Mariana Cánepa Luna's London Roundup of Frieze week 2018 for art-agenda.com
Mon, Oct 15 2018 |
| Advertising in Pimlico. Above and below photos by Latitudes. |
London Roundup
Various locations, London
October 12, 2018
Just as Frieze Art Fair opened last Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May gave her keynote speech—and dared to dance again—at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. She announced that freedom of movement would be terminated “once and for all” by limiting access to “highly skilled workers” (in short, migrants earning over 30,000 British pounds per year). Countless art professionals earn much less (including entry-level curatorial staff at Tate, and yours truly), as well as doubtless many of the myriad gallery and museum folks involved in the city-wide jamboree of Frieze week. How do we imagine London’s contemporary art ecology post-Brexit, a scene that has grown exponentially since Tate Modern’s opening in 2000 and the first Frieze Art Fair in 2003? The question of how the 2019 edition of the fair is going to be affected was the elephant in the tent. Most people I asked shrugged: negotiations are still ongoing, consequences are yet to be seen. “It’ll be fiiiiine,” a London museum director told me. “Maybe we’ll visit a smaller fair, like the first editions—remember those days?” opined a British gallerist friend working in New York. Although one could put this upbeat denial down to the cliché of dark British humor and the spirit of “muddling through,” I nevertheless left worried that something more troubling lay behind it.
If Frieze might have triggered the relocation of many contemporary art galleries from the East to the West of the city, two recent institutional openings are enforcing a southern axis. The new Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in New Cross, housed in a listed Victorian bathhouse refurbished by 2015 Turner Prize winners Assemble, kicked off with a sparkling survey show of Mika Rottenberg’s absurdist film installations offering grotesque parodies of current labor conditions. The second home of the South London Gallery at Peckham Road Fire Station, elegantly renovated by 6a architects, opened with “Knock Knock,” a group show about the uses of humor—from political satire to visual puns—in contemporary art. The addition of these spaces will surely benefit Gasworks, a short bus ride away in nearby Vauxhall, whose truly international program of residencies and exhibitions over the last two decades has been a vital antidote to the dangers of isolationism in the British art scene.
—> Continue reading here.
Text originally published in Art-agenda on October 12, 2018.
Façade of the new Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in New Cross.
Martine Syms at Sadie Coles HQ, London.
Cornelia Parker Transitional "Object" (PsychoBarn) at the Royal Academy.
Johanna Unzueta at Proyectos Ultravioleta, Focus section, Frieze Art Fair.
(Above + below) Sam Lewitt, "Core (the "Work")", BMW Open Work commission, Frieze Art Fair.
Ian Law at RODEO, Frieze Art Fair.
(Above and below) Oscar Humphries' "Sèvres and Japonism" at Frieze Masters, London.
(Above and below) Chris Burden at Gagosian, London.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan at Chisenhale, London.
Alicja Kwade's work in the "Space Shifters" exhibition, Hayward Gallery, London.
(Above and below) Elmgreen and Dragset, "This is how we bite our tongue", Whitechapel, London.
If Frieze might have triggered the relocation of many contemporary art galleries from the East to the West of the city, two recent institutional openings are enforcing a southern axis. The new Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in New Cross, housed in a listed Victorian bathhouse refurbished by 2015 Turner Prize winners Assemble, kicked off with a sparkling survey show of Mika Rottenberg’s absurdist film installations offering grotesque parodies of current labor conditions. The second home of the South London Gallery at Peckham Road Fire Station, elegantly renovated by 6a architects, opened with “Knock Knock,” a group show about the uses of humor—from political satire to visual puns—in contemporary art. The addition of these spaces will surely benefit Gasworks, a short bus ride away in nearby Vauxhall, whose truly international program of residencies and exhibitions over the last two decades has been a vital antidote to the dangers of isolationism in the British art scene.
—> Continue reading here.
Text originally published in Art-agenda on October 12, 2018.
Lucy Dodd at Sprüth Magers, London.
Façade of the new Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in New Cross.
Detail of Mika Rottenberg's show at Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in New Cross.
Part of Tania Bruguera’s 2018 Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern.
Visitor's comments on the Turner Prize 2018 board.
Installation from Atelier E.B's show at the Serpentine Sackler Galleries, London.
