discuss his ongoing research around Paral·lel. #PanoramaMACBA
22 December 2020: New episode of Incidents (of Travel) from Singapore, following a tour set up by artists Fyerool Darma and Nurul Huda Rashid, and a report by curator Kathleen Ditzig. Incidents (of Travel) is an online project produced by KADIST that explores different corners of the world through chartered day-long travel itineraries as a form of artistic encounters and an extended conversation between a curator and an artist.
Read → incidents.kadist.org
2 January 2021: Always great to visit Rasmus Nilausen’s studio in L’Hospitalet and smell fresh oil paint.
#PanoramaMACBA
8 January 2021: Screening and Q&A of Adrià Julià’s feature film ‘Popcorn’ (2012 90') at cinema Zumzeig, part of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ ending on January 17, 2021.
9 January 2021: Catching up with Hiuwai in the metro on our way back from Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani. #PanoramaMACBA
17 January 2021: ‘Things Things Say’ ends today. Lots of Instagram stories over the last week from visitors. Check social networks archive. Weeks after we learn that 1926 people visited the exhibition over the past three months which, considering pandemic restrictions, is great news. #ThingsThingsSay
18 January 2021: Dismantling of ‘Things Things Say’ exhibition. Always sad to say goodbye to works that have been so present in our minds over the last months. It is unavoidable to think about what remains of a show once it’s gone. In times of COVID-19, this feeling is intensified as fewer people might have had the opportunity to visit, regardless of the circumstances. #ThingsThingsSay
JBM Muntatges i produccions crew and Bea Montoliu (conservation) wrapping up the furniture loaned to form Haegue Yang's piece ‘VIP’s Union’ (2001-2020).
Lifting up the protective glass on Stuart Whipps’s table.
19 January 2021: Videoconference with Antoni Hervàs to talk about his contribution to Panorama 21. #PanoramaMACBA
21 January 2021: Video call with Rosa Tharrats to discuss details of her forthcoming installation at the museum. Around this date, Gabriel Ventura and the editorial Documents Documenta, kindly agreed to give us permission to borrow the title of their latest publication for the Panorama series: ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’, for which we are very grateful. #PanoramaMACBA
22 January 2021: Ruta de Autor tell us to meet nearby the Torre de les Aigües del Besòs, a water deposit built in 1882 by Pere Falqués and offering stunning panoramic views over the city – and a Blinky Palermo piece Himmelsrichtungen in the entrance space. The tower is the headquarters of the Arxiu Històric de Poblenou. #PanoramaMACBA
25 January 2021: Visiting the Centre d’Estudis i Documentació (CED) with Eulàlia Rovira, looking at maps, project proposals and photos of how MACBA was envisioned and ultimately built in the late 80s and early 90s. #PanoramaMACBA
Photo: Hiuwai Chu
Suitable photo albums from the former Panorama photo lab around town.
26 January 2021: Site visit with Claudia Pagès to MACBA to discuss her forthcoming participation in ‘Panorama 21: Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls’ (Notes for an Eye Fire). #PanoramaMACBA
27 January 2021: Once ‘Things Things Say’ is over and the galleries are empty once again. Eulàlia Rovira films ‘A Knot Which is Knot’ (2020-21), her contribution to the recently closed exhibition based on research done throughout the exhibition period, which will premiered a few days later, on February 15.
Photo: Eulàlia Rovira
29 January 2021: Online meeting with Bendita Gloria to go through the materials of the forthcoming publication of ‘Things Things Say’, the exhibition that just ended a few days ago at Fabra i Coats.
1 February 2021: Consecutive meetings with Toni Hervàs, Aleix Plademunt and Marria Pratts to discuss their projects on-site, alongside Eva Font (architecture department) and Berta Cervantes (Exhibition, Project Assistant). #PanoramaMACBA
9 February 2021: Live streamed press conference announcing the 2021–22 season of the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). ‘Panorama 21. Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls’ is finally public. #PanoramaMACBA
→ Archive of social media posts.
