Longitudes

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

2023 in 11 cover stories

Since Spring 2015 we have been publishing a monthly cover story on our homepage (www.lttds.org) featuring past, present, or forthcoming projects, as well as sharing our research, travel, or texts, featuring artworks, exhibitions, films, or objects related to our curatorial practiceBelow are those published throughout 2023 (#90 to #100), which you can read again in this archive. See you in 2024!


Cover Story, January 2023: Claudia Pagès’ “Gerundi Circular”.

Cover Story, February 2023: Soil for Future Art Histories.

Cover Story, March 2023: Art, Climate and New Coalitions.

Cover Story, April 2023: Jerónimo Hagerman (1967–2023).

Cover Story, May 2023: Ruth Clinton & Niamh Moriarty in Barcelona

Cover Story, June 2023: Crystal Bennes futures

Cover Story, July–August 2023: Honeymoon in Valencia.

Cover Story – September 2023: The Pilgrim in Ireland.

Cover Story – October 2023: A tree felled, a tree cut in 7

Cover Story – November 2023: ”Surucuá, Teque-teque, Arara” by Daniel Steegmann Mangrané

And to close the year, Cover Story #100 – December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View


→ RELATED CONTENT:
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Latitudes’ "out of office" 2022–23 season

Sunset on our way to Mallorca aboard the Cecilia Payne ferry, 6 June 2023.


With the summer in full flow, and thoughts turning to holidays, we once more share a series of behind-the-scenes moments and encounters: trips, dinners, kind messages, postal surprises, follow-ups of artists we have worked with, and serendipitous situations that have happened in the background of our more visible curatorial practice seen on our website or in the Longitudes section. Plus some further notes and inspiration beyond our Instagrams – here and here.  

For earlier OUT OF THE OFFICE posts, check out the posts from 
2008–92009–102010–112011–122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–182018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21 and 2021–22. All photos are by Latitudes unless stated otherwise in the photo caption.

Happy summer, apply and reapply sun protection!



September 2022: Between September and November, we mentored Matheus Calderón, winner of the first [ON RESIDENCE] residency, an online curatorial mentorship programme awarded to young Peruvian curators organised by TROPICAL PAPERS, and supported by Artus.

As one of the mentors, we embarked on six bi-monthly conversations focusing on what values are at stake today in our profession. Through sincere dialogue, we discussed the multiple realities of being an independent curator both in Lima and Barcelona, and we accompanied Matheus in shaping his approach to his forthcoming group exhibition project “El rodeo (el velo, la mancha o la grieta)” [working title]. Our conversations progressively became a space to share, pause and reflect during a time of ongoing political and societal tension in Lima in autumn 2022. 

Introductory Zoom with Tropical Papers, Latitudes and Matheus on 31 August 2022.

early September 2022: We submitted the essay “Soil for Future Art Histories”, which was commissioned for the forthcoming catalogue “Futuros Abundantes”, a group exhibition organised by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) at C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba. Subsequent edits and translation rounds in October–November, and publication release in January 2023.

13 September 2022: Received a copy of Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven’s catalogue “By The Sea. Land Art, Performance and Minimal Art” including photos Latitudes provided of Jan Dibbets’s “6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective” (2009).


Page spread of “By The Sea. Land Art, Performance and Minimal Art” with Jan Dibbets’ 2009 project.

19 September 2022: Final episode of “Incidents (of Travel)” with Jorge Satorre. By complete chance, this episode takes place on September 19, 2022, exactly ten years later to the day of the first tour commissioned for the first phase of Incidents (of Travel), a day Latitudes spent with Minerva Cuevas around Mexico City’s city centre on the 27th anniversary of the deadly 1985 earthquake


Visiting the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco with Minerva Cuevas, the first of five “Incidents of Travel” itineraries around Mexico City, 19 September 2012. Photo: Eunice Adorno.

Episode #20 culminates Latitudes’ collaboration with KADIST, producers of 20 fantastic episodes published online between 2016 and 2022 as part of their programme of online projects.

The dispatch went live on October 26, 2022. Read here.

27 September 2022: Published “‘Minor’ Ornithologies. Laia Estruch”, a podcast hosted by Latitudes’ curator, writer (and lifelong birder) Max Andrews for TBA21 on st_ageAccompanying Laia Estruch’s performance project Ocells Perduts V67” (2022) for TBA21 on st_age, the podcast takes flight into the realm of birds, looking at politics and practices that disrupt dominant historical narratives, and exceed scientific and cultural boundaries. It features Alex Holt, a spokesperson for Bird Names for Birds, a movement to decolonise bird names, and zoömusicologist Dr Hollis Taylor, who specialises in birdsong. Through their perspectives, we glimpse new and speculative kinds of human–bird narratives – “minor” ornithologies.

→ Listen here (34' 03'')
→ Transcript here
8 October 2022: 
Within the context of PUBLICS’ annual gathering Today Is Our Tomorrow, Laia Estruch and Irina Mutt led a workshop as part of this year’s programme focusing on the presentness of the voice in its many sonic forms, vocal modes and auditory modalities. This workshop culminated a series of encounters, part of Latitudes’ ongoing Parahosting at PUBLICS, that have taken place over the summer in collaboration with PUBLICS Youth, an education initiative for Helsinki-based 18-21-year-olds.

(📷 ↑↓) PUBLICS Youth with Irina Mutt during their workshop in Lammassaari, 3 August 2022. Photos: Micol Curatolo.


18 October 2022: Organised a casual networking dinner to mingle with local art professionals with a group visiting from the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland. Organised by the Mondriaan Fund, the Orientation Trip 2022 took them this time to Portugal and Spain.

Foto: Haco de Ridder.

21 October 2022: Post looking back at the first anniversary of MACBA exhibition “Panorama 21. Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls”, highlighting works by Antoni Hervàs, El Palomar, Claudia Pagès and Rosa Tharrats, four artists that participated in Panorama and whose shows in Frankfurt, Donostia and Marseille present work produced or derived from their MACBA presentation. 

Installation view of “Akaal / Selene \ Uluru” (2021) in Bombon Projects’ stand in Art-O-Rama, Marseille, August 2022. Photos: © Aurélien Meimaris.

Antoni Hervàs, “Under the firelight, the ash shines like glitter”, 2021-2022, installation view Frankfurter Kunstverein 2022, Photo: Norbert Miguletz, ©Frankfurter Kunstverein, Courtesy: the artist.

El Palomar, Schreber is a Woman, 2020, installation view Frankfurter Kunstverein 2022, Photo: Norbert Miguletz, ©Frankfurter Kunstverein, Courtesy: the artists.

Still from the video interview with Claudia Pagès about her video work “Gerundi Circular” (2021) (in Spanish with Basque subtitles).

26 October 2022: New and concluding dispatch of Incidents (of Travel) led by Jorge Satorre in Barcelona, narrated by Latitudes, creators and editors of the project since 2012. This is the 20th episode published by Kadist as part of their online programme since 2016 and also marks the 10th anniversary of the project.

Below are some photos that, for one reason or another, didn't make it to the final selection of 31 images.



Small bus del barri [neighbourhood bus] route # 111 around Vallvidrera.

Analysing footprints.

(Above and below) From the Curator’s Commentary: “(...) We’re here to see what is, after the Collserola Stone, the only other known megalith in Barcelona: the Pedralbes Menhir. The builders of the monastery in the fourteenth century respected the powers of this standing stone to such a degree that they not only preserved it but constructed a gateway in the perimeter wall around it. The bulk of the stone lurks below the paved surface like a lithic iceberg, its obstinate presence in a doorway from the middle ages a kind of rude protuberance of prehistory and geologic time into a continuous present.”



Jorge admires the Egyptian-inspired pantheon of the cotton industrialists Batlló family.


28 October 2022: A surprise message from Tara McDowell sharing that after 2 years, Nino Kvrivishvili and her were finally able to meet in person in Tbilisi, Georgia! Together they followed their itinerary around the city’s former silk industry commissioned for the Incidents (of Travel) series (episode 12). Due to the pandemic, Tara’s plans to travel from Melbourne to Tbilisi had to be cancelled, so Nino “in an act of radical Georgian hospitality” – as Tara wrote in her curator’s commentary – shared her itinerary with Tara via a WhatsApp call. 

In a wonderful turn of events, during their IRL meeting, Nino opened a small pop-up exhibition at Aleksandre Utmazyan's textile shop, one of the locations that appeared on Nino’s itinerary, an event that counted with the surprise visit of Georgian President, Salomé Zurabishvili.