Detail from Cayetano Ferrer's solo exhibition “Demaster” at Southard Reid, London.
Judith Kopf's "Flock of Sheep" (2017) at the South London Gallery.
Daniel Silver at Frith Street Gallery, London.
Kemang Wa Lahulere at Marian Goodman Gallery, London.
Amy Sillman at Camden Art Center, London.
RELATED CONTENT:
- Writing archive on Latitudes' website;
- art-agenda review of Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla exhibition at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, by Mariana Cánepa Luna, 12 October 2018.
- art-agenda review of Ana Jotta's exhibition at ProjecteSD, Barcelona, by Mariana Cánepa Luna 11 November 2016.
- art-agenda review of Francesc Ruiz exhibition at garcía galería, Madrid, by Mariana Cánepa Luna, 4 March 2016.
- art-agenda review of Andrea Büttner exhibition at NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona, by Latitudes, 21 July 2014.
Report from London's Frieze week 2014 now on Storify
Mon, Oct 27 20142012 "Frieze week" in pictures
Sat, Oct 20 2012A report in pictures from Frieze London (now in its 10th year!) & the inaugural Frieze Masters (11–14 October) as well as concurrent shows in London.
And elsewhere in London...
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
2012, Fischli and Weiss, Franz West, Frieze Art Fair, Grizedale, Ian Kiaer, London, Pak Sheung Chuen, Paul Sietsema, photo, report, Sarah Lucas, Theaster Gates, Thomas Bayrle, Thomas Houseago, Tino Sehgal
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| Rirkrit Tiravanija light box at Koo Jeog A floor at the stand of Pilar Corrias. |
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| "Colosseum of the Consumed" by Grizedale Arts & Yangjiang Group was one one of the six Frieze Projects this year. (Unfortunately we didn't get a photo of the tomato battles.) There's a nice article about the endeavor over at Another Magazine. |
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| Colosseum of the Consumed: Various advanced pickled food, kimchi and pickled eggs. Would make an interesting breakfast. |
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| Too distracted by the boomerangs and Inuit carvings at Frieze Masters to take many photos, but the stand of Sfeir-Semler presenting works by the Emirati conceptualist Hassan Sharif was a highlight. |
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| Back in the main tent, Geoffrey Farmer – he of the 'leaves of grass' Life magazine work at dOCUMENTA (13) – presented a solo booth with Casey Kaplan. |
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| Chantal Crousel's stands are always immaculate ("What a Load of Rubbish" is by Claire Fontaine, the lamps by Haegue Yang). In the foreground is the seating area with Thomas Bayrle's "La vache qui rit" motif, another of the Frieze Projects. |
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The Modern Institute/Toby Webster: Simon Starling in the back, Jeremy Deller in the front (a work which refers to this relevation.) |
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| Aslı Çavuşoğlu's Frieze Project: ""Murder in Three Acts" was inspired by the representation of art in popular media, particularly in television crime series in which the artworks don’t solely exist in the background of the show, but become a vital part of the script: exhibitions function as crime scenes and art works act as murder weapons." |
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Vitamin Creative Space, with works by Pak Sheung Chuen, was awarded the Best Stand prize. Here, some left hand / right hand peanuts.  |
Tino Sehgal's Unilever series commission at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall (above and below). Go see it, photos don't do justice to the piece!
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| Gagosian (Britannia Street): works by the recently departed Franz West. |
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| Detail of Franz West's show at Gagosian (Britannia Street) |
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| Bjarne Melgaard: A House to Die In until 18 November at ICA London. |
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| Thomas Houseago at Hauser & Wirth |
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| Thomas Houseago at Hauser & Wirth |
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| Fischli & Weiss at Sprüth Magers. More installation shots here. |
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| Sarah Lucas & Franz West at Situation / Sadie Coles (First Floor, 4 New Burlington Place). One of the most interesting shows in town. |
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| Stuart Shave/Modern Art presented David Noonan, nine new silkscreen works on linen. |
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| Ian Kiaer at Alison Jacques Gallery |
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| Theaster Gates at White Cube Bermondsey. The Shard in the background. More info and images of the show (as photos were not allowed inside the gallery) in this Domus interview with Martina Angelotti. |
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| Artist Placement Group 1966-79 at Raven Row. Always beautiful galleries and great shows. |
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| Falke Pisano at Hollybush Gardens. |
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| Mike Bouchet at Hotel. |
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| Klaus Weber at Herald St. |
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| Maureen Paley with the work of Liam Gillick. |
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| The Drawing Room presented the first major exhibition by Paul Sietsema in the UK. |
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| SUNDAY was organised by three of the participating galleries: Croy Nielsen (Berlin), Limoncello (London) and Tulips & Roses (Brussels). |
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| Work by Spartacus Chetwynd at the Turner Prize show at Tate Britain. |
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| And last but not least, a shot from the amazing Tarek Atoui-led musical extravaganza at the Serpentine on 12 October. |
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Report in quotations from 'Talking Galleries', 19–21 September 2011, MACBA auditorium
Tue, Sep 20 2011A report in quotations from the first evening's two panels and the first session of the second day of Talking Galleries.