12 February 2021: Panorama 21 “wefie” after a meeting with Rasmus Nilausen in Gràcia. #PanoramaMACBA
15 February 2021: Eulàlia Rovira’s video ‘A Knot Which is Knot’, 2020 (video, 12min 21 sec, audio in Catalan) is premièred on Fabra i Coats’ YouTube channel. ‘A Knot Which is Knot’ is the result of an investigation that began with the opening ‘Things Things Say’ (Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Center of Barcelona, 17 October 2020-17 January 2021), an exhibition curated by Latitudes, which is made public once it has closed and the exhibition galleries are once again empty.
→ Ver vídeo (12' 21'', audio in Catalan)
16 February 2021: First tech checks in the exhibition galleries with Rafa Marcos of El Palomar and MACBA’s A/V technician Miquel Giner, followed by a group meeting with Claudia Pagès to go catch up on her project.
#PanoramaMACBA
19 February 2021: Opening of Lara Almarcegui’s exhibition ‘Graves’ (Gravel) at the Centre d'Art La Panera in Lleida (on view until 30 May 2021). As part of the opening day events, Lara invited visitors to experience the quarry operated by Sorigué in La Plana del Corb, which stopped its operations for a day.
Latitudes contributed a text on her new installation and on March 18 at 6:30pm, participated in a round table online discussion with the artist and Juan Guardiola. Due to mobility restrictions between municipalities, we couldn’t attend the opening.
View of Lara Almarcegui’s exhibition ‘Graves’ (Gravel) at the Centre d'Art La Panera in Lleida. Photo: Jordi V. Pou.
22 February 2021: Video call catch-up with Adrian Schindler (currently in residency at Casa Velázquez in Madrid until June 2021) to discuss his production for Panorama 21, followed by an in-person studio visit with Arash Fayez in Raval. #PanoramaMACBA
Trying to figure out the volume of works in the exhibition space.
2 March 2021: Running some tests of Aleix Plademunt’s work in the exhibition space while it’s empty between shows. #PanoramaMACBA
3 March 2021: Check-in meeting with Eulàlia Rovira on her ongoing research for her Panorama 21 contribution followed by a site visit by Stella Rahola to check natural light. #PanoramaMACBA
8 Març 2021: Laia Estruch visit to discuss the production of her work in the middle of the installation of Felix Gonzalez-Torres show. #PanoramaMACBA
13 March 2021: First trip outside the city in exactly a year (tomorrow is the first anniversary of the declaration of the first state of alarm in Spain). Invited by the Centre d’Art La Panera in Lleida, we were able to attend the opening of David Bestué’s ‘Pastoral’ solo exhibition and Lara Almarcegui’s ‘Graves’ (for which we recently contributed the text of the exhibition). Forthcoming a frieze review of the exhibition by Max in the September 2021 issue.
 |
| (Above and below) Lara Almarcegui, ‘Gravera’ (2021), vídeo, 10 min. Cámara: Daniel Lacasa; y ‘Rocas y materiales de la Cordillera de los Pirineos’ (2021). Cortesía de la artista. |
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| (Above and below) Installation view of David Bestué’s ‘Pastoral’ at the Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida. |
18 March 2021: Online conversation with Lara Almarcegui and Juan Guardiola on the occasion of Almarcegui’s solo show ‘Graves’ at Centre d’Art La Panera in Lleida.