Curated by Data Chigholashvili, the pop-up exhibition responded to the history of Georgia’s textile industry by interrelating topics of fabric production, changing places, time, and memory, presenting a recent series of paintings that convey a story of fabric production, the country’s formerly active industry. As Chigholashvili explains Nino Kvrivishvili “belongs to the generation who studied textile art while this industry was disappearing and the experience of practical training was becoming impossible. Abstract shapes of the series, in a way a meditation on industrial themes, repeat in this selection presented together with plaster additions inside the shop. Here we also see partially concealed bodies that remind us of images from fashion magazines, as well as hint at stories of many women who were involved in the industry, yet often remained unknown – a topic that Nino has been researching for several years now.”
 
Tara McDowell and Nino KvrivishviliPhoto courtesy of these and three below by Tara McDowell.

View of Nino Kvrivishvili’s pop-up exhibition at the Textile shop on Queen Tamar Ave. 17, Tbilisi. 

Curator Data Chigholashvili in Nino Kvrivishvili’s exhibition at the Textile shop on Queen Tamar Ave. 17 in Tbilisi.
 
Opening of Nino Kvrivishvili’s exhibition at the Textile shop on Queen Tamar Ave. 17 in Tbilisi. Left to right: Nino Kvrivishvili (artist), Salome Zourabichvili (President of Georgia), Aleksandre Utmazyan (the shop owner) and Data Chigholashvili (curator). 


In March 2022, Nino and Data participated in Haus der Kulturen Welt’s programme “They Are There, Sometimes” where Nino presented her Incidents itinerary around Tbilisi (videofrom min. 36:09).

 Nino and Data participated in Haus der Kulturen Welt’s programme “They Are There, Sometimes” where Nino presented her Incidents itinerary around Tbilisi (video from min 36:09).

18 November 2022: Claudia Pagès is awarded Radio Nacional de España’s Premio El Ojo Crítico de Artes Visuales 2022 for “her ability to turn words and language into an artistic tool in every possible form, a vehicle for a political message that is not afraid of confrontation and places the individual and collective body at the centre of her creative practice”. 

As highlighted in this post, in 2021 Claudia presented her video installation “Gerundi Circular” at the Latitudes-curated exhibition “Panorama 21. Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls” commissioned for MACBA’s exhibition and produced with the support of ELAMOR

16–19 November 2022: Inching for a trip abroad to see some art, we visited the 16e Biennale d’art contemporain de Lyon, titled “Manifesto of Fragility”, some highlights on Mariana's Instagram via this link.

Those in the curatorial business will understand that besides enjoying the art side, our analytical eyes are peeled, taking mental and photographic notes on how things are practically put together. This goes from looking at how temporary walls are built, how AV equipment is hidden, types of vitrines, how clear signage is, and of course often taking in some curious exhibition labels and poorly displayed art. Here are some random photos that only make sense for research or reference purposes. Going very meta now, behind the behind-the-scenes...







28 November 2022: First online introduction of The Pilgrim” team, a project Latitudes curates in collaboration with Askeaton Contemporary Art in Co. Limerick, southwest Ireland, and involving Barcelona-based artist Eulàlia Rovira, and Sligo-and-Leitrim-based Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty. To be continued...



29 November 2022: DART Festival awardees announced: Premio Laie DART 2022 a la Mejor Dirección (Laie DART 2022 Award to the Best Direction): “J’ai retrouvé Christian B.” (France, 2020) directed by Alain Fleischer. The documentary is an intimate portrait tracing the relationship between two contemporary creators, the artist Christian Boltanski and the filmmaker Alain Fleischer, who shared a friendship that lasted half a century. 

Premio Laie DART 2022 de la Crítica (Laie DART 2022 Critics Award): “The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art and Times of David Hammons” (EEUU, 2021). Directed by cultural journalist Judd Tully and filmmaker Harold Crooks, the documentary focuses on the elusive figure of African-American artist David Hammons, whose artistic practice spans six decades and foregrounds social criticism in the United States.

Screening at Cinemes Girona. Courtesy: DART Festival.




13 December 2022: MACBA presents their 2023 programme, announcing a list of their recent acquisitions, one being Claudia Pagès’s “Gerundi Circular” (2021), a video installation commissioned for Latitudes-curated exhibition “Panorama 21: Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls”, produced with the support of ELAMOR. The installation joins the museum collection as a long-term loan of the National Collection of Contemporary Art of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Claudia’s work was also featured in our January 2023 cover story.

17 January 2023: Second Zoom of members affiliated with Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) based in Spain. In the following weeks, we organised a gathering during ARCOMadrid to explain GCC’s objectives to potential new members and meet with GCC’s volunteer groups in Berlin and Italy to hear their experiences of building a team. 



1 February 2023: Newsletter out announcing our next research and residency project “The Pilgrim” in collaboration with Askeaton Contemporary Art in Co. Limerick, Ireland, and involving the artists Eulàlia Rovira, Ruth Clinton, and Niamh Moriarty. 

→ More details here.

Left to right: Eulàlia Rovira (photo: Aníbal Parada), Ruth Clinton (photo: Colm Keating) and Niamh Moriarty (photo: Cian Flynn).

22–24 February 2023: During ARCOmadrid we are jurors, alongside Markus Reymann (co-director TBA21), and Marta Cardoso, of the first Six Senses Sustainable Art Award given to an artist whose work honours an awareness around sustainability and environmental urgencies. We studied and discussed the work of more than 40 artists whose work is presented at the art fair and unanimously decided to award Zé Carlos Garcia (1973, Aracajú, BR) for his presentation at the stand of Buenos Aires’s gallery PASTO

The jury stated: “We were intrigued to discover the practice of Zé Carlos García and to learn how his enchanting carved and turned wooden sculptures are embedded in such an inventive and resourceful approach to art, environmental responsibility, decolonial practice, and land restoration. The wood he uses comes from a small tract of a forest he oversees in Brazil where non-native trees such as pines and eucalyptus were once planted by Swiss settler colonists to give the landscape a more European feel. Over the centuries these thirsty species have had a detrimental effect on the indigenous ecosystem and Zé has been removing the invasive species over the last decade, repurposing the resultant wood as a resource for his art practice, while bringing back native trees to the Mata Atlántica.”


Zé Carlos Garcia holding the sign announcing his award (above) and the award (below). Photos ARCOmadrid 2023.


Zé Carlos Garcia. Photo: Max Andrews.

The catalogue “Futuros Abundantes / Abundant Futures”, accompanying the homonymous exhibition in Córdoba, was also launched during ARCOmadrid. The 336-page book includes Latitudes’ newly commissioned essay “Un suelo para las historias del arte del futuro” [Soil for Future Art Histories] – read an abstract here (in Spanish). 

(Above and below) Launch of Futuros Abundantes in ArtsLibris during ARCOmadrid 2023. Photos: IFEMA / ARCOmadrid.


Futuros abundantes / Abundant Futures” catalogue, copublished by TBA21 and Turner, 2023. Photos: Enrico Fiorese.

After a few work sessions over Zoom, we attended the first IRL Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) gathering on February 22nd. This inaugurates the soft launch of the new formation of GCC Spain, a new national working group aligned with GCC’s core environmental targets and commitments

GCC is an international membership non-for-profit organisation with over 800 members from 40 countries, providing environmental sustainability guidelines for the art sector, whose primary targets are to facilitate a reduction of the visual art sector’s greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 50% by 2030 (in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming to below 1.5°C) and promote zero-waste practices. More info. 

GCC Spain is a newly formed semi-autonomous volunteer team (joining working groups in Berlin, Italy, Los Angeles, London, and Taiwan) that works to develop a dedicated platform of environmental resources for Spanish-based art organisations and professionals.

Informative gathering about GCC Spain at ARCOmadrid on @galleryclimatecoalition. Photo: Max Andrews.

@acercacomunicacion's Instagram Story.

March 2023: As part of Latitudes’ ongoing environmental commitment, and as new members of the Gallery Climate Coalition, we publish the first edition of our Environmental Responsibility Statement on our website (extended version here) and submit individual calculations of our Carbon Footprint from 2019 (our baseline from which reductions will be made) and 2022 to the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC). Below is a simple graphic showing the comparison of the two years. Latitudes’ carbon emissions were 17.4tCo2e in 2019 and 3.8tCo2e in 2022. 

Our 2023 Strategic Climate Fund is €190. This is calculated by multiplying our 2022 carbon footprint (3.8tCo2e emissionsby €50 per tonne. We set these funds aside to spend on low-carbon purchasing options that would otherwise be unaffordable.


beginning of May 2023: Checking out the Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat de Barcelona (aka Casa de l'Ardiaca), the Cathedral and its cloister, MACBA, and more with The Pilgrim” guest resident artists Niamh Moriarty and Ruth Clinton. Aptly, as their work has often been related to the Transatlantic relations between Ireland and the United States, their stay coincides with a visit of the Obamas (and Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks) to Barcelona to catch the beginning of Bruce Springsteen's tour.

