Conclusion of the seven International Volunteer Chapters affiliated to Gallery Climate Coalition
Mon, Sep 16 2024
Conclusion of Gallery Climate Coalition’s International Volunteer Chapter Programme
In 2020, as the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of dedicated arts professionals in London formed Gallery Climate Coalition. The coalition’s primary targets were to facilitate a reduction of the visual art sector’s greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 50% by 2030. The first of GCC’s affiliated volunteer groups was formed soon after in Berlin. Following London and Berlin, groups were established in Italy, Taiwan, Los Angeles, Spain (in late 2022), and New York.
These seven groups became known as the International Volunteer Chapter (IVC) programme, and each advocated for an environmentally responsible arts sector on their local level, either nationally or by being focused on specific cities. Each was composed of professionals from the arts sector volunteering their time to work collectively to develop localised content and resources in line with GCC’s guidelines. Each hosted events and engaged with their immediate networks on environmental issues within the arts sector. Their teams were self-organised and self-motivated whilst remaining closely aligned with GCC’s core targets and commitments.
Four years later, and despite the intensive work carried out by the IVCs, the increasing funding needs of this ever-widening network, and the challenging funding landscape facing GCC and arts/non-profit organisations more generally, have led to the difficult decision to bring the IVCs programme to a close as of September 2024.
The IVC programmes have provided invaluable insights over the past years and fostered a formidable international network of dedicated volunteers. Whilst GCC Spain ceases operations as a GCC International Volunteer Chapter (IVC), the committee members remain affiliated to GCC as members, and will continue to contribute to climate action in a more informal capacity.
GCC Spain’s Timeline
Laura Carro and Lucía Mendoza (Galería Lucía Mendoza), Carolina Grau (Independent Curator), Carmen Huerta (TAC7), María Gracia de Pedro (Badr El Jundi Foundation), Mariana Cánepa Luna and Max Andrews (Latitudes) and Nicky Ure (UreCulture) met online for the first time in December 2022. This group ended up founding the International Volunteer Chapter, GCC Spain. Further along, the Committee expanded to include Angela Costantino and Simone Sentall (Fundación TBA21), Miriam Torres and Paula Ráez (Estudio Jurídico Gabeiras & Asociados) and volunteers such as Miriam Callejo.
GCC Spain’s first physical meeting was at ARCOmadrid in February 2023, when it convened an open session at the art fair to inform professionals about GCC’s targets and commitments, advise on practical issues about enrolment in its membership programme, and use helpful tools and resources such as the Carbon Calculator.
Meeting at ARCOmadrid in February 2023. Photo: Max Andrews
One of GCC Spain's first achievements was translating GCC’s 11-part Best Practice Actions into Spanish (Acciones Efectivas) and opening its Instagram account.
In June 2023, GCC Spain held its first online Introductory Event (pdf of the press release in Spanish here), presenting GCC’s overall aim and officially launching GCC Spain. The launch was featured in Revista Bonart.
June 2023: Online Introductory Event (press release here)
In January 2024 GCC Spain had its first online Assembly to inform members and non-members about the past and future plans of the group.
In February 2024, in collaboration with GCC London and ARCOmadrid, a campaign for #ClimateConsciousTravel was launched through multiple displays at ARCOMadrid, encouraging visitors to take the #TrainToARCOMadrid instead of flying. Additionally, the Gallery Climate Coalition was featured in Exibart magazine, and Carolina Grau, a founding member of GCC Spain, was interviewed about her curatorial work.
Despite these changes, Latitudes remains steadfast in its commitment to GCC’s core activity and commitments. Latitudes remains committed to working with its international community of 1500+ across 50+ countries in reaching a shared goal of 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the visual arts sector by 2030 (compared to a 2019 baseline). This adherence is essential to maintaining our Individual Active Membership.
You can read a statement about the closure of the IVC programme from GCC Managing Director Heath Lowndes here. For all other communications and enquiries regarding GCC, please contact info@galleryclimatecoalition.org
RELATED CONTENT:
- Latitudes renew their Active Membership with Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), 9 Apr 2024
- Gallery Climate Coalition en ARCOmadrid, campaña #TrainToARCOmadrid y artículo en la revista Exibart, 11 March 2024
- Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 Feb 2024
- Montse Badia sobre GCC Spain en la revista Bonart #198, 25 Oct 2023
- Latitudes qualify as an Active Member of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), 10 May 2023
- Latitudes’ (Full) Environmental Policy Statement, 17 April 2023
- Cover Story, March 2023: Art, Climate, and New Coalitions, 1 Mar 2023
- Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) en el Estado español, 25 Jan 2023
Cover Story, September 2024: THE CREST OF A WAVE
Mon, Sep 2 2024
September 2024 cover story on www.lttds.org
NEW SEASON
NEW MONTHLY COVER STORY
NEW MONTHLY COVER STORY
The September 2024 monthly Cover Story “THE CREST OF A WAVE” is now up on Latitudes’ homepage: www.lttds.org (after September 2024 this story will be archived here).
