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New publication: “Things Things Say” (2021) now available

Photos: Latitudes


Texts by: Joana Hurtado Matheu, Latitudes and Eulàlia Rovira

Edited and coordinated by: Latitudes and Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani

Publisher: Ajuntament de Barcelona. Institut de Cultura de Barcelona / Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani

Graphic design: Bendita Gloria

Format: 16 x 11cm, hardcover, 180 pages

Language: Catalan with Spanish & English translations

ISBN: 978-84-9156-386-0 

Date of Publication: December 2021

Price: 10 Euros

AvailabilityLlibreria LaieFabra i Coats: Centre d'Art ContemporaniSala Ciutat of the Ajuntament de Barcelona and Diputació de Barcelona bookstore.


The publication of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ is finally out! The show was curated by Latitudes at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani between October 2020 and January 2021.

Designed by Bendita Gloria, the volume includes a preface by art centre director Joana Hurtado Matheu, new texts by exhibition curators, a text-based intervention by participating artist Eulàlia Rovira, and texts on each exhibited work.

Latitudes text “And Another Thing...” comprises a series of responses to the 33 questions that confronted visitors and took the place of the conventional introductory wall text. The responses variously take the form of quotations, historical references, anecdotes, and theoretical snippets that often do not provide direct answers but instead further expand on the research and imaginary of the exhibition. 

(Above and two below) Stills from A Knot Which is Not’ (2020–21) by Eulàlia Rovira. Video, 12'21''. Courtesy of the artist.


Eulàlia Rovira's contribution to the exhibition was threefold: it began before the exhibition opened by means of her voice reciting the wall texts and captions written by the curators about each work included in the show. This audio became the audioguide available from the exhibition in Catalan, Spanish and English, and has remained as an online companion. 

Rovira was also invited to produce new work in response to the exhibition. Resulting in the performance for the camera “A Knot Which is Not” (2020–21), the work summarises her research around the narratives and stories emerging from the industrial complex where the show took place, once dedicated to the manufacturing of cotton thread. “A Knot Which is Not” premiered online once the exhibition concluded and the exhibition galleries were empty. And finally, she contributed a text to the publication based on her research leading to the making of the film weaving its spoken words into the printed lines of the physical page.

(Above and below) View of the exhibition “Things Things Say” at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, October 2020–January 2021. Photos: Eva Carasol.


“Coses que les coses diuen” [Things Things Say] accompanies the homonymous exhibition curated by Latitudes that took place at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani between October 2020 and January 2021, presenting works by Adrià Julià, Annette Kelm, James N. Kienitz Wilkins, Sarah Ortmeyer, Eulàlia Rovira, Francesc Serra i Dimas, Stuart Whipps, Haegue Yang, as well as meaningful things from the Friends of Fabra i Coats archive.


→ RELATED  CONTENT:

  • ‘Things Things Say’ in social networks;
  • Premiere del vídeo “A knot which is not” [Un nus que no ho és] (2020–21) de Eulàlia Rovira, 15 febrero 2021
  • Reseñas: Exposición ‘Cosas que las cosas dicen’ en Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 11 January 2021 
  • Trailer and photo documentation of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’, 4 Nov 2020
  • 6 de noviembre, 17:45h: Proyección ‘Popcorn’ [Palomita] (90', 2012) de Adrià Julià en el Zumzeig Cinema, 29 Oct 2020
  • e-flux – Fall 2020 exhibitions and programs at Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona, 17 October 2020
  • Exhibition ‘Things Things Say’, Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Center of Barcelona, 17 October 2020–17 January 2021, 9 Oct 2020

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Exhibition ‘Things Things Say’, Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Center of Barcelona, 17 October 2020–17 January 2021



The group show ‘Things Things Say’ (Coses que les coses diuen) and the solo exhibition ‘Tone Tongue Mouth’ (‘to llengua boca’) by Dutch artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh open concurrently at Fabra i Coats: Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona on Saturday 17 October 2020 from 12 pm.

Things Things Say
Fabra i Coats: Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
17 October 2020 – 17 January 2021
Curated by Latitudes


An exhibition with works by Adrià Julià (1974, lives in Barcelona and Bergen), Annette Kelm (1975, lives in Berlin), James N. Kienitz Wilkins (1983, lives in New York), Sarah Ortmeyer (1980, lives in Vienna), Eulàlia Rovira (1985, lives in Barcelona), Francesc Serra i Dimas (1877–1967, Barcelona), Stuart Whipps (1979, lives in Birmingham), Haegue Yang (1971, lives in Berlin and Seoul), as well as meaningful things from the Friends of Fabra i Coats archive.