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| During the conversation with Lara Almarcegui. 23 March 2021: Catch up with a provider for Laia Estruch’s installation and discussion of Panorama’s identity with graphic designer and ‘Panorama 21’ participant, Ana Domínguez. #PanoramaMACBA   29 March 2021: Morning meeting with Rasmus Nilausen and pm meeting with Gabriel Ventura and Rosa Tharrats to discuss the progress of their respective contributions for Panorama 21, titled after Gabriel’s latest book poem ‘Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls’ (Notes for an Eye Fire). #PanoramaMACBA   7, 14, 21 and 28 April 2021: Four reading groups are programmed this month as part of Adrian Schindler’s project to be presented as part of MACBA's inaugural Panorama exhibition in October 2021. These open-format groups constituted the last step before the production of his film Tetuan, Tetuán, تطوان , the first chapter of which will be shot in Barcelona in late Spring 2021. The reading group “A quienes la inspiraron y no la leerán: Goytisolo, Marruecos y el Otro” (To those who inspired it and will not read it: Goytisolo, Morocco and the Other) proposes a critical approach to the theoretical and fictional work of Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo (1931–2017), influenced by Morocco. Contrasting his ambition to deconstruct the islamophobic literary tradition with the fantasies that inhabit his novels, we will address issues such as the construction of the image of the Other in Spain, the ghosts of the colonial project and the tensions inherent to decolonial works developed by white cultural agents. Participants read excerpts from the novels Reivindicación del conde Don Julián (1970), Juan sin tierra (1975) and Makbara (1980), as well as from the essay collection Crónicas Sarracinas (1981). The sessions were carried out with Salma Amzian, Núria Gómez Gabriel and iki yos piña narváez funes, who contributed to examining Goytisolo’s contradictions and potentialities through other literatures and epistemologies. The meetings took place in the Parc de la Ciutadella, near a colonial monument and an orientalist sculpture. #PanoramaMACBA   2 April 2021: Video call with Claudia Pagès to check in the development of her project while at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. #PanoramaMACBA  7 April 2021: MACBA’s 2021-22 exhibition programme is up. Just over 6 months to the opening. #PanoramaMACBA  9 Abril 2021: Catch up meetings with Ruta de Autor and Nyamnyam (from Montpellier). #PanoramaMACBA   12 April 2021: Publications meeting with Ana Domínguez. #PanoramaMACBA  13 April 2021: Meeting with Adrian Schindler at the museum’s offices to discuss the production of his work for MACBA’s ‘Panorama’. #PanoramaMACBA  15 April 2021: Monthly catch-up with the communication department with dazzling spreadsheets, followed by a visit to Stella Rahola Matutes's project at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. Curators’ outfits merging – too many hours together ;-) #PanoramaMACBA   22 April 2021: Design briefing with MACBA’s communication team, Marta Reus and Carla Ventosa, and Panorama 21 designers Ana Domínguez and Lara Coromina, about the exhibition. #PanoramaMACBA  |
30 April 2021: Meet with Arash Fayez and walk through the museum galleries with Ana Domínguez and Lara Coromina, designers of the first edition of MACBA’s Panorama.
#PanoramaMACBA
Photo: Hiuwai Chu
7 May 2021: Balcony break in between meetings with Eulàlia Rovira and Ruta de Autor. #PanoramaMACBA
Photo: Hiuwai Chu
8 May 2021: Presentation of Agustín Ortiz Herrera’s research ‘To name, to own. Critique of taxonomic practice’ project and publication at the Gabinet Salvador (Institut Botànic de Barcelona), one of the best-preserved examples of a cabinet of curiosities. Agustín’s research is one of the three projects Latitudes mentored throughout 2019–20 as part of the Barcelona Producció season at La Capella.
Representation of the cabinet of curiosities by the Danish naturalist and antiquarian Ole Worm in 1655. Salvador Library, Botanical Institute of Barcelona.
11 May 2021: Recording the teaser to be launched with the announcement of the participants in the inaugural Panorama exhibition. #PanoramaMACBA
12 May 2021: Review of David Bestué’s exhibition ‘Pastoral’ at the Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida, published online at frieze.com
12 May 2021: Visiting Ana Dominguez studio and lunch with her and Lara Coromina to discuss the elements of the exhibition graphics. #PanoramaMACBA
Some artist portraits for the exhibition website.
17 May 2021: Jitsi catch up with nyamnyam (Iñaki Álvarez and Ariadna Rodríguez) and Pedro Pineda. #PanoramaMACBA
20 May 2021: Catch up with Eulàlia Rovira at the museum. #PanoramaMACBA
22 May 2021: Laia Estruch rehearsing at El Graner. #PanoramaMACBA
Foto: Hiuwai Chu.