Throughout the Spring, Latitudes researched documentation in the city archives with the hopes of finding evidence of Askeaton's Pilgrim, browsing certificates of docking in the Port of Barcelona, licences of the board of health, details of boat captain promotion, health patents, and plague-free certificates. With little to no factual data on Askeaton’s Pilgrim – besides his name (Don Martínez de Mendoza), his date of death (Askeaton, 1784), that he was a Barcelona merchant from the mid-18th Century who had a flagship called Isabella, and a daughter called Beatrice (¿Beatriz / Beatriu?) – we weren't able to find further evidence of his existence.





Giving Ruth and Niamh a “phantom tour” of the Panorama exhibition a year and a half after its closing. Here Eulàlia explains her work “La perla”.

6 May 2023: After a few initial days in Barcelona, The Pilgrim” guest resident artists Niamh Moriarty and Ruth Clinton present their work around relics, rubbings, and translation, alongside “The Pilgrim” co-curators Askeaton Contemporary Arts (ACA) (Michele Horrigan and Sean Lynch) at Eulàlia Rovira’s studio. What began as a vermut+talk event extended into pizzas for lunch, afternoon beers, and rolled into dinner.

→ Social Networks archived here.





10 May 2023: Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes qualified to be in the first cohort of Active Members of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC). To achieve this status we demonstrated that we have implemented environmental sustainability best practices in line with GCC’s guidelines.

→ More info
→ Environmental Policy Statement here.

16–18 May 2023: Work trip to València to visit Antoni Miralda’s exhibition “Miralda. Honeymoon: Unclassified” at Bombas Gens, curated by its artistic director Sandra Guimarães. The show centres on his “Honeymoon Project” (1986-1992), a series of intercontinental ceremonial actions around the romance and subsequent marriage between two historical monuments: that of Christopher Columbus, in the port of Barcelona, and the Statue of Liberty, in New York Bay. Max of Latitudes will review it for frieze’s October issue (online in June). 

(Above) The “Zapato Góndola” (1990–2023) was exhibited in Bombas Gens’ patio. It has been remade in fibreglass in València, taking advantage of its fallas craft expertise. The heel now is removable becoming a gondola, and it's lighter than the original one made of wood. 

The exhibition mostly comprised of letters and ephemera gathered throughout the 40 years of the making of the project, from its presentation in the 1990 Spanish Pavilion to the many drafted letters, invitations, posters and drawings of potential ideas for floats, parades and even a prenup.




Also took the opportunity to visit Bombas Gens’s solo show of Carlos Bunga and the collection reading by El último grito, as well as IVAM’s shows dedicated to Lebanese artist Aref El Rayess, Danish Asger Jorn, and the design collective La Nave. At Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània (CCCC) we met Diego Díaz and Clara Boj who showed us Permea teaching spaces, the first MA Programme in Experimental Mediation and
 Education through Art and guided us through CCCC’s shows. We also visit the commercial galleries House of Chappaz, Galería Set Espai d'Art, Galería Luis Adelantado, Tuesday to Friday, and Galería Jorge López. We had an overdue catch-up over noodles with old-time artist friend Fermín Jiménez Landa, and finally met the curators Julia Castelló and Ali A. Maderuelo in the flesh, who on June 8th opened “[DOSMILVINT-I-U] [DOSMILVINT-I-TRES] = 1 encuentro” at IVAM, the culmination of a two-year programme comprising workshops, conferences, performances, mediations with artists Diego Navarro and Darío Alva, Claudia Dyboski, Marina González Guerreiro, Álvaro Porras, and M Reme Silvestre. In 2021 Latitudes nominated them for the 11th Edition of the Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi per l’Arte – EnterPrize but this was the first time meet in person! 

early June 2023: Submitted a profile text on America-born Scotland-based artist, researcher, writer, and educator Crystal Bennes’ new project to be exhibited at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, in February 2024. The text will be included in the forthcoming publication “Betwixt 2024”, the next iteration of publications of the Freelands Artist ProgrammeInvolving tapestry, sculptural installation, video, and 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. 

Design study for a Jacquard weaving titled “pecunia non olete” (2023) featured on Latitudes’ homepage as the June 2023 cover story. Courtesy Crystal Bennes.

6–8 June 2023: Trip to Mallorca as guests of Art Palma Contemporani’s event Art Summer Palma. Honouring our environmental commitment, we travelled to the island and back by ferry as foot passengers. As the ferry dropped us in Alcúdia, we visited the nearby Pollença (galería Maior, Coster Art i Natura), and then took the bus to the Palma, paying a visit to Es Baluard before joining the official programme visiting the galleries Pep Llabrés, Xavier Fiol, Kewenig, M77, Aba Art Lab, Fran Reus, Baró, Pelaires, PGallery, L21 Home and L21 by foot.


(Above and three below) Views of Pollença from Coster Art in Natura, the artist-led initiative by pollensí Amador Magraner (third photo down) that began in 2022.


Works by Susana Solano and Eva Lootz (above and below).


Ludovica Carbotta ceramic oven in progress.

Amador showing us one of his sculptures “Germinacions” which began in the 1990s.

View of the collection reading curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio at Es Baluard.

Wonderful Maria Lai 1981 action “Legare Collegare” registered in video and photography on view at Es Baluard, Palma, and some more works in the M77 gallery, a new space in Palma of the Milan-based gallery.

Solo exhibition by Adrià Maryordomo (portrayed) at Galeria Fran Reus, Palma. 



12 June 2023: The National Council for Culture and Arts (CONCA) plenary agreed to carry out a survey of Catalunya-based Art Critics and Curators, a tool to analyse the state of our profession from the economic, cultural, professional, and social points of view. An expert committee formed by representatives of ACCA, the Catalan Art Critics Association (amongst them Mariana of Latitudes, who recently became an ACCA member), the Platform of Catalan Artists (PAAC), and the Association of Cultural Management Professionals of Catalunya (APGCC) gathered at Palau Moja to share their feedback to create the most comprehensive possible survey, the results of which are aimed to be completed at the end of 2023.

Photo: Miquel-Àngel Codes Luna / ACCA.

19 June 2023: Zoom launch of GCC Spain, the Spanish chapter of the Gallery Climate Coalition. The event was an opportunity to introduce the London-based founders to Spanish professionals and explain the current and future challenges the Spanish volunteer team is taking on. 

→ Watch the video here (40 min.)
→ Read the press release (in Spanish)



27 June 2023: Attending Joan Morey’s performance “POSTMORTEM. Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu” (2006–2007) at Fundació Palau as part of the Poesia + festival. Performed by Sònia López, the piece was the first of a cycle of performances presented as part of Morey’s solo show curated by Latitudes at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona in 2018

A better photo of the 2018 performance below.

Joan Morey, “POSTMORTEM. Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu” (2006-2007). Performance reenactment as part of the exhibition “COLLAPSE. Desiring Machine, Working Machine”, Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona - Fabra i Coats (2018). Photo: Noemi Jariod. Courtesy of the artist.

28 June 2023: Visit TERSA, the publicly-owned company that manages Barcelona's Metropolitan Area waste management, transforming residues into energy by incineration (this waste-to-energy plant generated 142.013 MWh of electricity in 2022). We go around the Integrated Waste Management Plant (PIVR) at Sant Adrià del Besòs, which includes the Waste-to-Energy Plant and the Mechanical-Biological Treatment Plant, managed by Ecoparc del Mediterrani. This location processes what citizens throw into the grey containers – the remaining waste that cannot be reused or recycled (not paper, glass, plastic, or organic matter), whose process generates twice what's needed to supply the electricity grid of the city. The visit was organised as part of the public programme of the exhibition “Ciutat de sorra” [City of sand] by David Bestué at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani.







29 June 2023: Max Andrews’ review of Antoni Miralda’s exhibition at Bombas Gens (València) is published online on frieze.com (on print in the October 2023 issue).

“A giant high-heeled shoe with Venetian gondola trimmings stands in the courtyard of Bombas Gens Centre d’Art like a monument to fairy-tale slippers. Yet, this is a true-to-size stiletto, made to fit a 93-metre-tall debutante who stands in New York’s harbour: the Statue of Liberty. Created in 1990 by Antoni Miralda as a wedding gift for Liberty’s proposed symbolic marriage to another monument of similar vintage, the Columbus Monument in Barcelona, the original shoe was taken down the Grand Canal before forming the centrepiece of the artist’s Spanish Pavilion at that year’s Venice Biennale. This replica, fabricated by a Valencian fallero craftsman, is destined for the collection of the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.” 

→ Continue reading here.