Do you trust things to write human history? Do things’ lives matter? Can a pebble destroy an empire if the emperor chokes at dinner? Would the pebble stand accused? Do you really think that if you stare at something long enough, it will reveal its secrets? Have you ever wondered why there is a hole in a donut? Did you ever own a pair of dungarees? Does a desire to write about a small car indicate some fear of its inadequacy? Does popcorn hold firm opinions? Is the key key? Are you familiar with the Luddites? Have you heard the expressions “how long is a piece of string?”, or “exceptional typical”?

The exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ springs from the past of Fabra i Coats as an industrial complex once dedicated to the manufacturing of cotton thread. The factory represented the first merger between a Catalan company and a foreign multinational and the first in Spain to offer its workers paid holidays. The exhibition evokes this novel and curious kind of place, a place comprised of many places and people, vastly different scales, temporalities, and values. Things, and spectres of things, that might at first seem exceptionally normal, apparently obsolete, or inert, each bring often-extraordinary stories or offer telling evidence, temporarily becoming new protagonists in the art centre community.

In the setting of the bygone factory, the works in the exhibition introduce a perspective on how the modern world has been shaped through complex and contentious relationships between humans and the web of life. Taking on the popular XVIII century genre of the ‘it-narrative’ in English literature and the approach of ‘object journalism’ against a background of world history and ecology, ‘Things Things Say’ and the exhibition ‘4.543 billion. The Matter of Matter’ (CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, 2017–18) are imagined as a diptych: two folds with the same hinge that tacks back-and-forth between deep time and microhistory, natural history and the history of capitalism.

Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Center of Barcelona
c. Sant Adrià 20
08030 Barcelona
(+34) 932 566 155
[email protected]
https://www.barcelona.cat/fabraicoats/centredart

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Saturdays, 12 to 8 pm
Sunday and Holidays, 11 to 3 pm
Free guided tours every Saturday at 18 pm and Sundays at 12:30 pm
Limited capacity. Pre-registration at [email protected]


RELATED CONTENT:

  • Save the date: 19 September 2018 at 7 pm, opening Joan Morey ‘COLLAPSE. Desiring machine, working machine’, Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona - Fabra i Coats 3 September 2018
  • Photo report: Trip to Berlin Gallery Weekend 2018 and Cologne 9 May 2018
  • Works by Stuart Whipps in the exhibition ‘4.543 billion. The matter of matter’, CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, 2017–18.
  • Work by Stuart Whipps at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux
  • Work and performance by Eulàlia Rovira and Adrian Schindler included in ‘Cream Cheese and Pretty Ribbons!’, Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, 2018.
  • Latitudes in conversation with Haegue Yang, Fundació Tàpies, Barcelona, 3 May 2017.
  • Tote by Haegue Yang for Latitudes' 10º anniversary, 2015.
  • Work by Sarah Ortmeyer in the exhibition 'Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes & des arts et techniques dans la vie moderne', Meessen de Clercq, Brussels, 2011.
  • Work by Haegue Yang in the exhibition ‘Sequelism Part 3: Possible, Probable, or Preferable Futures’, Arnolfini, Bristol, 2009.

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Cover Story – June 2017: "Moth light—Absent Forms"


The June 2017 Monthly Cover Story ""Moth light—Absent Forms"" is now up on www.lttds.org after June it will be archived here

"The Latitudes-curated Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne opened at Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, in February 2011. More a series of five interlinked solo presentations than a conventional thematic group exhibition, it featured the work of Kasper Akhøj, Martí Anson, Maria Loboda, Charlotte Moth and Sarah Ortmeyer." Continue reading

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

RELATED CONTENT:
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Cover Story, February 2016: Sarah Ortmeyer, Towering allusions



The February 2016 Cover Story is dedicated to Sarah Ortmeyer's piece VITRINE MAURICE (2011) presented as part of the group show Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne at Meessen De Clercq, Brussels.