19 September 2011
15.30h: Welcome by
Ferran Mascarell, Regional Minister of Culture of the Generalitat
Jaume Ciurana, Deputy Mayor of Culture, Knowledge, Creativity and Innovation of Barcelona
Faustino Diaz Fortuny, Deputy Director General for the Promotion of Cultural Industries and Foundations and Patronage of the Ministry of Culture
Adriaan Raemdonck, President of FEAGA (Federation of European Art Galleries Association)
Llucià Homs, main promoter of the project TALKING GALLERIES
Bartomeu Marí, MACBA's Director
Llucià Homs: "according to an art market report commissioned by TEFAF (The European Fine Art Foundation), 51% of the art business is done by gallerists and 49% by auction houses. 30% of that is done in art fairs."
Faustino Diaz: "Galeries are the basis for the construction of value". "Galleries are a fundamental cultural sector for the economic development of knowledge".
Mascarell: "Talking Galleries should connect Catalan art to the international trends and vice-versa". "Artists are the ones making sense of our world".
16.00 h: 'The new role of the Gallerist in the art market' with:
Casey Kaplan, Casey Kaplan Gallery (New York)
Claes Nordenhake, Galerie Nordenhake (Berlín, Stockholm)
Emilio Álvarez, Galeria Àngels Barcelona (Barcelona)
Moderated by: Ann Demeester, Director of De Appel Arts Centre (Amsterdam)
Ann Demeester: "We are not able to project a 20-50 year future anymore"..."are galleries going to become agencies for artists or are they able to foster new experiments in a globalised 21st century?"; "Collaboration should not be an enemy of competition"; "Galleries are a site for free education"; "A gallery should perform an informal efficiency"
Emilio Álvarez: "The work of a gallery is articulated in connection with the past. Memory gives meaning, one constructs value through time". "Circuits of the artworld are closed, although the product we present is open."; "A gallery has a ongoing relationship with an artist and shows him/her continuously over time, no institution will give a solo show to an artist 3 times"; "A gallery has a single monogamous relationship, museums have plural relationships with artists."
Casey Kaplan: We (with David Zwirner and Friedrich Petzel amongst others) have done New York Gallery Week (NYGW) twice now, but I don't think is necessary to repeat it again and again if, for instance, Frieze New York is starting in May 2012"; "We are taking the risks, we produce art, we research artists, basically we do it first and then everyone follows";"A gallery is about trust in your artists and them in you. Is a small family extension that grows organically. It's also about constant reinvestment in a new space, in a new piece, in shipping ridiculous works to art fairs to show your ambition."
Claes Nordenhake: "New art should be shown in galleries first, thereafter in art fairs, kunsthalles, etc. Not the other way around!"; "A gallerist is an eternal improvisor, a cleaner, a guard, an interior designer, a carpenter, a shipping agent, a graphic designer, a bookeeper, an art historian, a teacher and sometimes a professor, a therapist, a pimp and sometimes a lover, a storage administrator, a divorce councilor, a good banker, a sympathetic drinking companion, an arrogant bastard, an interpreter, a travel agent, a cook (professional or amateur), a waiter, a restaurateur, a philosopher (or at least in late hours of the night...), an actor, a business strategist, a secretary (where the boss is the artist)...