July 2023: Further schedule and reading prep for our end-of-August research trip to Dublin, Sligo, Askeaton, and Limerick, the second part of The Pilgrim residency exchange


RELATED CONTENT:



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Cover Story, July–August 2023: Honeymoon in Valencia

    July–August 2023 cover story on www.lttds.org


The July–August 2023 monthly Cover Story “Honeymoon in Valencia” is now up on our homepage: www.lttds.org

“In April this year, the streets of Valencia witnessed a remarkable sight: a colossal high-heeled shoe, adorned in the fashion of a Venetian gondola, paraded its way to the Bombas Gens Centre d’Art. 

→ Continue reading (after August 2023 this story will be archived here).

Cover Stories are published on a monthly basis 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

  • More writing by Max Andrews in frieze
  • Archive of Monthly Cover Stories 
  • 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
  • Cover Story, March 2023: Art, Climate and New Coalitions, 1 March 2023
  • Cover Story, February 2023: Soil for Future Art Histories, 2 Feb 2023
  • Cover Story, January 2023: Claudia Pagès’ ‘Gerundi Circular’, 2 Jan 2023
  • Cover Story, December 2022: “The Melt Goes On Forever. David Hammons and DART Festival, 1 December 2022
  • Cover Story, November 2022: Jorge Satorre’s Barcelona, 1 Nov 2022
  • Cover Story, October 2022: Stray Ornithologies—Laia Estruch, 3 Oct 2022
  • Cover Story, September 2022: The means of print production: Erick Beltrán and lumbung press, 1 September 2022
  • Cover Story, July–August 2022:  Incidents (of Travel) from Seoul, 1 July 2022
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Latitudes’ "out of office" 2021–22 season

Frozen facemask, Helsinki, March 2022.

As the summer break creeps up on us with a weary smile in the already sweltering heat-and-humidity of Barcelona, it’s once again time for our annual looking-back post wrapping up the last twelve months of Latitudes’ activities, a period of time which includes the most extensive exhibition we’ve made to date in Spain: MACBA’s “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire”. 

In thinking of how to pen this little introduction to a compilation that’s an ending of sorts, our thoughts turned back to a request we received in February from Shimmer, the exhibition space in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The artist Jo-ey Tang was creating a new version of a project which would comprise an endless loop of the favourite endings of films suggested by friends of Shimmer. Our contributions: Mariana chose Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (1988) and Max, the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski (1998).

In the ending of Cinema Paradiso, Salvatore watches a final bittersweet gift from Alfredo: a reel with all the romantic scenes that had been censored from the cinema. Looking back brings happy nostalgia and a chance to make peace with the past.

And to paraphrase the Coens’ Stranger... well, that about does her, wraps her all up. Things seem to have worked out pretty good. Parts, anyway. Aw, look at me, I’m ramblin’ again. Well, I hope you folks enjoyed yourselves. Catch ya later on down the trail...

This end-of-the-season post is the fourteenth in the “out of the office” series published every end of July to mark the beginning of our holidays (or the desire of having one). Check earlier posts from 2008–92009–102010–112011–122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–182018–19, 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons. All photos are by Latitudes unless stated otherwise in the photo caption.

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The September 2021 issue of frieze magazine includes a review of David Bestué's exhibition at Centre d'art La Panera, published online last May.

via @marcnavarro facebook. 

31 August 2021: Reaching the final preparation stages of MACBA’s “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire” exhibition opening on October 21st. Last year’s post detailed much of the leg work involved throughout the past year. Here we're mocking up the placement of Rasmus Nilausen’s largest paintings, for which Fusteria Aram is manufacturing individual custom-made supports.

Above photo by Hiuwai Chu. Below are co-curator Hiuwai Chu and Rasmus Nilausen under Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled (Perfect Lovers)” (1987–1990). 


3 September 2021: Visiting Antoni Hervàs at La Escocesa to check the progress of his work “La Meier” (2021) to be will shortly be premièred in MACBA's “Notes for an Eye Fire”.



13 September 2021: Boules of oak (Quercus canariensis), cedar (Cedrus sp.) and pine (Pinus pinea) arrive at TMDC in La Verneda, the material for a new iteration of Nyamnyam and Pedro Pineda’s project ‘A quatre potes’ (2014–ongoing) that will be presented in MACBA's exhibition “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire”.

As the exhibition wall text pointed out, the project is “founded on the principle that in order to share a meal or have a discussion you first have to build a table to sit at. Leading up to and during the exhibition, a group of people with diverse roles within the MACBA are participating in a series of co-design and collaborative making workshops that began with the purchase of several tree trunks from a sustainable forestry initiative in the nearby Montnegre massif.”

During the next week, the trees would be “transformed into planks and laths at the shared machine shop TMDC, this locally sourced wood is being adapted in the gallery by the museum workers into a range of tables, benches, and other structures. This furniture acts as a mediator between natural and human resources, creating different social settings throughout the course of the exhibition and becoming the scenography and motive for a series of discussions around practices of collectivity and cultures of sustainability within and beyond the institutional walls.”
 

Photo: TMDC


16 September 2021: Meeting at Bendita Gloria’s studio to go through the contents of the publication accompanying the group exhibition “Things Things Say” that concluded last January at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona.


22 September 2021: Conversation with Jorge Satorre as part of the series “Dialogues with artists from the Contemporary Art Collection” and within the framework of “El tiempo en las cosas”, an exhibition curated by Tatiana Cuevas at the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico.

Due to work and time differences, the talk was recorded a few days earlier. The conversation revolved around the production process of "The Erratic. Measuring Compensation", a work included in Satorre's exhibition and commissioned by Latitudes as one of the ten projects produced throughout 2009 in the public space of the Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

‘The Erratic’ is also featured as the September 2021 Cover Story on our homepage.



27 September–19 October 2021: Three weeks installing the first edition of MACBA’s Panorama triennial, “a new series of transdisciplinary projects that reflects the museum’s desire to deepen its collaboration and dialogue with local artists and cultural agents”. The inaugural project of Panorama is the group exhibition “Notes for an Eye Fire” which occupies MACBA's top floor. During this first install week, efforts centred on shipping, registering, and installing Rasmus Nilausen’s “Theatre of Doubts” (2021) at one end of the museum and Stella Rahola Matutes’ “Fig Juice” (2020) at the other end, while walls were being painted, final sound checks were done and artworks were finally arriving at the museum.

Stella Rahola Matutes and Alex Castro (Conservator, MACBA) photo-documenting Stella's work before installation.


Xavi (install crew of Coolturart) installed one of Stella's glass figures.

Stella Rahola Matutes and Xavi (install crew of Coolturart) carefully installed Stella’s “Fig Juice”.

Lluis Roqué (Conservator at MACBA) documented Rasmus Nilausen’s paintings.

Rasmus Nilausen’s paintings (walls) and Stella Rahola Matutes glass pieces and chains (tables) are analysed and registered by the conservation team before installation.

While Rasmus's wooden supports are being assembled, the improvised office at the museum landing is busy checking the “final-final-final” version of the wall labels, intro text and the leaflet.

First of Rasmus Nilausen’s large paintings (1 of 49) is finally up, supervised by Eva Font (left, space coordinator of the exhibition, MACBA), Alex Castro and Lluís Roqué (centre, Conservators, MACBA), ARAM staff (the carpenters that produced the wood supports) and the install crew of Coolturart.

Nilausen's “Wax Cabinet” (2021, 300 x 205 x 6cm, oil on linen) being moved and hung (below).



Ongoing metamorphosis in the largest exhibition space on the second floor.

Last sound checks with Pablo Miranda and Laia Estruch.

R. Marcos Mota of El Palomar doing a mock-up of the archival material to be presented in vitrines.

Meanwhile, nyamnyam and Pedro Pineda’s tree is sent to Lleida to be fireproofed.


To end the first week, Antoni Hervàs’s “La Meiers” (above) arrives at the museum from La Escocesa, as well as Claudia Pagès’s silkscreened and fireproofed cardboard from Capellades (two below), alongside the structure manufactured by Tallers Soteras to hold the LED panels shipped from Shenzhen that forms her new commissioned video installation “Gerundi Circular” (2021) – soundtrack here.



Week 2 begins with the exciting placement of Antoni Hervàs’s “La Meiers” becoming the entrance to the exhibition.


Meanwhile, Arash Fayez’s wall is almost fully painted in the nearby gallery...

...and Claudia Pagès starts installing the LEDs around the circular metal structure.

Claudia amidst the cable maze.

Coolturart team fixing the circular screen to the ceiling.

First sound and image test of El Palomar’s “Schreber is a Woman” with R. Marcos Mota. The amazing soundtrack that accompanies the video can be listened to here, on Spotify or you can also purchase the 12'' vinyl edition.

Drawing of the structures that hold Laia Estruch’s “Ocells Perduts” net structure drawn by the museum architecture department, placed below by RMG Redes.


Vinyl placed in Plaça dels Àngels promoting MACBA’s programme this trimester includes two sketches by Laia Estruch of her “Ocells perduts” piece.

Habemus Ruta de Autor newspaper!