28 May 2021: Catch up with Ruta de Autor at the museum. #PanoramaMACBA
Photo: Hiuwai Chu.
1 June 2021: Work meeting at Rasmus Nilausen’s studio in L’Hospitalet. #PanoramaMACBA
4 June 2021: Final presentation of the graphic image of Panorama 21 by Studio Ana Dominguez. #PanoramaMACBA
7 June 2021: Meeting at TMDC in La Verneda with Pedro Pineda and nyamnyam (Ariadna Rodríguez & Iñaki Álvarez). #PanoramaMACBA
Photo: Hiuwai Chu.
8 June 2021: Visiting Rosa Tharrats and Gabriel Ventura in Cadaqués and visit Rosa’s two-person exhibition in the Museu de l’Empordà, Figueres. #PanoramaMACBA
View of the two-person exhibition ‘Tura Sanglas/ Rosa Tharrats: Un diàleg artistic. Subjectivitat de la material, poètica de l’objecte’, curated by Laura Cornejo at Museu de l’Empordà.
‘Les babes de la molsa’ (2020) by Rosa Tharrats.
‘Els ancestres de les anênomes’ (2020) by Rosa Tharrats.
Photo: Ivo Wald.
Photo: Ivo Wald.
Meetings by the shore.
10 June 2021: Visiting Marria Pratts’ studio L’Hospitalet. #PanoramaMACBA
18 June 2021: Round of meetings with nyamnyam followed by Ruta de Autor and Stella Rahola at the museum. #PanoramaMACBA
22 June 2021: Adrian Schindler filming Tetuan, Tetuán, تطوان at Plaça Tetuan. Schindler's project will be presented as part of MACBA’s inaugural Panorama exhibition in October 2021. #PanoramaMACBA
1 July 2021: Announcement of ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’ participants, launch of the web with the graphic image of the Panorama exhibition series: Ana Domínguez, El Palomar (Mariokissme & R. Marcos Mota), Laia Estruch, Arash Fayez, Antoni Hervàs, Rasmus Nilausen, nyamnyam (Ariadna Rodríguez & Iñaki Álvarez) with Pedro Pineda, Claudia Pagès, Aleix Plademunt, Marria Pratts, Stella Rahola Matutes, Eulàlia Rovira, Ruta de autor (Aymara Arreaza R. & Lorena Bou Linhares), Adrian Schindler, Rosa Tharrats, Gabriel Ventura, and Marc Vives. #PanoramaMACBA
6 July 2021: Online catch-up with public programmes Tonina Cerdà and Alicia Escobio. #PanoramaMACBA
Carlos Cruz-Diez at Galería Cayón, Maó.
17 July 2021: Rough cut screening of Adrian Schindler’s filmTetuan, Tetuán, تطوان to be premiered as part of MACBA’s inaugural Panorama exhibition in October 2021. #PanoramaMACBA
Photo: Hiuwai Chu.
26 July 2021: Visiting Toni Hervàs at La Escocesa alongside MACBA’s team Alex Castro, Eva Font and Berta Cervantes (conservation, architecture and coordination). #PanoramaMACBA
→ RELATED CONTENTS:
- Latitudes’ "out of office" 2019–20 season, 3 August 2020
- Latitudes’ "out of office" 2018–19 season, 1 August 2019
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2017–18 season, 2 August 2018
- Latitudes "out of office" 2016–17 season, 1 August 2017
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2015–16 season, 1 August 2016
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2014–15 season, 7 August 2015
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2013–14 season, 31 July 2014
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2012–13 season, 31 July 2013
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2011–12 season, 31 July 2012
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2010–11 season, 1 August 2011
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2009–10 season, 30 July 2010
- Latitudes' "out of office" 2008–9 season, 30 July 2009
Cover Story July–August 2021: a wide view from a fixed point
Fri, Jul 2 2021
July–August 2021 cover story on www.lttds.org
The July–August 2021 monthly Cover Story “A wide view from a fixed point” is now up on our homepage: www.lttds.org
“Panorama is a new series of exhibitions at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) dedicated to contemporary art practices in, around, and from Barcelona. Curated by Hiuwai Chu and Latitudes, the first edition will open its doors on 22 October 2021 under the title Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls (Notes for an Eye Fire) after the recent poetry collection by Gabriel Ventura.”