“Sixteen years ago, the start of the new art season was given a sugar rush when 300,000 special sugar sachets mysteriously appeared in over 70 of Barcelona’s beloved bars, cafés, and restaurants. Printed on each of these sachets was a bold typographic statement: “A CLOTH OF COTTON WRAPPED AROUND A HORSESHOE OF IRON TOSSED UPON THE CREST OF A WAVE”, along with a diagrammatic emblem of a throw’s trajectory.” → Continue reading
Cover Stories are published monthly 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 2024: Rosa Tharrats, Curtain Call, 1 July 2024
- Cover Story, June 2024: TERENCE GOWER—DIPLOMACY, URBANISM, URANIUM, 3 June 2024
- Cover Story, May 2024: Richard Serra & Anne Garde—Threats of Paradise, 30 April 2024
- Cover Story, April 2024: In Progress–Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum, 2 April 2024
- Cover Story, March 2024: Dibbets en Palencia, 4 March 2024
- Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 February 2024
- Cover Story, January 2024: Curating Lab 2014–Curatorial Intensive, 2 Jan 2024
- Cover Story, December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View, 2 Dec 2023
- Cover Story, November 2023: Surucuá, Teque-teque, Arara: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, 2 Nov 2023
- Cover Story, October 2023: A tree felled, a tree cut in 7, 2 October 2023
- Cover Story, September 2023: The Pilgrim in Ireland, 6 September 2023
Latitudes’ “out of office” 2023-24 season
Mon, Jul 29 2024 
Work by David Shrigley.
Time to put work-related activities on ice. Below is an account of some of the projects, texts, trips, exhibition preparations, talks, and research conducted by Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes this past season.
Check earlier OUT OF THE OFFICE posts from 2008–9, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22 and 2022–23. All photos are by Latitudes unless otherwise noted in the photo caption. For further notes, inspirations, and more, check out our Instagrams, here and here. See you in September!
23 August–3 September 2023: The second part of “The Pilgrim” research residency took us to Dublin, Sligo (including an excursion to Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery), Askeaton (with day trips to Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum, the Rock of Cashel, Holycross Abbey, Philip Quinn’s stone-carving workshop, and the Ardnacrusha Power Station), and Limerick to attend the opening events of EVA International. See photos here.
As part of our thinking around relics, pilgrimage, and twinning, the team of Askeaton Contemporary Arts (ACA) asked Michael Holly to put together a video in part inspired by “The Pilgrim”. Tour guide maestro Anthony Sheehy not only appears giving his account of the Pilgrim’s story in the former Franciscan Friary, but also plays a song on his harmonica. It was through one of Anthony’s tours back in 2018 – he has led tours of the Friary and the Castle for 56 years! – that Latitudes first learned about the Barcelona pilgrim who is buried in Askeaton’s friary.
Train from Dublin to Sligo.
Our host Ruth Clinton (right) playing the violin at Mc Lynn’s Bar, Sligo.
Photo: Eulàlia Rovira
(Left to right) Mariana, tour guide Anthony Sheehy, Eulàlia, and her son Nil and Max in front of Askeaton's former Franciscan Friary. Photo: Aníbal Parada.
Latitudes, filmmaker Michael Holly and Michelle Horrigan of ACA discussing locations around the Friary. Photo: Eulàlia Rovira.
Anthony Sheehy is being filmed. Photo: Eulàlia Rovira.
Anthony Sheehy playing his harmonica in the Abbey. Photo: Eulàlia Rovira.
September 2023: Montse Badia writes about Gallery Climate Coalition and GCC Spain in Bonart magazine #198, September 2023–February 2024 issue. Read in Català, Español, English or in Français.
Photo: María Gracia de Pedro.
27 September 2023: Max travels to Bilbao to cover the exhibition “Picasso escultor. Materia y cuerpo” [Picasso Sculptor. Matter and Body] at the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, for what will be a two-part Picasso review for frieze magazine. In line with Latitudes’ Environmental Policy to reduce our carbon footprint, and as a 2022 Active Members of the Gallery Climate Coalition, Max took the train to cover this 6h50min journey.
Exhibition curator Carmen Giménez was interviewed during the press tour.
October 2023: The October 2023 issue (#238) of frieze magazine includes a printed version of Max Andrews’ review of Miralda’s exhibition at Bombas Gens Centre d'Art, València, published online on June 29. This turns out to be the last exhibition we'll see in this venue, as a few months later, their programme sadly took a radical change to become (yet another) digital centre programming virtual exhibitions – beginning with an immersive show dedicated to Dalí. 😖
9 October 2023: 6h15min train to Málaga to join the press trip organised by the Museo Picasso to celebrate its 20th anniversary and the exhibition “The Echo of Picasso”. The exhibition will be featured in an upcoming two-part review for frieze magazine by Max Andrews. Both the exhibition and the one seen a few days back in Bilbao, are organised within the framework of the international celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso (1881–1973).
For this trip, Latitudes used its 2022 Strategic Climate Fund (SCFs) of €190 to cover the journey costs to reduce our carbon emissions (a return train journey from Barcelona to Málaga emits 0.01 tCO2e, a return flight – although considerably cheaper – emits 0.21 tCO2e according to GCC’s Carbon Calculator). This made it possible for Mariana to visit the exhibition and other art spaces including Pompidou Málaga and CAC Málaga.
Following GCC’s revised 2021 SCFs guidelines and adapting to the financial possibilities of our modest freelance operation, financing effective lower-carbon options is a direct way to achieve real and short-term change. Going forward, instead of tying the calculation of our SCF to our previous emissions, we will follow GCC's 2023 revised recommendation and set aside a percentage of our year's revenue to be allocated to our 2024 needs.
Sunset over Málaga from the 14th floor of the hotel.
Museo Picasso Málaga from the roof terrace. At the top is the 11th-century Muslim Palace-fortress Alcazaba.
