LONGITUDES

Longitudes cuts across Latitudes’ projects and research with news, updates, and reportage.

Latitudes’ (extended) Environmental Policy Statement

 Mon, Apr 17 2023

“Postpetrolistic Internationale” choir performance by Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller on Maasvlakte, Rotterdam, 8 November 2009. Commissioned and produced by the Port of Rotterdam as part of “Portscapes”, with support and advice from SKOR and curated by Latitudes. Courtesy: SKOR / Photo: Paloma Polo.


Latitudes recently published an Environmental Policy Statement on the website, below is an extended version which we invite you to read:

Since its beginning in 2005, Latitudes’ curatorial practice has critically engaged with environmental concerns through contemporary art. This has included curating ambitious group exhibitions including “4.543 billion. The Matter of Matter” at the CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux in 2017, and “Greenwashing” at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in 2008, as well as solo shows such as “Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies” at Kunsthall Århus in 2011, and convening the three-day symposium “Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change” for the Sharjah Biennial 8 in 2007. 

Cover of “LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook” edited by Max Andrews, and coordinated by Mariana Cánepa Luna. Published and commissioned by the Royal Society of Art in partnership with the Arts Council England, 2006. Photo: Robert Justamente.

Spread of UOVO magazine #14, a 500-page issue + two CDs guest edited by Latitudes, 2007. Photo: Alexis Zavialoff.

Cover and back cover of the exhibition catalogue “Greenwashing” (Archive Books, 2008), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino. The 192-page full-colour catalogue embraced environmentally-conscious design with a degree of irony, each of the book's thirteen sections was printed on a different 'eco-paper' such as Shiro Alga Carta (produced by harvesting algae from the Venetian lagoon), KeayKolour Recycled Honey or Shiro Tree Free Naturale, alongside their corresponding eco-credentials. Photo: Latitudes. 

Pages of Lara Almarcegui's first monograph “Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010” (Archive Books, 2011) covering 15 years of her artistic practice, with commissioned texts by Cuauhtémoc Medina and Lars Bang Larsen, and an introduction by Latitudes. Photo: Latitudes.

Latitudes edited the landmark publication “Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook” in 2006, the 500-page green issue of UOVO magazine in 2007, and Lara Almarcegui’s first monograph in 2011. We also have contributed essays including a catalogue essay for TBA21’s exhibition “Abundant Futures” entitled “Soil for Future Art Histories” (2023), and presenting the lecture “Curating in the Web of Life” for Garage Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition “The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100” (2019). 

View of “Ocells perduts” (Stray Birds) (2021) by Laia Estruch in the exhibition “Panorama 21. Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls” (“Panorama 21: Notes for an Eye Fire”), MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 22 October 2021–27 February 2022. Curated by Hiuwai Chu and Latitudes. Produced by MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona with the support of PUBLICS, Helsinki. Research supported by a Premis Ciutat de Barcelona 2020 grant from the Barcelona City Council. Photo: Roberto Ruiz. 

Lecture “Curating in the Web of Life” for Garage Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition “The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100” (2019). Photo: Anton Donikov. © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.

In terms of related public-realm commissions, for our first project we selected Danish artist Tue Greenfort to work on The Royal Society of Arts’ pioneering Arts & Ecology programme (2005–2008) and curated ten public art projects around Europe’s largest seaport, the Port of Rotterdam (“Portscapes” in 2009–2010). We have also organised curatorial residencies around geological agency (“Geologic Time”, Banff Centre, 2017) and a touring film programme on the legacy of Land Art (“A Stake in the Mud a Hole in the Reel”, 2008–2009) in contemporary art.

Last but not least, since 2008 we have been custodians of the RAF/Reduce Art Flights website, a reference resource about the campaign initiated by the late Gustav Metzger (1926–2017).

RAF/Reduce Art Flights website reduceartflights.lttds.org

Latitudes' environmental impact is small, yet we recognize that air travel and the broader mobility patterns within our industry contribute the most to our ecological footprint. Art and culture have a role to play in bringing about ambitious change, applying best practices and setting a positive example to position the climate crisis at the centre of the political and social debate.

In January 2023 we became individual members of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) and began to work with colleagues to set up the Spanish volunteer team, GCC Spain, that meets regularly to track progress on environmental targets and actions. 


Making of Jan Dibbets’ film “6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective” (1969–2009). Commissioned and produced by the Port of Rotterdam as part of “Portscapes”, with support and advice from SKOR, and curated by Latitudes. Documentation included in the publication box “Portscapes” designed by Ben Laloua / Didier Pascal, launched at the opening of the exhibition “Portscapes”, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, 2010. Photo: Latitudes.

Editors of Rotterdam-based magazine Fucking Good Art were ‘embedded’ in the port's Yangtzehaven for a month in the summer of 2009 from where they produced ‘Portscapes_ON AIR Station Maasvlakte’, a series of audio walks, field recordings and conversations with guests from different disciplines for the “Portscapes” website. Photo courtesy: FGA.


We will measure and publish our carbon footprint every year to comply with the GCC targets and commitments of reducing carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 (when compared to a 2019 baseline). Rather than purchasing carbon offsets, and following GCC guidelines on this matter, we are also setting aside a fund (€50 per tonne of emitted CO2 per year) to be spent on low-carbon purchasing options that would otherwise be unaffordable. Our intention is to eliminate unwarranted air travel, and we do not take flights when there is an alternative rail or sea route that takes less than 7 hours. The latter policy follows one adopted by the Ajuntament de Barcelona (the City Council) in 2020.

Latitudes requests external collaborators opt for train or alternative low-carbon transit and freight options in line with GCC’s guidelines (as well as Gustav Metzger’s RAF/Reduce Art Flights campaign) and this is reflected in work contracts. We hope to lead by example in implementing a sustainability strategy in the planning of exhibitions from an early stage, and whenever curating projects we always try to build the minimum necessary temporary architecture and ensure that any exhibition-related production is entirely locally tuned. We ask that collaborators use no plastic or other single-use materials when transporting works or for events.

Hike with “Geologic Time” participants to Stanley Glacier in Kootenay National Park, as part of the residency programme curated by Latitudes at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada, 11 September–6 October 2017. Photo: Latitudes.

Latitudes’ website runs on sustainable energy. According to websitecarbon.com (see stats below), LTTDS.org produces 16.76kg of C02 equivalent per year, roughly the amount of carbon that one tree would absorb in the same time, and it consumes 44kWh of energy (equivalent to 280km in an electric car). 


In our personal lives, we prioritise the 5 Rs: Refusing, Reducing, Reusing, Repurposing and Recycling. We do not own a car and use public transport networks. Other practical actions we undertake include periodically donating household or clothing items to charity organisations that offer support to vulnerable communities in our neighbourhood (including Fundació Roure and El Trampolí). Last but not least, since 2013, Latitudes has banked with an ethical bank that finances initiatives contributing to ecological, social, and cultural change.

(Top and below) Entrance A and B to the exhibition “4.543 billion. The Matter of Matter” with the participation of over thirty artists and the presentation of over a hundred works, CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, June 2017–January 2018. Photos: Latitudes / RK.
 


RELATED CONTENT:


 2023, art and ecology, carbon cycle, Ecology, energy use, environmental compensation, environmental responsability, Gallery Climate Coalition, geologic time, Land Art, Reduce Art Flights
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