→ After July 2021 this story will be archived here.
→ Follow: #IncidentsofTravel
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 projects and activities.
→ RELATED CONTENTS:
- Archive of Monthly Cover Stories
- Cover Story–June 2021: ‘Fitness food: Salim Bayri’s Amsterdam’, 1 June 2021
- Cover Story–May 2021: RAF goes viral, 2 May 2021
- Cover Story—April 2021: Cover Story – April 2021: Lara Almarcegui at La Panera, 2 Apr 2021
- Cover Story—March 2021: Eulàlia Rovira's ‘A Knot Which is Not’ (2020–21), 1 mar 2021
- Cover Story—February 2021: ‘Straits Time: narrative smuggling in Singapore’, 1 Feb 2021
- Cover Story–January 2021: ‘Things Things Say’: VIP's Union’, 1 Jan 2021
Participants announced of MACBA's “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire”
Thu, Jul 1 2021
‘Panorama 21: Notes for an Eye Fire’
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)
Exhibition: 22 October 2021–27 February 2022
Private view: 21 October 2021
With the participation of Ana Domínguez, El Palomar (Mariokissme & R. Marcos Mota), Laia Estruch, Arash Fayez, Antoni Hervàs, Rasmus Nilausen, nyamnyam (Ariadna Rodríguez & Iñaki Álvarez) with Pedro Pineda, Claudia Pagès, Aleix Plademunt, Marria Pratts, Stella Rahola Matutes, Eulàlia Rovira, Ruta de autor (Aymara Arreaza R. & Lorena Bou Linhares), Adrian Schindler, Rosa Tharrats, Gabriel Ventura, and Marc Vives.
MACBA is launching a new series of exhibitions entitled “Panorama”, with a focus on contemporary art practices in and around Barcelona. With an emphasis on collaborative practices and presenting diverse perspectives, each edition of “Panorama” will be led by a different curatorial team, composed of a member of the MACBA team together with an independent curator or collective.
Occupying the entire top floor of the Meier Building, the first edition of “Panorama”, will open with the group exhibition “Notes for an Eye Fire”, curated by Hiuwai Chu (MACBA) and Latitudes. As the “notes” of the title suggests, this exhibition attempts to jot down, to lay out and to connect without seeking to be in any way definitive.
The group show is not driven by one overarching subject, yet the works on display weave together diverse and interconnected themes that have emerged from the curators’ studio visits and conversations with the artistic community, whether addressing the self-image of the city, notions of reparation and belonging, gender dissidence, or our relationship with non-human life.
“Notes for an Eye Fire” brings together works that have been specially commissioned for the occasion, along with recent productions—all being shown in Barcelona for the first time. It comprises a wide range of disciplines, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, video installation, performance, photography, and textiles, and is driven by a desire to defend and verify the making of on-site exhibitions as experiences that envelop us as whole sensing bodies in space.
The title, borrowed from a 2020 book of poetry by Gabriel Ventura, conjures up a powerful metaphor that provokes a questioning of the dominance of vision, urging us to explore an expanded definition of seeing that engages our other senses and entails new ways of navigating the world, of remembering and of producing knowledge.
This broader consideration of the sensorial in the exhibition has developed in parallel to an exploration of the conceptual and historical underpinning of the panorama itself. The word panorama was coined in the 18th century to describe vast 360-degree paintings housed in purpose-built cylindrical buildings. Looking out from a raised platform, the public enjoyed a commanding view that was nevertheless a disorientating visual experience. Long before the invention of cinema and the proliferation of screens that now characterises contemporary life for many of us, the panorama was the virtual reality headset of its time and became mass entertainment in Europe at a time when travel had not been possible due to the Napoleonic wars. Barcelona hosted three such panoramas during the Universal Exposition of 1888.