Parallel to all the activities going on, Hervàs continues customising “La Meiers” to fit what will become the entrance to the exhibition.

Eulàlia Rovira’s replica of Richard Meier’s signature column arrives at the museum. Since we have all the hands and machinery ready, it soon goes up.

Eulàlia shares instructions on how to assemble the yellow supports.



Laia Estruch’s large red net slowly goes up and takes shape.

Photo: Hiuwai Chu

Making a selection of Eulàlia Rovira’s new photo collages.

Hervàs in progress.

Technical difficulties. Please bear with us.

Laia is finally able to go up the net and do her first and only rehearsal. High expectations from artists colleagues, curators and staff observing below.

Final calculations before hanging Arash Fayez’s 310 papers documenting his migrant “limbo” status in the US and Europe.


Meanwhile, in the Teatre Molino in Paral·lel, Antoni Hervàs’ begins “La Meller”, the second part of his contribution to Panorama 21: a 27-metre mural in which Hervàs and his collaborator Pau Magrané unfold a chronicle of the neighbourhood's beloved theatres and venues, both past and present, resulting in "a frieze-carousel" where authors, actors and actresses such as Violeta la Burra, Escamillo, Johnson, Pierrot, Ángel Pavlovsky, float timelessly intertwined by boas.

(Above and below) Pau Magrané and Antoni Hervàs working on the graffiti. Photo: Eva Carasol.

Tecnodimensión testing Laia Estruch’s wind sock before mounting it on the wall.

Adrian Schindler goes through the ephemera that will be displayed as part of his installation.

Installing Rosa Tharrats’s work in the atrium/corridor space.

Placing the newspaper spread by Ruta de Autor to check heights.


Entrance / Exit of the exhibition in progress.

Marria Pratts’s “Sento una música dintre del cap (I Hear Music Inside My Head (Transformation of a Blurry Thought)), 2021.


Antoni Hervàs’ “La Meiers” is almost there.

Installing Rosa Tharrats’s work in the atrium/corridor space.


Iñaki of nyamnyam and Pedro Pineda placing the fireproofed wood boules (detail below)


Max Andrews, Hiuwai Chu and Aleix Plademunt checking the measurements between the 18 images.



Important message from Antoni Hervàs: “Do not paint in white!! (please) You were right, thank you. NO!” :-)

As the day ends we leave the museum and take a gander at the lighting colours on Rosa Tharrats’s installation as the days get shorter.

Entrance vinyl is in place and final cleaning.


29 September 2021: Launching the 16th dispatch of “Incidents (of Travel)” from Beirut, Lebanon: incidents.kadist.org/beirut

In the 16th dispatch, curator Marie-Nour Héchaimé navigates Beirut with artist-filmmaker Panos Aprahamian a year after the August 2020 explosion, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored for six years without safekeeping in the port of the Lebanese capital were set on fire and exploded. The blast killed more than 200 deaths, 6,500 wounded, 300,000 displaced, and great destruction in the city. “I say that I am living with ghosts—of people, places, memories, stories”, she reflects. “He answers that Beirut is disintegrating in front of our very eyes.”

Part of the series produced by KADIST and edited by Latitudes since 2016, exploring the chartered itinerary as a format of an artistic encounter between curators and artists.


3 October 2021:
New cover story on Latitudes' homepage featuring the 16th itinerary of Incidents (of Travel), this time around Beirut led by Panos Aprahamian and reported by 
Marie-Nour Héchaime. Since 2016 produced as part of Kadist's online programmes.
21 October 2021: Press conference and evening opening of the exhibition “Panorama 21: Notes for an Eye Fire” at MACBA. We realise this is the first time all the artists and curators are able to meet IRL. 

Final clean-up before the press conference.

Photo: Pedro Pineda.

Participants of “Panorama 21. Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls” (nyannyam and Ana Domínguez are missing) posing for the press. Photo: Hiuwai Chu

(Above and three below) Press conference in MACBA's atrium, 21 October 2021. Photos: Miquel Coll.

(Left to right) Max Andrews (Latitudes), Hiuwai Chu (Head of Exhibitions, MACBA), Elvira Dyangani Ose (Director, MACBA) and Mariana Cánepa Luna (Latitudes) during the press conference, 21 October 2021. Photos: Miquel Coll.



Participating artist Eulàlia Rovira responded to Carolina Rosich's questions for TV3 news. Photo: Hiuwai Chu.

(Above and nine below) Opening of the exhibition “Panorama 21. Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls” at MACBA. Photos: Miquel Coll.











18 November 2021: Parlem de...Apunts per apunts visit with “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire co-curators Hiuwai Chu and Latitudes. 


Photo by Hiuwai Chu.


19 November 2021: First change of Nyamnyam and Pedro Pineda’s “A quatre potes” (2014–ongoing), a scenography presented as part of MACBA’s exhibition Notes for an Eye Fire”.




20 November 2021: First of four open rehearsals of “Ocells perduts” [Stray Birds] (2021) by Laia Estruch presented as part of MACBA’s exhibition “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire”.

Above and below photos: Miquel Coll.




25 November 2021: Jury of the 5th edition of DART Festival, alongside the film critic Quim Casas and the journalist Ianko López, and festival team members Enrichetta Cardinale and Silvana Fiorese, to choose the best national and international documentary in the competitive section.



2 December 2021: Parlem de...cabaret, a guided visit led by participating artist Antoni Hervàs as part of MACBA’s exhibition “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire”. The audio was edited and later made available on Latitudes’ Soundcloud.

Audio of Toni’s 1h guided tour on Soundcloud.


Second part of Antoni Hervàs’ itinerary we stopped at the bar Atlanta FC in Rambla del Raval, where Hervàs explained the origins of his proposal for his two-part project for MACBA's exhibition: the 1980s board game “El Chino” (as part of El Raval neighbourhood was formerly known). Hervàs also shared a selection of preparatory drawings that we would later see on the wall he and Pau Magrané graffitied in Paral·lel.



The itinerary ended in front of Teatre Arnau in Paral·lel, where Toni Hervàs and his collaborator Pau Magrané painted the wall that protects the theatre during its restoration. Hervàs’ mural honours the cabaret history of Paral·lel’s nightlife, its cabaret, bars, and actresses.


That evening we are saddened to receive the news Lawrence Weiner passed away. We worked with Lawrence on a four-part project in 2008 presented at the first location of Fundació Suñol, in Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia. 


9 December 2021: Parlem de...Anecdotes to be Forgotten, a performative walkthrough by Arash Fayez as part of MACBA’s exhibition “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire.


10 December 2021:
Second configuration of “A Quatre Potes” by nyamnyam and Pedro Pineda, in collaboration with MACBA staff.




14 December 2021: Ràdio Web MACBA publishes a podcast with El Palomar (in Spanish) where they discuss “Schreber is a Woman” (2020) their most recent film produced for the 11th Berlin Biennial and presented for the first time in Spain as part of MACBA’s “Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls”. 

16 December 2021: 17th dispatch of Incidents (of Travel) is live! Narration and visuals by curator Inga Lāce and artist Linda Boļšakova, who forage for environmental histories in Riga. The day that takes them from manicured park lawns to a thicket of sea buckthorn bushes near a “post-apocalyptic” sauna, and from a housing project allotment to the laboratories of the National Botanic Garden of Latvia. Produced by KADIST.



17–19 December 2021: After months of uncertain planning, Paul O'Neill, director of PUBLICS, is able to visit Barcelona to meet Laia Estruch and attend the second rehearsal of her work ‘Stray Birds’ (2021), a new commission produced for the exhibition “Notes for and Eye Fire at MACBA, and supported by PUBLICS



January 2022: Visiting MACBA’s exhibition with long-time artist friend Lara Almarcegui based in Rotterdam.


13 January 2022: Hablemos de... Passió i cartografia per a un incendi dels ullsa sung visit by poet Gabriel Ventura and flamenco cantaor Pere Martínez, reading and singing poems written for the occasion by Gabriel. Pell de gallina!

Gabriel started the itinerary under Antoni Hervàs’s work “La Meiers”, a work commissioned for MACBA’s exhibition, that became the entrance and the exit to the neighbourhood.





17 January 2022: Exactly a year after its closure, we receive a copy of the publication accompanying the exhibition “Things Things Say”, which took place at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona between October 2020 and January 2021. We are elated to finally have it in our hands!


29 January 2022: Double Notes for an Eye Fire’ programme today. “Systematurgy of A quatre potes” (On Four Legs) in the morning and the third open rehearsal of “Ocells perduts” by Laia Estruch in the evening.