Views from the terrace of Palacio de Buenavista (Museo Picasso Málaga), towards the Iglesia de San Agustín and the Cathedral de la Encarnación de Málaga.
Sharing the great knowledge of an excited librarian who has worked in the museum for +20 years.
Browsing publications found these shots of Picasso’s paintings and sculptures being shipped in the 1960s, a much more relaxed era of art handling and insurance protocols.
(Above and below) “The Echo of Picasso” exhibition curated by Éric Troncy had delightful moments such as the above pairing of Louise Bourgeois’ “Woman in a Shape of a Shuttle” (1947–49) and a 1928 ”Couple of the Seaside” by Picasso, and great works such as Francis Bacon's “Portrait of Michel Leiris” by and a Philip Guston drawing. Yet, on the ground floor, the gear changes (for the worse) starting with an overhang display of sculptures and paintings by (all by men) Markus Lüpertz, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Rashid Johnson, Markus Jahmal, Miquel Barceló, Georg Baselitz and the puzzling inclusion of a “Downton Abbey” (2022) family portrait by Genevieve Figgis.
25 October 2023: Launch at Onomatopee, Amsterdam, of the publication “Sketches of Transition. An Atlas on Growth and Decay”, edited by Italian-born, Amsterdam-based artist Michele Bazzoli. The book includes a reprint of Latitudes’ text on Lara Almarcegui’s project “Graves” originally commissioned to accompany Almarcegui's solo exhibition at Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida, curated by Cèlia del Diego and on view between February and June 2021. More here.
Reprint scans courtesy of Michele Bazzoli.
27 October 2023: Max Andrews’ review “Celebrating Five Decades of the Picasso-Industrial Complex” goes live on frieze website. The review focuses on the two concurrent shows at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Museo Picasso Málaga appraising the artist’s legacy, although taking a troubling tour through an ethical minefield.
“What else is there to know about Pablo Picasso 50 years after his death? Something, evidently. With the support of the French and Spanish governments, the Musée Picasso–Paris and the artist’s grandson and heir, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, are marking the anniversary with a programme of some 50 exhibitions and events worldwide. ‘Picasso Sculptor. Matter and Body’ at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and ‘The Echo of Picasso’ at the Museo Picasso Málaga are two of the more prominent exhibitions of this “Picasso Celebration 1973–2023” series. But what exactly is being celebrated?” Continue reading
11 November 2023: Visual artist Laia Ventayol presented in Palma, Mallorca, a lecture on Eulàlia Rovira’s video “A knot which is not” (2020-21) in the framework of the LXVIII Anglo-Catalan Society Conference at the Universitat de les Illes Balears. Rovira’s video was commissioned for the exhibition “Things Things Say” (October 2020-January 2021 – watch the trailer with the artist as the narrator of the exhibition) at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, and was premièred online once the exhibition ended, and the exhibition spaces were once again empty.
Read more here (in Spanish).
Photo: @laia_ventayol
20 November 2023: Heath Lowndes, Managing Director and co-founder of Gallery Climate Coalition, gives a short presentation of GCC during his participation in the “II Jornadas de Instituciones Artísticas y Sostenibilidad”, organised by Fundació MACBA in Madrid. During his presentation, Lowndes talked about the (so far) six International Chapters, one of which (GCC Spain) we have the pleasure of being part of. On Heath’s long train journey from London to and back from Madrid, he stopped over in Barcelona where we had the chance to finally meet in person. Fundació MACBA’s Jornadas continued on November 20 in Barcelona.
Photo: @max.andrews
Photo: mlopezambrana
Photo: @galerialuciamendoza
24–28 November 2023: Trip to Madrid to see some shows at Fundación March, Fundación Mapfre, Museo Reina Sofía, La Casa Encendida, Museo Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, CentroCentro, Sala Alcalá 31, Museo Nacional del Prado and TBA21, as well as in commercial galleries such as NoguerasBlanchard, Travesía Cuatro, Galería Ehrhardt Flórez, Elba Benítez, Mira1 and Maisterravalbuena. One of the highlights was attending the preview of the long-awaited solo show of Ibon Aranberri at the Museo Reina Sofía, titled “Vista Parcial” (Partial view) which featured as our December 2023 cover story.
Press presentation of Ibon Aranberri’s exhibition (with microphone).
Aranberri and (back) Bea Herráez (curator of the exhibition with Manuel B. Villel, and director of ARTIUM, Vitoria).
16 January 2024: First general assembly of GCC Spain members and non-members to present the activities carried out by the Committee in 2023 and forthcoming plans for 2024, resolved questions about membership and carbon reporting.
16 February 2024: Exhibition preview & publication launch of “Betwixt 2024”, an exhibition and book showcasing the work of 20 emerging artistic practices from Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Sheffield taking place across four sites in central and north London between 17–23 February 2024. One of the participants is the artist, writer, and researcher Crystal Bennes. Latitudes wrote the text on her latest work “O (Copper, cotton, cobalt, crude, naphtha, bauxite, palm)” (2024) for the publication accompanying this Freelands Foundation initiative.
On 16 March 2024, following the London presentation, Bennes participated in a group show at Talbot Rice Gallery, the public art gallery of the University of Edinburgh, in a survey featuring ten Scotland-based artists from the last two cohorts of the Freelands Artist Programme, the nationwide initiative launched in 2018 that has supported 80 artists across the UK. Involving tapestry, sculptural installation, video, and live performance, Bennes’ new project addresses the rapaciousness and sophistry of commodities trading, an arena in which financial instruments are used to bet on the future value of raw materials and natural resources including crude oil, metals, coffee, and cotton.