18.00 h: 'Dealing with the economic crisis' with
Georgina Adam, Journalist Financial Times (London)
Robert Tornabell, Professor of Economics at ESADE Business School (Barcelona)
Soledad Lorenzo, Galería Soledad Lorenzo (Madrid)
Moderated by: Carlos Urroz, Director ARCOmadrid (Madrid)
Dr. Robert Tornabell: "The most profitable investments are first art, then gold, and then...I don't know!"
Georgina Adam: "The size of the market is U$ 43 billion: 21 bn in auction, 22 bn in dealership. The global share in 2006 breaks up in 46% for the US; 27% for UK, 6% for France; 5% for China, 16% Others. In 2010 is 34% for the US; 22% for UK, 5% for France, a huge increase to 23% for China and, 15% Others". "Today, there are 20 top auction houses, 11 of which are chinese, which did not exist a decade ago"; "Today money is not inherited, it is made."
20 September 2011
10.00 h: 'The future of art fairs' with
Victor Gisler, Mai 36 Galerie (Zurich)
Noah Horowitz, Director VIP Art Fair (New York)
Pierre Huber, Galerie Art & Public (Geneva)
Moderated by: Carles Guerra, Chief Curator of the MACBA (Barcelona)
Carles Guerra: "Barcelona was considering initiating a fair, but with ARCOmadrid nearby and seeing how profits stand now, maybe a meeting amongst professionals such as this, is the way forward"
Noah Horowitz: "The 1970s market was trade; today it's retail and event-led" ; "Going back to TEFAF's figures: 30% of the business is done in fairs, that's obviously an average figure because for some galleries fairs are 70% of their year sales"; "The VIP Art Fair is accessible, international, transparent, communicative, it is still a one-to-one relationship with the buyer"
Victor Gisler: "A gallery shows – tells – sells". "Art fairs like Art Basel have become so hugely important that they now validate quality. If an artits hasn't been shown in Basel, it may seem not valuable". "Initiatives like the VIP Art Fair are great for telling, maybe not so much for selling, but it is online, and that is the language of the next generation which you can not neglect, and one must embrace."
Biographies of the speakers
More about Talking Galleries.
Follow #talkinggalleries
2011, ARCO, Art Basel, art fairs, arte contemporáneo, artworld, Carles Guerra, conference, Frieze Art Fair, MACBA, Spanish Art Scene, talk
19 September 2011
15.30h: Welcome by
Ferran Mascarell, Regional Minister of Culture of the Generalitat
Jaume Ciurana, Deputy Mayor of Culture, Knowledge, Creativity and Innovation of Barcelona
Faustino Diaz Fortuny, Deputy Director General for the Promotion of Cultural Industries and Foundations and Patronage of the Ministry of Culture
Adriaan Raemdonck, President of FEAGA (Federation of European Art Galleries Association)
Llucià Homs, main promoter of the project TALKING GALLERIES
Bartomeu Marí, MACBA's Director
Llucià Homs: "according to an art market report commissioned by TEFAF (The European Fine Art Foundation), 51% of the art business is done by gallerists and 49% by auction houses. 30% of that is done in art fairs."
Faustino Diaz: "Galeries are the basis for the construction of value". "Galleries are a fundamental cultural sector for the economic development of knowledge".
Mascarell: "Talking Galleries should connect Catalan art to the international trends and vice-versa". "Artists are the ones making sense of our world".
16.00 h: 'The new role of the Gallerist in the art market' with:
Casey Kaplan, Casey Kaplan Gallery (New York)
Claes Nordenhake, Galerie Nordenhake (Berlín, Stockholm)
Emilio Álvarez, Galeria Àngels Barcelona (Barcelona)
Moderated by: Ann Demeester, Director of De Appel Arts Centre (Amsterdam)
Emilio Álvarez: "The work of a gallery is articulated in connection with the past. Memory gives meaning, one constructs value through time". "Circuits of the artworld are closed, although the product we present is open."; "A gallery has a ongoing relationship with an artist and shows him/her continuously over time, no institution will give a solo show to an artist 3 times"; "A gallery has a single monogamous relationship, museums have plural relationships with artists."