A discussion around “A quatre potes”, the project presented in the exhibition by nyamnyam and Pedro Pineda, around forest management, design as an investigative tool, and the limits of the museum with the participation of Lídia Guitart (forest engineer), Curro Claret (industrial designer), Ingrid Guardiola (writer, cultural researcher and Director of Bòlit, Centre d'Art Contemporani), the artists, exhibition curators, and workshop participants. This activity was part of Education from Below, a project with the support of Creative Europe's programme of the European Union Creative Europe.

The setting for the event was rearranged the evening before with workshop participants (MACBA staff that have volunteered in a number of workshops cutting the wood planks, arranging them in the exhibition space, and changing the set-up on a monthly basis) following the principle and the spirit of the project that “in order to have a discussion we need a table”.  

(Above and below) The before and after, seating is ready for tomorrow's open discussion. Photos: Ariadna Rodriguez (nyamnyam).


Above and two photos below: Miquel Coll.



Designer Curro Claret brought in an earthenware cup used in India to drink tea before boarding on a train. Once used the cup is thrown out the window and hence, naturally recycled into the landscape, an “evident example of what circular economy is and should be”. Plastic cups took over but pollution along the tracks was so bad the government encouraged tea makers to go back to earthenware.

Ingrid Guardiola began mentioning Octavi Comeron’s “La Fábrica Transparente” and how institutions’ obsession with transparency, in turn, generates opacity from within those institutions or, as Peter Sloterdijk warned, is an example of cynical transparency. Then moved on to reflect on how institutions could learn from forest’s entropy and efficiency and how exceeding energies could be used within institutions.

Lidia Guitart, a forest engineer from the Associació Propietaris Forestals del Montnegre i el Corredor (from where nyamnyam’s wood was originally purchased) discussed perceptions of forest management in Catalunya in relation to Finland (the leader in paper pulp supplier) and shared some interesting data: 60–70% of Catalunya is forest, yet 80% of that is in private hands.

The 2h session was punctuated by printed cards with words/concepts triggering several subjects related to each of the guests' practices which were then chosen at random to encourage interlinking rather than monothematic presentations.

2 February 2022: Ràdio Web MACBA publishes a podcast with Claudia Pagès (in Spanish) where she discusses “Gerundi Circular” (2021) a new video-installation commissioned for MACBA’s “Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls”. The work is presented in her solo show “Abajo el puerto suena nino-nino, y yo arriba pipí” in Madrid’s gallery The Ryder in June 2022.


9 February 2022: Panorama and “Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls” graphic designer Ana Domínguez and collaborator Lara Coromina send photos where the small publication closing the exhibition was coming off the press. “Passió i cartografia per a un incendi dels ulls” is the colophon of the first edition of Panorama and includes a poem by participant Gabriel Ventura that draws up a textual cartography of the exhibition alongside a selection of exhibition views.

Photos above and below by Ana Domínguez.



February 2022: The exhibition catalogue “Things Things Say” is finally online and can be purchased. The show was curated by Latitudes at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani in Barcelona between October 2020 and January 2021. Available from the art centre, the Diputació bookstore and the Ajuntament bookstore (Sala Ciutat) and online via the Diputació bookstore website.

The book includes a preface by art centre director Joana Hurtado Matheu, new texts by Latitudes, a text-based intervention by participating artist Eulàlia Rovira, and texts on each exhibited work also written by Latitudes.

Photos: Latitudes

22–25 February 2022: Trip to Madrid for ARCOmadrid. Max previewed “What to see during this year's ARCOmadrid” for frieze. Worth adding to the list is the joyous retrospective of Bruno Munari at Fundación Juan March, the catalogue currently on our desk. 


27 February 2022: After a four-month run, the exhibition Notes for an Eye Fire’ comes to an end at MACBA. Here is a selection of the most relevant reviews, clips from television and radio programmes that have covered the show, and of course photo documentation.

As a poetic colophon of the exhibition, the publication Passió i cartografia per a un incendi dels ulls” was released. It includes a new poem in three movements by exhibition participant Gabriel Ventura, and photos of the works in the museum galleries documented by Roberto Ruiz, Eva Carasol, Miquel Coll and Latitudes.

Photos: Gemma Planell.

2 March 2021: Ràdio Web MACBA publishes a podcast with Panorama artist Marc Vives (85'22'' in Spanish) where he discusses his practice and for MACBA’s “Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls”. 


10 March 2022: Lecture about our curatorial practice and on the recently concluded MACBA exhibition “Panorama 21. Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls” to fourth-year students at the Fine Arts Department of the Universitat de Barcelona. The student Rita Duarte Lli tagged us during our presentation, so we asked if she would mind sharing the mental map she drew during the session, see below.


Mental mapping of the session courtesy of Rita Duarte Lli (@ritinacaipirina ) following the @cursogenius.es technique.

14–18 March 2022: After 2.5 years of conversations and a much-postponed trip to Helsinki, we finally travel to begin our year-long Parahosting at 
PUBLICS with a public presentation of our curatorial practice followed by a performance by Barcelona-based artist Laia Estruch. Conversations with Laia and PUBLICS began in late 2019 and mutated due to the pandemic. However, in 2021 PUBLICS supported Laia’s piece “Ocells Perduts” (Stray Birds) presented as part of MACBA’s exhibition “Panorama 21: Notes for an Eye Fire”.

We donated three more publications (“Passió i cartografia per a un incendi dels ulls” published by MACBA in 2022, Lola Lasurt’s “Joc d'infants” published by La Capella in 2020 and Anna Moreno’s “The Drowned Giant” also published by La Capella in 2017) to PUBLICS Library, joining the first 5kg we donated back in 2019. These will soon be joined by the publication of the exhibition “Things Things Say” published by Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. You can search here

[Note that not all the results are under “Latitudes”, others are under “Max Andrews” or “Mariana Cánepa Luna” as writers]. PUBLICS library is the third location where the whole set of Latitudes’-edited publications sleep, alongside the Library of the MACBA Study Centre, Barcelona, and the Paul D. Fleck Library & Archives, The Banff Centre, Canada.

A selection of Latitudes and Laia Estruch publications available for consultation at PUBLICS.


On March 15, we had the chance to do an adaptation of our itinerant “Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group” workshop (earlier iterations took place in Bari, San Francisco, Birmingham, and Barcelona), this time under the “Professional Skills for Artists” class led by Prof. Suzanne Mooney. We met around fifteen MFA students in the new Sörnäinen campus building of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Uniarts Helsinki. Throughout our 2-hour encounter, issues such as the lack of free-of-charge exhibition spaces for younger artists or affordable studio spaces emerged when reflecting on the weaknesses of Helsinki’s art ecology and how could these needs be “hacked”, improved, and ideally eliminated.



On
March 17, 2022, we did a presentation of our curatorial practice at PUBLICS, followed by Laia Estruch’s “Mix” (2021–ongoing), a solo performance compilation that revisits the diverse voiced sounds, resonances, and articulations she has developed and learned throughout her projects to date. An exercise in sonic recall and muscle memory, “Mix” is a live non-chronological edit that extracts the most ephemeral aspect of her practice – the voice – while exploring it as a kind of organ of the body, and as a tool for sculpting air.

Photos at PUBLICS by Noora Lehtovuori.








30 March 2022: frieze.com publishes Max Andrews’ review of Bruno Zhu’s exhibition “I am not afraid” at Cordova in Barcelona. The frieze summer issue will include a printed version.

31 March 2022: Press trip to Córdoba on the occasion of “Abundant Futures”, the inaugural exhibition Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) organises in C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba, as part of their three-year-long collaboration agreement.


(Above) Ceramic pieces by Asunción Molinos Gordo. (Below) Installation by Ernesto Neto.


(Above) Installation by Daniel Steegman Mangrané.
(Below) "Apagón" (2017) by Allora & Calzadilla, included a performance activated in the opening evening performed a capella by a local choir.


(Above) Installation view with works by Ai Weiwei (left) and Regina de Miguel (right).

1 April 2022: New cover story on Latitudes’ home page on Laia's performance “Mix” and PUBLICS & Latitudes match.
8 April 2022: Curatorial studio Shimmer in Rotterdam (first Paraguests of PUBLICS) inaugurate “More More More Than Than Than Lovers Lovers Lovers More More More Than Than Than Friends Friends Friends” a “looped supercut of film endings, selected by those who Shimmer admires. A compilation of final scenes and musical accompaniments with the closing credits, these endings are experienced repeatedly, back to back.” Max and Mariana of Latitudes each selected a film ending for the occasion (ref. at the beginning of this post).

Shimmer’s Instagram, 9 April 2022.

18 April 2022: 18th dispatch of Incidents (of Travel) is live! Narration and photography by curator Xenia Kalpaktsoglou and artist Pegy Zali from Attica, Greece. Xenia and Pegy conceive an itinerary and a screenplay-like commentary that takes us through the Attica peninsula, from a mysterious inscription sprayed at the site of a railway sabotage that transpired near Piraeus Port in 2010, to the vestiges of an enormous wildfire that consumed the forest around Alepochori in 2021. Produced by KADIST.