Betwixt 2024. Courtesy Freelands Foundation.
(Above and two below) Installation view of Crystal Bennes’s “O (copper, cotton, cobalt, crude, naphtha, bauxite, palm)”, 2024. Including a bespoke table, conservation boxes, constructed archive, Financial Times pink paint and divination robe – with scheduled performances. Three photos by Sally Jubb, courtesy of the artist and Talbot Rice Gallery.
Walls in pavilions 7 and 9 of ARCOmadrid.
21 March 2024: Starting today and until April 14, the Fundación Díaz-Caneja is screening Jan Dibbets’ film “6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective” (2009). The Fundación is a contemporary art museum in Palencia dedicated to landscape, the environment and rurality.
9 April 2024: We are pleased to be on the second cohort of 125 Active Members announced by Gallery Climate Coalition. As part of Latitudes’ ongoing environmental commitment, and as Committee members of GCC Spain, we submitted our individual 2023 carbon footprint calculations to Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) to renew our status for the second year running. We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 “Climate Action”, as well as the Paris Agreement to reduce global carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and as custodians of the Reduce Art Flights website, a campaign devised by artist Gustav Metzger in 2007.
The production of the 8-minute-long film was the inaugural project of Portscapes, a series of commissions taking place throughout 2009 in and around Maasvlakte 2, the 2,000-hectare expansion of the Port of Rotterdam. The film premiered at the FutureLand information centre of the Port of Rotterdam in June 2009 and during Latitudes’ participation in the New York festival No Soul For Sale – A Festival of Independents (24–28 June 2009). Portscapes was produced by the Port of Rotterdam Authority in collaboration with the sadly now-defunct internationally operating Dutch cultural organisation SKOR | Foundation Art and Public Space (1999–2012).
23 March 2024: Three-hour online session for the third module on “The Curatorial Imagination”, part of the postgraduate diploma on EXHIBITIONS. Curatorship, Design and Spaces, a course organised by EINA Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona, and led by Manuel Cirauqui, director of EINAidea.
9 April 2024: We are pleased to be on the second cohort of 125 Active Members announced by Gallery Climate Coalition. As part of Latitudes’ ongoing environmental commitment, and as Committee members of GCC Spain, we submitted our individual 2023 carbon footprint calculations to Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) to renew our status for the second year running. We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 “Climate Action”, as well as the Paris Agreement to reduce global carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and as custodians of the Reduce Art Flights website, a campaign devised by artist Gustav Metzger in 2007.
Latitudes’ carbon emissions were 17.4tCo2e (2019), 3.8tCo2e (2022), and 1.5tCo2e (2023). We reduced our emissions by 78% in the first year of the calculations, and over 60% in the second year. The calculation of our carbon footprint considers emissions across various work-related activities: travel (train, air, coach, taxi, car, and ferry), hotel accommodation, and energy consumption (water usage in 2019 and 2022, and gas usage from 2023 onwards). We use the GCC Carbon Calculator (primary calculator) and DEFRA conversion factors to ensure consistent and accurate reporting.
Our 2024 Strategic Climate Fund is €75 (calculated at €50 per tonne emitted in 2023). We set these funds aside to spend on low-carbon purchasing options that would otherwise be unaffordable.
April 2024: Max contributed artwork descriptions and other texts alongside Sofia Lemos, for the publication “Meandering: Art, Ecology, and Metaphysics”, edited by Lemos and copublished by TBA21–Academy and Sternberg Press. The book is part of the namesake art and ecology research programme curated by Lemos at TBA21–Academy “exploring social and environmental justice through the lens of community-oriented practice, presenting a case for the role of artistic research and public programs in revealing our interbeing and shaping new convergences between interdisciplinary and interfaith studies.”
10 April 2024: Max was commissioned to contribute a text for Secundino Hernández’s catalogue published by This Side Up as part of accompanying his solo exhibition “Problematic Corners”, at Victoria Miro Gallery opening today in London, and on view until 18 May 2024. The gallery is also an Active Member of the Gallery Climate Coalition.
Titled “The Problematic Corners in Question? Or, Fleeing Forward?”, the essay ends “Let’s end with a question? Would it be problematic to conclude that each series of paintings is a way of going beyond your duty as an artist? In other words, are you not keenly aware of wanting to do more than is strictly necessary when something else would still be acceptable? Precisely not cutting corners, then? A method of fuga hacia adelante, fleeing forward? Painting in other words?”
Secundino Hernández's work “Myrtle Beach” (2024), acrylic, vinylic emulsion and dye-transfer print on canvas, 370 x 278cm) in his studio in Madrid.
10 April 2024: Launch of the report “Radiography of the Profession of Art Criticism and Curating” at the Fundació Miró. The study analyses the professional, economic and social conditions under which Catalunya-based Art Critics and Curators work, and was promoted by the National Council for Culture and Arts (CONCA). The study was supported by an independent expert committee formed by representatives of several organisations and profiles such as ACCA (the Catalan Art Criticism Association, amongst them Mariana of Latitudes who joined as a member last year), the Platform of Catalan Artists (PAAC), and the Association of Cultural Management Professionals of Catalunya (APGCC).
The report can be downloaded here (pdf, 71 pages, in Catalan), and the recording of the event here (in Catalan).