The circular form of the eye takes on a life of its own in the exhibition’s imagination, whether through projects that address theatre or performance, the spatial relationship between stage and auditorium, or the loop as narrative. Such perspectives and scales also encircle how the museum establishes a connection with its neighbourhood, and vice versa, in a time in which we are perhaps all questioning and seeing again what our own place in the world might be.
PUBLIC PROGRAMMES, WEB and PUBLICATION
The public programming around Notes for an Eye Fire will be a mix of in-person and online activities, from workshops, performances and events in the exhibition galleries to in-person and online conversations between participating artists.
The exhibition will also have an expanded presence on the museum’s website, which will feature a webpage dedicated to each artist with complementary material of varied formats related to their artistic practice and production. The website will be updated with new content throughout the exhibition period.
A publication, designed by Ana Domínguez, will be released in Spring 2022 and will include a conversation between the curators, a text by Gabriel Ventura, and texts about the participating artists, accompanied by reproductions of their work.
“Panorama” is an exhibition organised and produced by MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Its inaugural edition, “Notes for an Eye Fire” is curated by Hiuwai Chu (Head of Exhibitions, MACBA) and Latitudes (Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna), and coordinated by Berta Cervantes.
#PanoramaMACBA #apuntsperaunincendidelsulls 📝🔥👁👁
- Press Release: Co-curators of the exhibition “Panorama 21: Notes For An Eye Fire”, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 22 October 2021–27 February 2022, 9 Feb 2021.
- Curators, solo exhibition “José Antonio Hernández-Díez. I will fear no evil ”, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2016.
- Curators, Film programme ‘What are we going to do after we have done what we are going to do next?’, part of the programme ‘The Uncertainty Principle’, Capella MACBA, 1–7 June 2009.
- Latitudes' publications are available for consultation from MACBA's study centre
- Beca de investigación, “Itinerarios transversales. Entrevista con Sònia López y Anna Ramos”, Investigación #OpenCurating, 2012–13. (pdf)
- Latitudes in conversation with Yasmil Raymond, MACBA auditorium, 19 March 2013.
Cover Story–June 2021: ‘Fitness food: Salim Bayri’s Amsterdam’
Mon, May 31 2021
June 2021 cover story on www.lttds.org
The June 2021 monthly Cover Story ‘Fitness food: Salim Bayri’s Amsterdam’ is now up on our homepage: www.lttds.org
“For me, sport brings aspects that I miss in art: direct group interaction and a clear reward and penalty system”, writes artist Salim Bayri in his Itinerary for the latest edition of Incidents (of Travel), in which he devised an alternative day-long tour of Amsterdam for curator Àngels Miralda.”
→ After June 2021 this story will be archived here.
→ Follow: #IncidentsofTravel
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 projects and activities.
→ RELATED CONTENTS:
- Archive of Monthly Cover Stories
- Cover Story–May 2021: RAF goes viral, 2 May 2021
- Cover Story—April 2021: Cover Story – April 2021: Lara Almarcegui at La Panera, 2 Apr 2021
- Cover Story—March 2021: Eulàlia Rovira's ‘A Knot Which is Not’ (2020–21), 1 mar 2021
- Cover Story—February 2021: ‘Straits Time: narrative smuggling in Singapore’, 1 Feb 2021
- Cover Story–January 2021: ‘Things Things Say’: VIP's Union’, 1 Jan 2021
Episode #15 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch from Amsterdam by Àngels Miralda and Salim Bayri
Thu, May 13 2021
In the 15th dispatch curator Àngels Miralda (current participant of de Appel's Curatorial Programme 2020-21) and artist Salim Bayri (current resident at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten 2019–21) follow a tour created during the winter 2021 Covid-19 restrictions in the Netherlands.
When planning the itinerary for Incidents (of Travel)’s 15th dispatch, Salim had to imagine what sites they would be able to visit bearing in mind the Dutch health protocols. With gyms and all cultural venues closed, meetings outside of a household limited to one other person, and a 9pm curfew in place, public parks and other outdoor spaces have become typical for getting together. Their day together features public sport locations as social meeting spaces, as well as urban architecture, a visit to a supermarket chain, and a food takeaway.