23 April 2022: Things Things Say” cover is peaking out amongst the selection of publications sold at the Serveis Editorials de l'Ajuntament de Barcelona book stall in Passeig de Gràcia on the occasion of Sant Jordi 2022.

photo via @bcn_llibres Twitter.

2 May 2022: “Things Things Saybook features in the May Cover Story. The exhibition began with a list of thirty-three questions that confronted visitors, which find their answers in the (mini) catalogue. Ranging from literary quotations and curatorial touchstones to theoretical anecdotes and red herrings, the “answers” wander around the exhibited works, and tack back-and-forth between exceptionally normal things and the extraordinary global narratives of labour, obsolescence, and the industrialisation of nature, that they trigger.


May 2022: Discussing details with Laia Estruch and Helsinki-based writer and curator Irina Mutt for touring Estruch’s “Ocells Perduts (Stray Birds)” (2021–22) to Helsinki. 

Between June and September, Irina will lead a series of three workshops with PUBLICS YOUTH, an education project for Helsinki-based 18-21-year-olds. Based on the idea of a “tour” of Estruch’s “Ocells Perduts (Stray Birds)” from its original museum context to human bodies in Helsinki, the sessions will broach performative practice, translation and transcription, and the non-verbal capacity of the voice.

18 May 2022: Visiting “The Milk of Dreams”, the 2022 edition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Cecilia Alemani. So great to see you again Venezia.


Early June 2022: While visiting Madrid for work-related appointments, we had a chance to peak into Rosa Tharrats’s first solo show at Galería Ehrhardt Flórez before it opened and to visit Aleix Plademunt’s largest solo show to date at Sala Canal Isabel II. Both artists were recently featured in “Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire”, and other “Panorama alumni” (Laia Estruch, Adrian Schindler, Arash Fayez and Gabriel Ventura) are also currently or soon exhibiting in Madrid, as featured in this post.

Rosa Tharrats’s first solo show at Galería Ehrhardt Flórez.

View of Aleix Plademunt solo show at Sala Canal Isabel II. Photo: Aleix Plademunt.

11 June 2022: Opening of “Cracking a nut” a solo show by Barcelona-based artist Lúa Coderch on three floors of Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani, Barcelona. [The exhibition had to close two days later due to climate control issues and will reopen on September 13].

Curated by the art centre director Joana Hurtado Matheu, the exhibition includes the work “La declaración del arcoíris” (The Rainbow Statement, 2022), originally commissioned by Latitudes as one of five “Compositions” interventions produced for the Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2016. In its first incarnation, Coderch guided sunlight and a spectrum of colours down into the underground gaming space of the Barcelona Billiards Club with a series of precisely positioned mirrors and prisms as if evoking the mechanics, geometry and artistry involved in billiards.

(Above) “La declaración del arcoiris” (The Rainbow Statement, 2022) at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani.

“La declaración del arcoiris” (2022). Photo courtesy Lúa Coderch. Image Adrià Sunyol Estadella and Alex Weecha.

(Above and two below) Lúa Coderch’s “The Rainbow Statement” (2016) at the Barcelona Billiards Club, part of “Composicions” series of interventions curated by Latitudes for the Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2016. Photos: Roberto Ruiz.



“Entrando en la obra” (Entering the Work, 2018) is screened on the top floor. The 6-minute film is the opening chapter of the videographic essay “Shelter”, a series of films in the form of correspondences Coderch produced between 2015 and 2018. This is “the first letter devoted to the simple gesture o pointing something out for someone else (...) and behind this gesture lies an invitation to enter the picture, to make yourself visible too, together with what is being pointed to.” [as written in the exhibition guide] 

The voice-over features the voice of Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes, which was recorded in March 2017 in a highly DYI mode by improvising a soundproof environment with blankets and carpets in the quietest space in the home on a Sunday morning: the WC.

(Above) Lúa Coderch, (Still) “SHELTER (Entering the work)”, 2015-18. Work produced with the support of Ayuda Fundación BBVA a la Creación en Videoarte 2015. Courtesy Lúa Coderch. Image Adrià Sunyol Estadella. 

20 June 2022: Writer and curator Irina Mutt leads the first of a series of workshops with PUBLICS YOUTH, an education project for Helsinki-based 18-21-year-olds. Based on the idea of an “itinerancy” of Laia Estruch’s “Ocells Perduts (Stray Birds)” from its original museum context [presented in Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire”] to the human bodies of PUBLICS YOUTH’s members in Helsinki, the sessions broached performative practice, translation and transcription, and the non-verbal capacity of the voice.

via @publics Instagram.

23 June 2022: 19th dispatch of Incidents (of Travel) from Seoul is live on incidents.kadist.org! Narration written by curator Sooyoung Leam and itinerary devised and led by artist Yeoreum Jeong from Seoul’s Yongsan district. Photography by Swan Park, produced by KADIST.


21 July 2022: Adrian Schindler and Eulàlia Rovira (“Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire” alumni) guided visit and in conversation with Mexican curator and researcher Paulina Ascensio, as part of their exhibition “The Plague, The Profit” at the non-profit The Green Parrot.


23 July 2022: El Palomar (“Panorama 21. Notes for an Eye Fire” alumni) curates an evening with music productions by trans artists, as part of MACBA’s Lorem Ipsum programme, “connecting the musical and the festive with their potential for empowering possible queer scenes”. The evening includes remixes from the soundtrack of the film “Schreber is a Woman” (2020) presented in MACBA (Spanish première).


Some things to look forward to in the 2022–2023 season: In September we will begin a three-month online mentorship of the first curatorial residency given to a young Peruvian curator organised by TROPICAL PAPERS and submit an essay commissioned for the catalogue of the group exhibition “Futuros Abundantes” organised by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) at C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba. 

More soon, onwards!


→ RELATED CONTENTS:

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Max Andrews reviews Bruno Zhu’s exhibition “I am not afraid”, Cordova, Barcelona


frieze magazine has published Max Andrews’ review of Bruno Zhu’s exhibition “I am not afraid” presented at Cordova space in Barcelona until May 28, 2022. The frieze summer issue will include a printed version.

“An outsized satin wristwatch hangs in Cordova’s small office. Large blue gingham and orange vinyl stars span the walls, windows, doors, floor and ceiling of the adjacent gallery. Bruno Zhu’s exhibition, ‘I am not afraid’, can be consumed quickly and, as its title assures, apprehended without alarm. Yet, the digestion of its curiouser-and-curiouser blend of scalable and temporal enigmas, and autobiography with fiction, appropriately transpires more gradually.” Continue reading


View of Bruno Zhu’s exhibition “I am not afraid” at Cordova. Photos: Latitudes.




Detail of Bruno Zhu’s “Are you OK?” 2022. Satin, quartz clock movement, batteries, foam and plastic. Dimensions variable.

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Latitudes’ "out of office": wrap up of the 2020-21 season

‘Keep the faith’ banner hanging at the entrance of La Escocesa studio facilities. All photos by Latitudes (unless otherwise noted in the photo caption).

This end of the season post is the thirteenth of the series – see 2008-92009-102010-112011-122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–182018–19, 2019–20 posts. Unlike past years, there was no clear beginning to the 2020–21 season. As many of us experienced, the pandemic put our work and life plans on hold, at worst cancelled. August is usually a strange month for freelancers (at least in our sector and in these southern latitudes), as nothing much happens work-wise. Yet it can be a blessing if one has other activities to push through, such as writing or research, as hardly any work e-mails come into the inbox – even e-flux’s periodicity is reduced!— but it’s also a fearful period for income. 

We have been lucky to be able to work throughout this year on two group exhibitions: ‘Things Things Say’ at the Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona Fabra i Coats (October 2020–January 2021) and the forthcoming ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’ at Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) opening October 21, 2021, which has not only kept us afloat but also made it possible for us to work within our immediate context in times when travel has not been possible or even desired. Here's our 2020-21 from behind the scenes:

5 August 2020: Max’s (Contributing editor, frieze magazine since 2015) review of Daniel G. Andújar show at La Virreina coincided with the new launch of frieze redesigned website.


13 August 2020: Eulàlia Rovira sends us a view of the improvised recording studio she managed to set up at home in order to become the voice of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’. We are deeply thankful to her for her flexibility and endurance in recording our texts in three languages deep in the summer heat and in the small hours of the night to avoid neighbourhood noises. #ThingsThingsSay


28 August 2020: 
Early meetings with Hiuwai Chu (Curator, MACBA) in preparation for the first Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona's 
Panorama, a new series of recurring group shows focusing on the contemporary regional artistic scene [face masks were momentarily removed for the photo op!]. 
#PanoramaMACBA


31 August 2020: Between June and December 2020, Max was Editor of Season 01 of st_age and of TBA21’s social media. Pictured a "new normality" zoom with TBA21 team across Madrid and Vienna offices, plus team members in Prague, London, Ibiza, Barcelona, etc.  