 
Related Content:
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'Sad Eis' by Sarah Ortmeyer in Meessen de Clercq and "Force Justify (Part 2)" by Lucy Skaer at Tulips & Roses, Brussels

'Sad Eis' (Sad Ice), Sarah Ortmeyer's first solo show in Meessen de Clercq (1 June–14 July 2012) is  "an exhibition on ritualized happiness" as described in the exhibition guide. 

During the opening night, the artist treated guests to liquorice, fennel and wasabi ice cream as well as cocktails made of Riesling wine with lavender ice cream

 
View of 'LASSO LADEN' - An abandoned ice cream parlor. 
Eighteen silver, black and wooden ice cream parlor stools, one silver chair and two golden locks.

 View of the installation 'SAD EIS' - Monolithic ice cream displays that look like sad, chubby teenagers.
Five ice cream cones painted in Signal White, Silk Grey, Traffic Grey A,
Traffic Grey B, Dusty Grey, Telegrey 4 and Platinum Grey.
147 x 60 x 60 cm each cone.

View of the installation of MILLI VANILLI
Formally virginally white towels covered in sweet sauce.
Organic ice cream on towel: Vanilla, Strawberry, Rasperry, Currant, Pistacchio and Mango.


MARRY ME ME - Wedding cake stands as bland and grey as an anti-rainbow.
Wedding cake stands of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 storages.
Dimensions variable.

BOW BOUQUET - A bouquet composed of cones and exotic silk, a reminiscent of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s pajama wedding.
Flowers: Purple and rosé orchids
Cones: Cono Fiore, Cono Pralinex Cocco, Cono Pralinex Bianco Grande,
Cono Pralinex Nero Grande, Big Fun, Maxi Cone and Trottole.
circa 170 x 100 cm.

LA FIN - An ice cream parlor left behind with four bar tables and one tabletop.
One tabletop and four ice cream parlor bar tables.
Dimensions variable.

KISS KUSS - A room filled with aniconic carpets and tender, empty kisses.
Carpets of different colours: grey, anthracite, beige, eggshell white.
Dimensions variable.
  
 In the Wunderkammer space: 'PETER WEISS' - A white, damp, fresh and heartbreakingly canny laundry room.
Thirty-one washed towels. 

Ortmeyer was one of the five artists that participated in Latitudes' exhibition 'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne' that took place between February and April 2011, also at Meessen de Clercq.

Abdijstraat 2A / Rue de l'Abbaye
B-1000 Brussels
BELGIUM


Lucy Skaer's solo show 'Force Justify (Part 2)' (24 May–16 June 2012) at Tulips & Roses:
  
[From the press sheet]
The ship of fools is an archetype based on the Narrenschiff by Sebastian Brandt, a medieval book in which a ship full of fools set sai to a fools utopia Narragonia.

Starting from a woodcut illustration from the book, I have made a work that inhabits and performs the allegory. (...) First the image was carved in to the floor of the K21 museum in Düsseldorf, and a large print was made from it. The floor was then lifted and moved, rearranged and reprinted in a scrambled form. The original ballast from the Düsseldorf ship was transformed from its shape as copies of Brancusi's Newborn sculptures to instead match the tile shapes from the floor of Tulips & Roses.

This "second part of 'Force Justify' the tile pattern was again replicated in a series of woven sails, rigged up in the space giving a thwarted ability to move forward. This absurdist sense of agency is typical of the project, a series of misuses of objects and ideas to make immediately appealing stop gaps."



The Good Ship Blank and Ballast (Force Justified), 2010-2012
Woven fabric, Re-cast Aluminium (Dimensions variable)

(...) The sculptures were made out of 98 aluminium copies of Brancusi's Newborn sculpture. These copies were melted down and recast to fit the ornament of the gallery's floor. The notion of 'ballast' implies something that is shaped entirely by its function - simply being dumb weight - without any necessity of representational qualities.

Liquidity in the Mind of the Fool, 2012
Glass, Enamel on copper, Tin, Bronze, Fossils, Shells, Coins, Books (Dimensions variable).

"Liquidity in the Mind of the Fool contains small Brancusi's Newborn sculptures now tumbled and submerged in melted glass or enveloped in Tin. Visible through a melted red glass panel is the original image of the woodcut, now transformed in to a specially printed secure bank note. One of the sculptures is made up of badly minted coins, which present a balance between material and symbolic, with the validating stamp sliding from the face of the metal disc."