Casey Kaplan: We (with David Zwirner and Friedrich Petzel amongst others) have done New York Gallery Week (NYGW) twice now, but I don't think is necessary to repeat it again and again if, for instance, Frieze New York is starting in May 2012"; "We are taking the risks, we produce art, we research artists, basically we do it first and then everyone follows";"A gallery is about trust in your artists and them in you. Is a small family extension that grows organically. It's also about constant reinvestment in a new space, in a new piece, in shipping ridiculous works to art fairs to show your ambition."
Claes Nordenhake: "New art should be shown in galleries first, thereafter in art fairs, kunsthalles, etc. Not the other way around!"; "A gallerist is an eternal improvisor, a cleaner, a guard, an interior designer, a carpenter, a shipping agent, a graphic designer, a bookeeper, an art historian, a teacher and sometimes a professor, a therapist, a pimp and sometimes a lover, a storage administrator, a divorce councilor, a good banker, a sympathetic drinking companion, an arrogant bastard, an interpreter, a travel agent, a cook (professional or amateur), a waiter, a restaurateur, a philosopher (or at least in late hours of the night...), an actor, a business strategist, a secretary (where the boss is the artist)...
18.00 h: 'Dealing with the economic crisis' with
Georgina Adam, Journalist Financial Times (London)
Robert Tornabell, Professor of Economics at ESADE Business School (Barcelona)
Soledad Lorenzo, Galería Soledad Lorenzo (Madrid)
Moderated by: Carlos Urroz, Director ARCOmadrid (Madrid)
Dr. Robert Tornabell: "The most profitable investments are first art, then gold, and then...I don't know!"
Georgina Adam: "The size of the market is U$ 43 billion: 21 bn in auction, 22 bn in dealership. The global share in 2006 breaks up in 46% for the US; 27% for UK, 6% for France; 5% for China, 16% Others. In 2010 is 34% for the US; 22% for UK, 5% for France, a huge increase to 23% for China and, 15% Others". "Today, there are 20 top auction houses, 11 of which are chinese, which did not exist a decade ago"; "Today money is not inherited, it is made."
20 September 2011
10.00 h: 'The future of art fairs' with
Victor Gisler, Mai 36 Galerie (Zurich)
Noah Horowitz, Director VIP Art Fair (New York)
Pierre Huber, Galerie Art & Public (Geneva)
Moderated by: Carles Guerra, Chief Curator of the MACBA (Barcelona)
Carles Guerra: "Barcelona was considering initiating a fair, but with ARCOmadrid nearby and seeing how profits stand now, maybe a meeting amongst professionals such as this, is the way forward"
Noah Horowitz: "The 1970s market was trade; today it's retail and event-led" ; "Going back to TEFAF's figures: 30% of the business is done in fairs, that's obviously an average figure because for some galleries fairs are 70% of their year sales"; "The VIP Art Fair is accessible, international, transparent, communicative, it is still a one-to-one relationship with the buyer"
Victor Gisler: "A gallery shows – tells – sells". "Art fairs like Art Basel have become so hugely important that they now validate quality. If an artits hasn't been shown in Basel, it may seem not valuable". "Initiatives like the VIP Art Fair are great for telling, maybe not so much for selling, but it is online, and that is the language of the next generation which you can not neglect, and one must embrace."
Biographies of the speakers
More about Talking Galleries.
Follow #talkinggalleries
Simon Fujiwara wins the 2010 Cartier Award
Thu, Jun 3 2010
Rendering of 'Frozen'. Courtesy the artist and Frieze FoundationAccording to the press release "at Frieze Art Fair 2010 Fujiwara plans to present a new site-specific work, Frozen: an installation based on the fictive premise that an ancient lost city has been discovered beneath the site of the fair."
Installation of 'The Museum of Incest' during the 2009 Frieze. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Latitudes | www.lttds.orgFujiwara presented 'The Museum of Incest' during the 2009 Frieze in the newly inaugurated section FRAME (see Latitudes' post here) with Frankfurt–based gallery Galerie Neue Alte Brücke.
Before then, a version of the museum was presented at the Latitudes-curated exhibition 'Provenances' at Umberto di Marino, Naples, during which 'The Incest Museum: A Guided Tour' was published by Archive Books.