Incidents (of Travel) is presented in one continuous immersive read interwoven with images and short videos in a mobile-friendly format.
📲 TAP, SCROLL and SWIPE!
Incidents (of Travel) was conceived in 2012 when Latitudes commissioned 5 day-long artist-led tours around Mexico City in the framework of their short residency at Casa del Lago. The project had sequels in 2013 in Hong Kong with live dispatches published through social media, including soundscapes, and in 2015 in San Francisco with daily posts as part of Kadist's Instagram take over initiative “Artist Not In The Studio Curator Not At The Office”.A year later, KADIST and Latitudes partnered in a new ‘distributed’ phase of Incidents (of Travel) extending the invitation to curators and artists working around the world and publishing their dispatches as part of KADIST's Online Projects.
Since 2016, fifteen extended conversations have taken place in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Singapore (Singapore), Cabo Rojo (Puerto Rico), Tbilisi (Georgia), Panama City (Panama), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Reykjavík (Iceland), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Hobart (Tasmania), Yerevan (Armenia), Terengganu (Malaysia), Lisbon (Portugal), Suzhou (China), Jinja (Uganda) and Chicago (US).
The second dispatch came from Jinja in Uganda, where curator Moses Serubiri invited photographer Mohsen Taha to explore Jinja's Indian architectural legacy and Idi Amin's notorious expulsion of Uganda's Asian minority in 1972.
The third episode took place while curator Yu Ji and poet Xiao Kaiyu hiked on Dong Shan (East Mountain), 130 km west of Shanghai, on a peninsula stretching into Tai Hu lake near the city of Suzhou, China.
The fourth dispatch came from Lisbon, where Galician curator Pedro de Llano visited key locations that marked the life and work of Luisa Cunha.
The fifth episode took place in April 2016, when curator Simon Soon and artist chi too visited the Malaysian North Eastern state of Terengganu, where chi spent some time in 2013, surrounded by “men and women who work(ed) multiple jobs as fishermen, housebuilders, boat builders, farmers, coconut pickers, food producers, and everything else that matters.”
The sixth episode narrates a walking itinerary conducted by curator Marianna Hovhannisyan with Vardan Kilichyan, Gohar Hosyan, and Anaida Verdyan in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, documenting the transformed, disappeared, or permanently-closed art institutions in the city centre.
The seventh episode comes from Hobart, capital of Tasmania. It is narrated by curator Camila Marambio, following an itinerary devised by artist Lucy Bleach. They spent the day "encircling the outer limits of human understanding by visiting the histories, both past, and present, of attempts to reach beyond our sensory capacities through governance, technology, and reverie", and ended the day cooking at Lucy's home-sharing their mutual love for quinces.
In the eighth 'Incidents (of Travel)' dispatch Móvil co-founder and curator Alejandra Aguado followed the itinerary devised by the artist Diego Bianchi around Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Their exploration took them from the self-regulated community Velatropa to the buzzing commercial area of Once, identifying human and non-human flows and interactions. This became an entry point for discussing Bianchi's interests in how, as consumers, we define a particular zeitgeist and appropriate trends that enable us to affirm our identities.
In the ninth dispatch, Canadian curator Becky Forsythe and Icelandic artist Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir navigate Reykjavík's surroundings considering Þorgerður's “current interest in Icelandic Spar (a form of transparent calcite), its double refraction and light-polarizing properties. In a race with daylight, they travel between sites collecting moments and considering the ways in which geologic time surfaces in the context of human time.”
The tenth dispatch begins with an itinerary proposed by Barcelona-born, Rio de Janeiro-based artist Daniel Steegmann Mangrané and is followed by images and videos recording a day roaming Rio's natural and artistic landscapes with Bogotá-born, Mexico City-based curator Catalina Lozano, who narrates their day spent together.