25–27 April 2024: Trip to Bilbao to visit Jorge Satorre's studio and to continue preparations for his solo exhibition at Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), scheduled for February 2025. We had the chance to see exhibitions by Armando Andrade Tudela at CarrerasMugica, June Crespo and Giovanni Anselmo at the Museo Guggenheim in Bilbao, as well as the wonderful rooms of the Museo de Bellas Artes filled with Sergio Prego’s pneumatic sculptures. From there we take an hour-long bus to attend the double opening of Ibon Aranberri and Patricia Dauder at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del País Vasco-Artium Museoa in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Max will review Aranberri’s “Entresaka” for frieze magazine.
Read the review here.
(Above and below) Sergio Prego at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao.
(Above and below) June Crespo’s solo exhibition “Vascular”, Museo Guggenheim Bilbao.
(Above) Armando Andrade Tudela at galería CarrerasMugica, Bilbao.
(Above and below) View of Ibon Aranberri’s Entresaka, ARTIUM Museoa, Vitoria.
(Above and below) View of Patricia Dauder “Unform”, ARTIUM Museoa, Vitoria.
A much-needed Spritz and cicchetti after long art days.
A press conference in early 2025 will announce the 2024 acquisitions—including works of contemporary art, photography, cultural artefacts, comics and illustration, postwar art, and the second avant-garde—publicly. Behind this forthcoming announcement are long days reviewing the 434 applications received, followed by 8 online sessions lasting 3 to 4 hours each debating proposals alongside the members of this year’s Committee.
30 May 2024: Private screening of the documentary “Artefacto 71 –¿Qué hace un artista?” (What does an artist do?), directed by Argentinian-born, Mataró-based artist Carlos Essmann. The film synopsis states “One thing is clear: the contemporary artist can dispense with his or her manual skills and give as much or more importance to intellectual work than to the artistic object. So what does an artist do? Artefacto 71 attempts to answer this question by reviewing the activity of a working-class artist like the Catalan Martí Anson, establishing a dialogue between artist and filmmaker as equals.”
The film includes footage of “Mataró Chauffeur Service” (2010), a project Latitudes with the artist in the context of their participation in the “NO SOUL FOR SALE–A festival of independents” organised in the context of Tate Modern’s 10th-anniversary. In response to the need to travel to London, Martí Anson set up the Mataró Chauffeur Service company in honour of his hometown and drove the curators from Barcelona to London and back. Designing the livery of the single-vehicle fleet, his uniform, and the journey to Tate Modern and back (including the ferry journey from Santander to Portsmouth) all formed a part of the project. The car formed the basis of Latitudes’ temporary office encampment in Tate's Turbine Hall and was parked up for the weekend alongside a picnic scenario of camping chairs, a folding table, and a parasol as well as a slideshow of images of the journey. The car interior became a comfortable space to watch films and “making of” videos produced as part of ‘Portscapes’, the Latitudes-curated commissions series produced for the Port of Rotterdam in the context of Maasvlakte 2: a five-year construction of 2,000 hectares of new land in the North Sea, which extended by 20% the largest seaport and industrial area in Europe.
“Artefacto 71 –¿Qué hace un artista?” was selected to participate in the Official Competition Documentary Section at the 27th Malaga Festival, where it had its world premiere, and won the Biznaga de Plata Ex aequo for Best Director.
Watch a trailer of the doc here.
The artist and the curators on their way to Tate Modern, May 2010.
The car was parked on the bridge of Tate Modern in May 2010. Below is a screening of the commissioned films and making of videos produced for “Portscapes” (2009-10).
(Above and two below) Views of Turbine Hall. Photos: Tom Medwell/NSFS.
3 June 2024: Max Andrews’ first contribution to Artforum magazine is out. It reviews “Refugia”, the first solo exhibition of Rosa Tharrats at Bombon Projects in Barcelona, which opened on March 20.
Read the review here.
View of Rosa Tharrats exhibition “Refugia” at Bombon Projects.
June 2024: 20 years of Max contributing to frieze magazine! Max’s first review featured an exhibition of Danish artist Jesper Just at Midway Contemporary, written while he was living in Minneapolis as a Curatorial Intern at the Walker Art Center.
@andrewbirk
27 June 2024: Premiere of “Pass Me, For I Am Strange”, a short film by Askeaton Contemporary Arts’ long-term collaborator Michael Holly, presented during ACA’s yearly festival “Welcome to the Neighbourhood” curated by Michele Horrigan – in which we participated back in 2018.
The film “engages with myths and histories associated with the Franciscan Friary, one of the most extensive sites of its kind in Ireland. Holly’s film listens closely to points of view from characters embedded in the very stonework of the friary, including Fitzgerald, one of its reputed founders; Don Martínez de Mendoza, a repentant Catalonian nobleman who took shelter there, and a now faceless stone carving of Saint Francis. Considering the interpretation of Askeaton’s medieval heritage as an experiment in time and space, “Pass Me, For I Am Strange” is developed collaboratively through research, dialogue and contributions by and with fellow artists Niamh Moriarty, Ruth Clinton, Carl Doran, Eulàlia Rovira and historian Anthony Sheehy, in association with “The Pilgrim”, a residency programme developed between Askeaton Contemporary Arts and Latitudes, Barcelona.” (Text from Askeaton's website)
Listen to Carl Doran’s audio narration of “The Pilgrim” from an article published in Askeaton-Balysteen Community News, Summer 1984.
Watch the short film here.
Reading the pilgrim inscription while shooting the film.