Installation of 'The Museum of Incest', Provenances, Umberto di Marino, Naples (14 May–14 September 2009). Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Simon Fujiwara
'The Incest Museum: A Guided Tour' published by Archive Books. Photo: Archive BooksFujiwara will participate in the forthcoming 29th Bienal de Sao Paulo (25 September–12 December 2010), Manifesta 8 in Murcia (2 October 2010-9 January 2011), Performa, the 2011 edition of the New York performance biennial and a solo exhibition at TATE, St.Ives (2011).
The 2009 Cartier Award winner was Jordan Wolfson (New York, 1980) – see Latitudes' post here and an exhibition review by Max Andrews' from Latitudes here) and the 2008 winner was Cuban artist Wilfredo Prieto (1978) (see Latitudes' post here and artist profile here).
London's Frieze Art Fair 2009 and Fia Backström's project 'Studies in Leadership - The Review'
Tue, Oct 27 2009
On Sunday 18th October 2009 and as part of Frieze Projects, Max Andrews of Latitudes participated in Fia Backström's project 'Studies in Leadership - The Review' at invitation of Filipa Oliveira and Miguel Amado. Four art critics and writers – Amado, Michele Robecchi, J. J. Charlesworth and Andrews – worked with a professional voice coach to publicly read one of their recent exhibition reviews, and together consider the implications of performance and the author's 'voice'.
All images Latitudes | www.lttds.org
Simon Fujiwara, Frame, Frieze Art Fair 2009, London
Thu, May 7 2009 |
| Simon Fujiwara, installation view of 'Museum of Incest: A Site Survey' (2008). |
Frieze Art Fair, London (15–18 October 2009), has just announced part of their 2009 programme (+ info...). Galerie Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt, will be part of Frame, a newly introduced section dedicated to solo artist presentations. The gallery will present 'The Museum of Incest' by Simon Fujiwara, a version of which will soon be exhibited as part of 'Provenances' a Latitudes-curated exhibition at Umberto di Marino, Naples. + info...
'Provenances' opens Thursday 14 May, 20h. On the opening evening, the artist will present the lecture-performance 'The Museum of Incest: A Guided Tour' (starting 20.30h). For the occasion a guide of the museum has been published by Archive Books (in English with Italian translation). The guide is the first publication by Turin/Berlin-based publishing house Archive Books (formerly known as The Bookmakers Ed.).
Fujiwara (1982, London, UK. Lives in Berlin and London) has recently been artist in residence at the MAK Center for Art & Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles (2008–9) and participated in the exhibition 'Office of Real Time Activity', curated by graduating students of the MA Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London (2009). Forthcoming projects include: 'The Collectors', Danish and Nordic Pavilions, 53rd Biennale di Venezia.
Read more about Simon Fujiwara: Download a profile text from Latitudes' writing archive (pdfs in Spanish and English).
Wilfredo Prieto wins The Cartier Award 2008
Sat, May 10 2008
According to Frieze Art Fair 2008, "Prieto will present Pond, a site-specific installation of more than 100 oil drums. The mirrored pond-like effect created by water in the lids of the drums will be punctured by the presence and movement of a frog. The work will be a beautiful and poetic reflection on the current international obsession with accumulation and growth."
A version of the work is currently on view in the group show Latitudes curated with Ilaria Bonacossa at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin
To know more about Prieto's work, read the profile that appeared in Frieze Magazine (October 2007, Issue 110) and the images of 'Grasa, Jabón y Plátano' (2006) in 'Extraordinary Rendition', the exhibition we curated in NoguerasBlanchard (March 2007).
Following is an excerpt of the artist entry in the 'Greenwashing...' catalogue:
The artist’s most visible contribution to Greenwashing is Estanque (Pond) (2007), a new sculpture in which a congregation of crude oil barrels have seemingly been transformed into an idyllic, ‘eco-friendly’ lily pond habitat with the addition of water puddles and a live frog. Though the oil barrel is not commonly part of our everyday surroundings as a physical object, it has a familiar significance as the standard unit of volume for the production and consumption of petroleum, and as such, it is often cast as a symbol of all of the ills of fossil-fuel dependency. Furthermore, the price of a barrel is a global index of macroeconomic conditions, geopolitical stability, and the fundamentals of energy supply-and-demand. [1] The environment that Prieto has created by converting the petroleum containers is no more ‘natural’ than the oil itself – which is, after all, an organic substance. Yet the sculpture inevitably suggests the prospect of eco-advertising, as if its graphic visual summary of apparent amphibian-petroleum harmony could perfectly lend itself to an audacious company marketing department in a bid to demonstrate their ‘green’ industrial principles. [2] – Max Andrews
1. According to the 2007 CIA World Factbook, in Italy the equivalent of 32.1 barrels of oil are used each day for every 1000 people – or 11.7 barrels per person per year. The figure for the US is roughly double this estimate, and for Cuba, roughly half.