See images of Skaer's 'Force Justify (Part 1)', also at Tulips & Roses.

19, rue de la Clé
1000 – Brussels
BELGIUM

Images 1–9: Courtesy of Sarah Ortmeyer and Meessen de Clercq. 
Images 10–13: Courtesy of Lucy Skaer and Tulips & Roses, Brussels. 
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Exhibition views: 'Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes & des arts et techniques dans la vie moderne', until 16 April

'Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes & des arts et techniques dans la vie moderne', February 25 – April 16, 2011, Meessen de Clercq, Brussels, Belgium

'EXPOSITION INTERNATIONALE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS ET INDUSTRIELS MODERNES & DES ARTS ET TECHNIQUES DANS LA VIE MODERNE' With works by: Kasper AKHØJ, Martí ANSON, Maria LOBODA, Charlotte MOTH and Sarah ORTMEYER
25 February–16 April 2011
 

Meessen de Clercq, Rue de l’Abbaye 2a
B-1000 Brussels, Belgium

The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts & Art and Technology in Modern Life) presents projects by five contemporary visual artists which engage with specific instances of modernity as represented through industrial or domestic design. A world-famous tower, a street, a range of furniture, a modular display system, and textile patterns, have been metaphorically taken apart before being reconstituted, sometimes literally, through artistic practices and personal affiliations which incorporate historical research, travel, tribute and scenography, for example.

Running counter to the modernist spirit of rationality, clarity and empiricism, the artists’ often playful engagements deal with anecdotal, subjective, and frequently deliberately imprecise applications. Their projects engage with disciplines traditionally outside of the domain of the visual arts, and in doing so they invite a renegotiation of a design’s intended use, and an interest in the point at which apparent aesthetic surplus or redundancy modifies or reconstructs an object’s meaning or efficacy. The artists’ works furthermore operate with a heightened awareness or awkwardness of their being exhibited (and alongside a synthesized ‘period’ exhibition title taken from conjoining the names of the Paris Worlds’ Fairs from 1925 and 1937). Theatricality and commercial or museological display strategies are the restraints and releases, or the actual subject, of the artists’ articulations. (+ info...)

All photos: Philippe de Gobert
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Newsletter #31 - March/Marzo 2011



FORTHCOMING IN APRIL 2011...

'Amikejo: Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum',
Laboratorio 987, 2011 season guest curated by Latitudes, MUSAC, León. 9 April - 12 June 2011. Opening: 9 April

EXHIBITIONS CURRENTLY ON VIEW...


Guest curators of the Laboratorio 987 2011 season, MUSAC, León: inaugural exhibition 'Amikejo: Pennacchio Argentato', on view until 27 March 2011 – see installation views here.

'Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies', Aarhus Art Building, Århus, Denmark, on view until 3 April 2011
– see installation views here.

'Exposition Internationale des Art Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne' showing works by Kasper Akhøj; Martí Anson; Maria Loboda; Charlotte Moth and Sarah Ortmeyer. Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, Belgium, on view until 16 April 2011 - see installation views here


Latitudes' web www.lttds.org
Facebook page here
Twitter here
Flickr photosets here
Youtube Latitudes Channel
Previous newsletters here
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Installing 'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne' at Meessen De Clercq


Opening: Thursday 24 February 2011, 6–9pm.
With works by Kasper Akhøj (1976, Copenhagen, Denmark. Lives in New York, US); Martí Anson (1967, Mataró, Spain. Lives there); Maria Loboda (1979, Kraków, Poland. Lives in London, UK); Charlotte Moth (1975, Carshalton, UK. Lives in Paris, France) and Sarah Ortmeyer (1980, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Lives there).

The Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts & Art and Technology in Modern Life) presents projects by five contemporary visual artists which engage with specific instances of modernity as represented through industrial or domestic design. A world-famous tower, a street, a range of furniture, a modular display system, and textile patterns, have been metaphorically taken apart before being reconstituted, sometimes literally, through artistic practices and personal affiliations which incorporate historical research, travel, tribute and scenography, for example. (+ info...)


Meessen De Clerq
Abdijstraat 2a Rue de l'Abbaye
1000 Brussels, BELGIUM
Tuesday to Saturday 11am – 6pm
T: +32 (0) 2 644 34 54
E: [email protected]
W: www.meessendeclercq.be


Installation pictures: Latitudes | www.lttds.org
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