2 July 2024: We received a copy of the latest book by our former RCA tutor, Dr Claire Bishop, titled “Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today” (Verso Books, 2024). It includes a photograph we took in 2010 of Wolfgang Tillmans’ work “Truth Study Center” (2005–) while we live-edited a weekly tabloid that ultimately constituted the ten-part catalogue of “The Last Newspaper” (October 2010–January 2011) exhibition at the New Museum. Tillmans’ work shared the floor with our temporary office and is a project he began in 2005 with a show at his London gallery Maureen Paley.
More on this here.
Looking forward
In the Autumn of 2023, Lisa LeFeuvre, Executive Director of the Holt/Smithson Foundation, invited Latitudes to contribute to the foundation's Scholarly Text Program, writing on one artwork by Nancy Holt and/or Robert Smithson. The works written about range from landmark earthworks and texts to lesser-known drawings, moving image works, and rarely-seen two-dimensional works. Max decided to write on Robert Smithson’s text “Aerial Art” (Studio International, February—April 1969), and Mariana on Nancy Holt's “Ventilation Systems” (1985–1992). The essays will be published on the Foundation's website in October and November 2024 and include images, a short bibliography, endnotes pointing to the author’s references and an ISBN.
And some further announcements in the autumn!
RELATED CONTENT:
- Latitudes’ writing – reviews, profiles, interviews, essays, features, and opinions.
- Latitudes’ "out of office" 2022–23 season, 25 July 2023
- Latitudes’ "out of office" 2021–22 season, 1 August 2022
- Latitudes’ "out of office" 2020–21 season, 2 August 2021
- 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 2024: Rosa Tharrats’ Curtain Call
Mon, Jul 1 2024
The July–August 2024 monthly Cover Story “” is now up on our homepage: www.lttds.org (after August 2024 this story will be archived here).
“Summer is here and the Cover Story for July and August features Rosa Tharrats’ “AVOC IVIDRAM” (2024), a work that veiled the exterior of Bombon Projects during the opening of her exhibition “Refugia” earlier this year. This show is the focus of Max Andrews’s first contribution to Artforum magazine, appearing in the summer issue.” → Continue reading
Cover Stories are published monthly 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 2024: TERENCE GOWER—DIPLOMACY, URBANISM, URANIUM, 3 June 2024
- Cover Story, May 2024: Richard Serra & Anne Garde—Threats of Paradise, 30 Apr 2024
- Cover Story, April 2024: In Progress–Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum, 2 April 2024
- Cover Story, March 2024: Dibbets en Palencia, 4 March 2024Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 February 2024
- Cover Story, January 2024: Curating Lab 2014–Curatorial Intensive, 2 Jan 2024 Cover Story, December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View, 2 Dec 2023
- Cover Story, November 2023: Surucuá, Teque-teque, Arara: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, 2 Nov 2023
- Cover Story, October 2023: A tree felled, a tree cut in 7, 2 October 2023
- Cover Story, September 2023: The Pilgrim in Ireland, 6 September 2023
- Cover Story, July–August 2023: Honeymoon in Valencia, 1 July 2023
Marking 20 Years of Max Andrews as a Writer for Frieze Magazine
Tue, Jun 4 2024
Reviews, opinion columns, profiles, and features here.
This month marks 20 years of Max Andrews contributing to frieze magazine. Max’s inaugural review in 2004 featured an exhibition of Danish artist Jesper Just at Midway Contemporary, written while working as a Curatorial Fellow at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
Over the last two decades, Max has written +60 texts exploring topics including ecology, institutional thinking, open call fatigue, the history of IVAM – Spain’s pioneering Modern Art Museum – highlights for ARCOmadrid (2024, 2023, 2022, 2020 editions), or Barcelona's intricate cultural landscape, among others.
Max’s latest review covers Ibon Aranberri’s survey exhibition “Entresaka” at the ARTIUM Museoa – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del País Vasco in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country).
Other reviews, opinion columns, profiles, and features here.
Writing published elsewhere here.
→ RELATED CONTENT:
- Max Andrews' Valencia Feature in frieze magazine, November-December 2019, 2 November 2019
- Max Andrews reviews in frieze: ‘A Provisional History of the Technical Image, 1844–2018’ (LUMA Foundation, Arlès) and Pere Llobera's ‘Acció’ (Bombon Projects, Barcelona) and ‘Kill Your Darlings’ (Sis Galería, Sabadell), 4 January 2019
- Mariana Cánepa Luna reviews Frieze week 2018 for art-agenda.com, 15 October 2018
- MaxAndrews review of Mark Bradford's inaugural exhibition “Masses and Movements” at Hauser Wirth Menorca centres on “the 1507 Waldseemüller world map, the first to depict a landmass in the far reaches of the Atlantic and to name it America.”