2. The connection to a recent Ford Motor Company campaign is irresistible: the well-known character Kermit the Frog appears pedalling on a bicycle singing his 1970 song ‘Bein’ Green’, before he spots a Ford Escape Hybrid in a verdant wood, ‘I guess it is easy being green’, Kermit declares. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKotANcNVyo
[Image: Wilfredo Prieto 'Estanque (Pond)', 2008. Oil barrels, water, frog. Courtesy the artist and Galería NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona. Photo: Courtesy Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino]
Interview with Lara Favaretto published in UOVO/16 (2008)
Thu, Jan 3 2008 |
| Lara Favaretto, Plotone, 2005. 20 air-compressed tanks, 20 pressure regulators, 20 distributing, 20 timers, 20 electro valves, 20 whistles, plastic cables, 165 x 10 each tank. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. |
In the 16th issue of UOVO magazine, Mariana Cánepa Luna from Latitudes interviewed Turin-based artist Lara Favaretto. The issue focuses on the relationship between art and architecture, man and environment, and includes interviews by Raimundas Malasauskas with Adam Carr, Tobias Putrih with Silvia Sgualdini, Michael Sailstorfer with Francesca Pagliuca, Dahn Vo with Adam Carr, Vincent Lamouroux with Céline Kopp, Daniel Arsham with Merce Cunningham, Tatiana Trouvé by Lillian Davies; texts by Michael Rakowitz, Liam Gillick, Marjetica Potrc and Hans Op De Beeck, and many more...
Here is a peek at that interview (you can download the full text from Latitudes' website, here or buy the issue):
MCL: In your recent Frieze Commission you sent out a letter inviting the Queen of England to visit the Frieze Art Fair (Project for Some Hallucinations, 2007). The letter in which she declines the invitation was pinned to a tree inside the fair. What kind of arrangements would you have made if the Queen had accepted?
LF: Very Few! After an official inspection by the Royal Staff, everything would have followed the Royal Protocol. My work stopped before that, with the very possibility of projecting an apparition, a ‘platonic’ intervention, a Goliardic visualisation, or a confrontation with the appearance of a movie star from early cinema. It was an objectless hallucination, a kind of sentimental investigation that was projected to appear yet be autonomous in denying itself. The failure was long-awaited and foreseeable and was highlighted at the fair by the sound of applause, that put an end to the great daily spectacle as everyone was heading for the exit.
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| Lara Favaretto, Project for Some Hallucinations, 2007, Frieze Art Fair Project, October 2007. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photos by Latitudes. |
LF: Don't you think it's like that? I think that if very few words can describe a work, just enough to capture the work's physiognomy, it could end up being even stronger than the work itself. The border is really subtle. Telling a story also means suspecting deception and trying to improve it, waiting for it to suddenly unravel, and having fun as much as I have. A story I haven't understood is: ‘I've been studying disguises for a long time now. I am hired to shadow one of the most important people on the American political scene. I am currently based high in the Tora Bora caves.’
Lara Favaretto lives and works in Turin, Italy. In 2008 she will be artist-in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; the Hayward Gallery, London, and at the Proa Foundation, Buenos Aires, where she will subsequently have solo shows. She will also present work at The British School at Rome and participate in the 16th Sydney Biennial. She is represented by Franco Noero in Turin and Klosterfelde in Berlin.
Lara Almarcegui in Frieze Art Fair
Thu, Oct 19 2006
One of our many highlights of the manic Frieze week–last week–was finally meeting up with artist Rotterdam-based Spanish artist Lara Almarcegui. She was presenting a new work for Frieze Projects that listed all the weights of materials that made up the fair's tent structure (see above).
We have been working with Lara as one of the contributors to LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook (with pages documenting her wasteland projects), and she will also be presenting at the Arts & Ecology conference No Way Back? in London in December.