Editing the forthcoming publication 'Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010'
Fri, Mar 18 2011
Mock up of the publication cover.
We are currently in the process of editing the first and most comprehensive monograph to date of Lara Almarcegui's work produced in the last fifteen years. Although Almarcegui has made many small format guidebooks as integral parts of her projects, this will be the first monograph presenting an overview of all of her artistic practice.
The main part of the publication is formed by detailed documentation of the artist’s works and publications companioned by new descriptive texts written by the editors. These are presented in the following sections: ‘Demolition’, ‘Excavation’, ‘Construction materials’, ‘Ruins’, ‘Wastelands’ (survey, access, and preservation).
Alongside an introductory essay by the editors, art critic, curator and art historian Cuauhtémoc Medina and the theorist and curator Lars Bang Larsen contribute texts. Medina presents a revised and updated version of a previously unpublished essay entitled ‘The beauty of open space: Lara Almarcegui and the freedom of the unplanned’. The essay involves an analysis of the ‘aesthetic tautology’ of the 17th-century English garden – ‘a field turned into a garden which is made to seem like a field’ – and develops a context for Almarcegui’s work through a partial history of man’s ‘perfection’ of nature, and more especially the concept of nature as coincidental with the origin of industrial modernity. Lars Bang Larsen offers an interpretation of a single work from the artist’s ‘Construction materials’ series: 'Construction materials, City of São Paulo' (2006). Based on a talk given by the author at the Creative Time Summit: Revolutions in Public Space, New York, October 2009, Bang Larsen argues that “Almarcegui’s work equips us with the hubris to reconceive of the city and evaluate and re-organise it as a social space”.
The main part of the publication is formed by detailed documentation of the artist’s works and publications companioned by new descriptive texts written by the editors. These are presented in the following sections: ‘Demolition’, ‘Excavation’, ‘Construction materials’, ‘Ruins’, ‘Wastelands’ (survey, access, and preservation).
Alongside an introductory essay by the editors, art critic, curator and art historian Cuauhtémoc Medina and the theorist and curator Lars Bang Larsen contribute texts. Medina presents a revised and updated version of a previously unpublished essay entitled ‘The beauty of open space: Lara Almarcegui and the freedom of the unplanned’. The essay involves an analysis of the ‘aesthetic tautology’ of the 17th-century English garden – ‘a field turned into a garden which is made to seem like a field’ – and develops a context for Almarcegui’s work through a partial history of man’s ‘perfection’ of nature, and more especially the concept of nature as coincidental with the origin of industrial modernity. Lars Bang Larsen offers an interpretation of a single work from the artist’s ‘Construction materials’ series: 'Construction materials, City of São Paulo' (2006). Based on a talk given by the author at the Creative Time Summit: Revolutions in Public Space, New York, October 2009, Bang Larsen argues that “Almarcegui’s work equips us with the hubris to reconceive of the city and evaluate and re-organise it as a social space”.
Coinciding with Almarcegui's solo show at TENT, Rotterdam, Latitudes' will host an in conversation with the Spanish-born Rotterdam-based artist and discuss the process of editing the monograph. During the event, Latitudes will also bring forward a selection of questions posed to curators, gallerist, artists, colleagues and collaborators of Almarcegui, giving an opportunity to revisit some of her projects produced since 1995.
Title: 'Lara Almarcegui: Projects 1995–2010'
Editor: Latitudes
Publish & Design: Archive Books, Berlin
Texts: Cuauhtémoc Medina, Lars Bang Larsen and Latitudes
224 pages, colour, 21 x 27.5 cm. Black-and-white and colour illustrations. Flexicover, English.
Print run: 2,500 copies
ISBN: 978-88-95702-05-6
Release date: Spring/Summer 2011
Cover price: € 35
Publication possible thanks to the support of the Fonds BKVB (Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture).
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org