- “Like the derelict buildings that pockmark Lleida’s urban fabric, Bestué’s exhibition summons a terrain that is barely held together, on the verge of becoming undone.” – Max Andrews on David Bestué exhibition at La Panera, Lleida in "The 5 Best Exhibitions in the EU Right Now", 19 May 2021
- Max Andrews reviews Eulàlia Rovira's solo show at etHALL where the artist pays homage to the thresholds between life and death in frieze, October 2020
- frieze review by Max Andrews of Joachim Koester's show at the Blueproject Foundation, Barcelona
- October 2004 issue of frieze includes Max Andrews' review of Christopher Knowles show at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise
- Two texts by Max Andrews in the April 2018 issue of frieze: review of La Panace’s Crash Test (Montpellier) and Lúa Coderch’s solo show at àngels Barcelona
- Max Andrews on Alexandre Estrela at Museo Reina Sofia
- Exhibition Review of Rasmus Nilausen's show "Read the Image" at Garcia Galeria by Max Andrews in frieze
- Review of Lucy Skaer's 2014 solo show Glasgow Tramway by Max Andrews in frieze
- Profile on Francesc Ruiz’s comic books, identity & homoerotic iconography by Max Andrews in frieze
- A 2007 profile on Wilfredo Prieto by Max Andrews on frieze
- A 2012 review by Max Andrews on the film "Arbeit (Work, 2011)" by 2014 Turner Prize winner Duncan Campbell
- 2006 review of Ignasi Aballí's retrospective at MACBA by Max Andrews
- Review of Julia Montilla’s show Fundació Miró by Max Andrews on frieze
- Max Andrews on Pablo Helguera's 2013 ‘Librería Donceles’ at Kent Fine Art in New York in frieze
- 2005 review by Max Andrews of Latitudes of Jordan Wolfson's show Kunsthalle Zurich
- Max Andrews on the political, social and economic factors of environmentalism in frieze magazine, 2007
Max Andrews reviews Rosa Tharrats's exhibition “Refugia” at Bombon Projects for Artforum
Mon, Jun 3 2024
Exhibition views of “Refugia” by Rosa Tharrats, Bombon Projects, Barcelona. All photos: Roberto Ruiz.
Max Andrews’s first contribution to Artforum reviews “Refugia”, the first solo exhibition of Rosa Tharrats at Bombon Projects in Barcelona, which opened on March 20, 2024. Andrews’ review coincides with the first issue under the new editorial eye of Tina Rivers Ryan, the magazine’s recently appointed editor-in-chief.
“One could have imagined the exhibition inside as much a sanctum for a spiritual retreat for unwinding the mind/body dualism as an outré couture collection without humans, where inscrutable organic divinities dressed for auspiciousness.”
Continue reading here.
→ RELATED CONTENT:
- Other writing on Latitudes’ website.
- Reviews, opinions, profiles and interviews published in frieze magazine.
- Panorama traces, a year on, 21 Oct 2022
- Panorama in Madrid and Córdoba, 14 June 2022
- Cover Story, February 2022: Rosa Tharrats’ Textile Alchemy, 1 Feb 2022
- “Panorama 21: Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls”, MACBA, October 2021–February 2022
Cover Story–June 2024: Terence Gower – Diplomacy, Urbanism, Uranium
Sat, Jun 1 2024
June 2024 cover story on www.lttds.org
The June 2024 monthly Cover Story “TERENCE GOWER: DIPLOMACY, URBANISM, URANIUM” is now available on our homepage: www.lttds.org (after June 2024 this story will be archived here).
“Last month, The Power Plant in Toronto opened Terence Gower’s “Embassy”, an exhibition showcasing over a decade of work exploring the diplomatic architecture of American embassy buildings in Baghdad, Havana, and Saigon, as well as an unbuilt project for Ottawa.” → Continue reading
Cover Stories are published monthly 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 2024: Richard Serra & Anne Garde—Threats of Paradise, 30 April 2024
- Cover Story, April 2024: In Progress–Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum, 2 April 2024
- Cover Story, March 2024: Dibbets en Palencia, 4 March 2024
- Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 February 2024
- Cover Story, January 2024: Curating Lab 2014–Curatorial Intensive, 2 Jan 2024
- Cover Story, December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View, 2 Dec 2023
- Cover Story, December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View, 2 Dec 2023
- Cover Story, November 2023: Surucuá, Teque-teque, Arara: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, 2 Nov 2023
- Cover Story, October 2023: A tree felled, a tree cut in 7, 2 October 2023
- Cover Story, September 2023: The Pilgrim in Ireland, 6 September 2023
- Cover Story, July–August 2023: Honeymoon in Valencia, 1 July 2023
- Cover Story, June 2023: Crystal Bennes futures, 1 Jun 2023
Max Andrews reviews Ibon Aranberri’s exhibition “Entresaka” at ARTIUM Museoa for frieze
Thu, May 23 2024(Above and below) View of Ibon Aranberri’s exhibition “Entrasaka” at ARTIUM Museoa. All photos: Latitudes.
Max Andrews reviews Ibon Aranberri’s survey exhibition “Entresaka”, the ARTIUM Museoa – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del País Vasco in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country) for frieze magazine:
“The exhibition’s evocative title, ‘Entresaka’ (‘thinning’ in the Basque language), accounts for the show’s apparent evasiveness, evoking the forestry management practice of selectively felling individual trees in order to promote overall woodland health and diversity. The artist’s most representative and extensive projects are duly cut down as if to their stumps in order that more marginal works may be afforded more light.”
Continue reading “Ibon Aranberri’s Abiding Instincts” here.
The exhibition has been coproduced with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, where it was presented between November 2023 and March 2024 under the title “Vista parcial” (Partial View). It is co-curated by Manuel Borja-Villel and Beatriz Herráez.
(Above and below) Views of Ibon Aranberri’s exhibition “Vista partial (Partial View)” at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. Photos: Latitudes.
→ RELATED CONTENT:
- “Cognitive Maps” interview between Ibon Aranberri and Peio Aguirre commissioned for UOVO #14 “Ecology, Luxury & Degradation” can be read here (pdf). Part of a 500-page issue guest-edited by Latitudes in 2007.