In the 11th episode, Swiss curator Sandino Scheidegger (Random Institute) visits Panama City in preparation for a solo exhibition by Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker at Casa Santa Ana in 2021. Conlon and Harker collaboration since 2006 (while also pursuing their own individual art practices) has resulted in seventeen video works to date. The places Sandino, Donna and Jonathan visited together pointed to the origin of some of their video works, the ideas behind them, or simply served as stages in their pieces, turning into “an exercise in sneaking through fences to reach former recycling plants, imagining how things looked before the skyscrapers took over, and navigating the complex social fabric of Panama City — all while getting a taste of local food between every stop.”
The 12th episode from Tbilisi, Georgia, set a different tone in the online series as it was programmed to take place in late May 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The itinerary set by Tbilisi-based artist Nino Kvrivishvili to lead Melbourne-based Associate Professor Tara McDowell became a WhatsApp video tour/conversation around Nino's artistic practice and the Georgian silk industry — a production that began in Tbilisi in the 5th century and continued until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
In the 13th dispatch, and on week 23 of lockdown, Sofía Gallisá and Marina Reyes begin their day together driving to the Cabo Rojo Salt Flats where Sofía researched her 2018 film ‘Assimilate & Destroy I’. They later end up in Poblado de Boquerón, the queer capital of Puerto Rico's south where a large public beach and a usually busy street still show traces of 2017’s devastating Hurricane Maria.
In the 14th dispatch, Singapore-based curator Kathleen Ditzig joins artists Fyerool Darma and Nurul Huda Rashid nearby ‘Safe Entry‘ (2020), a mural presented at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) by the artist Heman Chong that repeats a single, enlarged QR code, “the new digital skin of the city”, as Nurul points out. From there, they head towards the boardwalk connecting Harbourfront with Sentosa Island, the pleasure island home to many tourist attractions. Fyerool and Nurul weave in stories of past pirates and deities against the backdrop of the glass-green waters that stage the “blue aesthetics against the imported sands [from Indonesia] of reclaimed lands.”
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Episode #14 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Kathleen Ditzig and artists Fyerool Darma and Nurul Huda Rashid from Singapore, 21 December 2020
Episode #12 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Nino Kvrivishvili and Tara McDowell from Tbilisi, 25 Jun 2020
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=7159211982397983135/episode-12-of-incidents-of-travel
Episode #11 of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Sandino Scheidegger and Donna Conlon & Jonathan Harker from Panama City, 9 April 2020
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Tenth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Catalina Lozano and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané from Rio de Janeiro,
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The sixth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Marianna Hovhannisyan and students from the National Center of Aesthetics from Yerevan, Armenia, 1 March 2018
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https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=4425215029591365006/11-episode-of-incidents-of-travel
Tenth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Catalina Lozano and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané from Rio de Janeiro,
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https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=144735152408473327/tenth-episode-of-incidents-of-travel
The ninth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Becky Forsythe and Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir, 8 February 2019
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=6371927610418460689
The eighth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Alejandra Aguado and Diego Bianchi, 6 September 2019
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=8721104601538735691
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https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=1055853895543348027
The sixth episode of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ – Dispatch by Marianna Hovhannisyan and students from the National Center of Aesthetics from Yerevan, Armenia, 1 March 2018
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=5887133486742947361
The fifth episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Simon Soon and chi too from Terengganu, Malaysia, 26 April 2017
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=4083951540089486920
The fourth episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Pedro de Llano and Luisa Cunha from Lisbon, Portugal, 2 March 2017
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=4185860148466062617
The third episode of 'Incidents (of Travel)' – Dispatch by Yu JI and Xiao Kaiyu reporting from Suzhou, China, 6 September 2016
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=1437935620149738144
Second 'Incidents (of Travel)' dispatch by Moses Serubiri and Mohsen Taha reporting from Jinja, Uganda, 30 June 2016
https://www.lttds.org/longitudes/index.php?id=2504250800654900933
Kadist and Latitudes present 'Incidents (Of Travel)' online, 31 May 2016
http://www.lttds.org/blog/blog.php?id=1076947282278624159