- Aranberri’s work “Luz de Lemóniz (Light over Lemóniz)”, 2000–2004, included in the Latitudes-curated group exhibition “Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities” at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, 2008.
- Aranberri’s “Zuloa (Ir.T. no513)”, 2004, included in the touring film programme “A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel: Land Art's Expanded Field, 1968–2008” curated by Latitudes and commissioned by the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City in 2008;
- Max Andrews’ review of Ibon Aranberri at the Fundació Tàpies, 2011
Cover Story, May 2024: Richard Serra & Anne Garde—Threats of Paradise
Tue, Apr 30 2024
May 2024 cover story on www.lttds.org
The May 2024 monthly Cover Story “Richard Serra & Anne Garde—Threats of Paradise” is now published on our homepage: www.lttds.org (after May 2024 this cover will be archived here).
“Marking the death last month of American sculptor Richard Serra, this month’s Cover Story looks back to the Latitudes-curated exhibition “4.543 billion. The matter of matter” at CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux. ” → Continue reading
Cover Stories are published monthly 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, April 2024: In Progress–Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum, 2 April 2024
- Cover Story, March 2024: Dibbets en Palencia, 4 March 2024
- Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 February 2024
- Cover Story, January 2024: Curating Lab 2014–Curatorial Intensive, 2 Jan 2024
- Cover Story, December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View, 2 Dec 2023
- Cover Story, November 2023: Surucuá, Teque-teque, Arara: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, 2 Nov 2023
- Cover Story, October 2023: A tree felled, a tree cut in seven, 2 October 2023
- Cover Story, September 2023: The Pilgrim in Ireland, 6 September 2023
- Cover Story, July–August 2023: Honeymoon in Valencia, 1 July 2023
- Cover Story, June 2023: Crystal Bennes futures, 1 Jun 2023
- Cover Story, May 2023: Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty in Barcelona, 1 May 2023
- Cover Story, April 2023: Jerónimo Hagerman (1967–2023), 1 Apr 2023
Latitudes renews their Active Membership with Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC)
Tue, Apr 9 2024
Pantallazo con los miembros de Latitudes mencionados en el anuncio de GCC con los 125 Miembros Activos de 2023.
Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes are among the 125 Members who have successfully achieved Active Membership 2023 with Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC). This is the second year running that Latitudes is an Active Member. This new cohort represents a 50% increase in successful applications and a renewal of over 85% of last year’s Active members.
To renew our Active status we continued implementing environmental sustainability best practices in line with GCC’s guidelines focusing on near-term tangible actions, and had to:
- Complete a CO2e report or audit. Latitudes’ carbon footprint was 17.4tCo2e in 2019 (baseline year), 3.8tCo2e in 2022 and 1.5tCo2e in 2023. We reduced our footprint by 78% of the emissions within the first year of the calculations and over 60% in the second year. We calculate our carbon footprint by considering travel, hotel accommodation, and energy consumption emissions, and use the GCC Carbon Calculator and DEFRA conversion factors to ensure consistent and accurate reporting.
- Establish and maintain a Green Team. Latitudes is one of the Founding Committee members of GCC Spain, one of the seven International volunteer teams currently operating in Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Italy, and Taiwan.
- Publish an Environmental Responsibility Statement – our extended and illustrated version here.
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Active Membership Announcement here.
RELATED CONTENTS:
- Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 Feb 2024
- Latitudes’ Environmental Policy Statement – Extended version here.
- Montse Badia sobre GCC Spain en la revista Bonart #198, 25 Oct 2023
- Active Membership Press Release, 10 May 2023.
- Latitudes qualify as an Active Member of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), 10 May 2023
- Cover Story, March 2023: Art, Climate, and New Coalitions, 1 Mar 2023
- Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) en el Estado español, 25 January 2023
- Latitudes’ essay “Un suelo para las historias del arte del futuro” [Soil for Future Art Histories] in TBA21’s catalogue “Futuros Abundantes / Abundant Futures”, 22 Jan 2023
- “‘Minor’ Ornithologies” podcast conducted by Max Andrews of Latitudes for TBA21 on st_age, 27 Sep 2022
- 18 marzo 2021, 18:30h: Mesa redonda “Transformación geológica y construcción artificial” con Lara Almarcegui y Juan Guardiola, 8 Mar 2021
- Lead Faculty, Geologic Time, Banff International Curatorial Institute, Visual + Digital Arts Department, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada, 11 September–6 October 2017
- Group exhibition, “4.543 billion. The matter of matter”, CAPC musée d’art contemporain Bordeaux, France, 29 June 2017–7 January 2018
- Editors, “Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010”, Archive Books, 2011
- Solo exhibition, “Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies”, Kunsthal Aarhus, Århus, Denmark, 22 January–3 April 2011
- Public realm commissions, Portscapes, Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, throughout 2009
- Custodians, Reduce Art Flights (RAF) website (2008–ongoing)
- Touring film programme, “A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art’s Expanded Field 1968–2008”, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, and other venues, April–October 2008
- Group exhibition “Greenwashing. Perils, Promises and Perplexities”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, February–May 2008
- Convenors, “Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change”, 3-day symposium during the Sharjah Biennial 8, 5–7 April 2007
- Editors, “UOVO #14: Ecology, Luxury and Degradation”, 2007
- Editor, “LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook” (2006)
- Curator, Tue Greenfort, Arts & Ecology public realm commission in London, 2005–2008.