7 September 2020: After months of communicating by phone and email with Pere Fernàndez Bori, president of the Friends of Fabra i Coats, we are finally able to meet IRL as he showed us around the association offices and archives. We are very thankful to Pere and the Friends of Fabra i Coats for their time and willingness to lend us materials for the exhibition at the Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Center of Barcelona. 



7 September 2020: First meeting with Rasmus Nilausen in the museum galleries. #PanoramaMACBA


9 September 2020:
Meeting with Laia Estruch to discuss her participation in MACBA’s Panorama 21. #PanoramaMACBA


15 September 2020: Conversation between Lola Lasurt and Rosa Maria Subirana Torrent, moderated by Ángel Calvo Ulloa, as part of Lasurt’s solo exhibition ‘Children's Games’ at La Capella. The conversation focused on Subirana’s meticulous inventory of the holdings of the first collections of contemporary art donated to the city as coordinator of Miró Year, which included the organisation of Joan Miró’s 1968 retrospective on the grounds of the former Hospital de la Santa Creu, the current venue of La Capella. Video here (Catalan and Spanish). Lasurt’s project was tutored by Latitudes as part of the 2020–21 season of Barcelona Producció.



23 September 2020: Self-timer selfie during our first studio visit with Marria Pratts in L’Hospitalet. #PanoramaMACBA


24 September 2020: As a culmination of Lasurt’s solo exhibition ‘Children’s Games’ at La Capella, and as part of Jordi Ferreiro’s mediation programme Exedra εξέδρα, Lasurt offered to paint a “transitional object” and to display it in a balcony of a neighbour of the Ciutat Vella district. In this case, the transitional object is a train from the cartoon series ‘A little engine that could’ (1991) that Meritxell used to watch on VHS with her grandparents as a child.


Photos: Eva Carasol.

28 September 2020: New episode of Incidents (of Travel) from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico went live! In the latest ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ dispatch from Cabo Rojo, in the southwestern corner of Puerto Rico, and on week 23 of lockdown, Sofía Gallisá and Marina Reyes begin a day together by driving to the Cabo Rojo Salt Flats where Sofía researched her film ‘Assimilate & Destroy I’ (2018). 

Incidents (of Travel) is an online project produced by KADIST that explores different corners of the world through chartered day-long travel itineraries as a form of artistic encounters and an extended conversation between a curator and an artist. #IncidentsofTravel


29 September 2020: First video call with El Palomar (Mariokissme and R. Marcos Mota). #PanoramaMACBA


1 October 2020: Beginning of installation of ‘Things Things Say’. Arrival of the works by Stuart Whipps, Sarah Ortmeyer and Annette Kelm at Fabra i Coats. Arterri team transported the pieces from Berlin, Dunkerque and Birmingham to the art centre and were assisted by JBM Muntatges i produccions crew on-site to accommodate the works in the exhibition space. 




A socially distant download of Stuart Whipps's car. 






JBM Muntatges i produccions crew constructing walls.

Painting by J. Roscolor.


Jordà 14 transported the tables and chairs lent by the twenty generous lenders from Barcelona who agreed to participate in Haegue Yang’s ‘VIP’s Union’.

Condition reports by conservator Beatriz Montoliu assisted by two crew members of JBM Muntatges i produccions.

(↑↓ Above and two below) Wall texts and vinyl production by DPR Producció i Exposicions.


JBM Muntatges i produccions’ tools stash in front of Annette Kelm’s photographs.

Cleaning up around Sarah Ortmeyer’s ‘SABOTAGE’. 

17 October 2020: New restrictions against the spread of COVID-19 begin – bars and restaurants would end up closing for a month. The exhibition doors opened with little fanfare at Fabra i Coats although we were grateful that some familiar faces come to join us on this sunny autumn day. 

With curators Veronica Valentini, Andrea Rodriguez and Anna Manubens (curator of Wendelien van Oldenborgh's exhibition on the first and second floor).

19 October 2021: Max’s (Contributing editor, frieze magazine since 2015) review of Eulàlia Rovira’s exhibition ‘Esmorteir l'esmorteït’ at EtHALL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) publishes on frieze online.


21 October 2020: 365 days left to open Panorama at MACBA. Co-curators are already in sync! #PanoramaMACBA

Hiuwai and Mariana taking a break after two Zoom conversations.

Revising the Danish Arts Council funding application that thankfully granted support for Rasmus Nilausen’s work to be produced and presented in the forthcoming Panorama 21.

26 October 2020: Video call with Laia Estruch and MACBA’s Eva Font, Hiuwai Chu. #PanoramaMACBA


27 October 2020:
First Teams with MACBA’s communication and press departments. #PanoramaMACBA



30 October 2020: New restrictions apply in Catalonia against the spread of COVID-19 provoking the cancellation of all the activities programmed for ‘Things Things Say’, most importantly the one-time screening of Adrià Julià’s ‘Popcorn’ (2012) at Zumzeig Cinema on November 6 – finally able to be rescheduled and screened on January 8, 2021. Guided tours planned for La Nit dels Museus on November 14 (as well as tours planned for November 25, rescheduled for December 9), all have been cancelled, as well as the weekend free tours of the exhibitions at Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona

Adrià Julià, ‘Popcorn’ [Palomita], (2012). Vídeo HD, color, sonido. 90 min. Cortesía del artista.


13 November 2020: Continuing with online conversation-studio visits, this time with Arash Fayez#PanoramaMACBA



23 November 2020: Site visit of Laia Estruch to MACBA to discuss options for her sculptural intervention for Panorama 21. #PanoramaMACBA



24 November 2020: Second round of photo documentation of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ / ‘Cosas que las cosas dicen’ / ‘Coses que les coses diuen’ at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, with photographer Eva Carasol

Photo documentation of the show.


26 November–8 December 2020: One more year, we collaborate with DART Festival 2020 as jury members awarding the best national and international documentary: ‘Tierras construídas’ by Arturo Dueñas (España, 2019. 81 min. Castellano) and ‘The Proposal’ by Jill Magid (México, 2019. 82 min. Inglés). We are accompanied by film critic Quim Casas, and visual artist Jordi Colomer.


1 December 2020: Visiting Stella Rahola’s studio at Piramidón, with fantastic views over the city. #PanoramaMACBA



4 December 2020: Follow up meetings with Rosa Tharrats, Ruta de Autor and Eulàlia Rovira in preparation for the exhibition ‘Panorama 2021’ at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). The Head of General services gives us a tour around the building to areas usually not accessible to the public (photography not allowed) to be able to imagine the original structural design by its architect Richard Meier, to remember how the original walls have changed over the years, and paying attention to the scars left from previous exhibitions – aka ‘cadavers’ amongst museum staff. #PanoramaMACBA



Photo: Eulàlia Rovira.


7 December 2020: Follow up meeting with Arash Fayez at the museum. #PanoramaMACBA


10 December 2020: Recording a guided visit of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ on view at Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona as a proxy to the three cancelled guided visits of the show. 

Photo: Mónica López.
 
21 December 2020: Meeting with Toni Hervàs to discuss his ongoing research around Paral·lel. #PanoramaMACBA


22 December 2020: New episode of Incidents (of Travel) from Singapore, following a tour set up by artists Fyerool Darma and Nurul Huda Rashid, and a report by curator Kathleen Ditzig. Incidents (of Travel) is an online project produced by KADIST that explores different corners of the world through chartered day-long travel itineraries as a form of artistic encounters and an extended conversation between a curator and an artist. 


2 January 2021: Always great to visit Rasmus Nilausen’s studio in L’Hospitalet and smell fresh oil paint. 
#PanoramaMACBA



8 January 2021: Screening and Q&A of Adrià Julià’s feature film ‘Popcorn’ (2012 90') at cinema Zumzeig, part of the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ ending on January 17, 2021. 


9 January 2021: Catching up with Hiuwai in the metro on our way back from Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani. #PanoramaMACBA


13 January 2021: 
Àngels Ponsa, Minister of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, visited the exhibition ‘Things Things Say’ (centre, sitting in the chair she loaned from Palau Marc, home of the Minister of Culture of the Government of Catalonia, as part of Haegue Yang’s piece ‘VIPs Union’ (2001–ongoing), accompanied by Joana Hurtado Matheu, art centre director (right) and Max and Mariana of Latitudes (left). 


17 January 2021: Things Things Say’ ends today. Lots of Instagram stories over the last week from visitors. Check social networks archive. Weeks after we learn that 1926 people visited the exhibition over the past three months which, considering pandemic restrictions, is great news. #ThingsThingsSay
18 January 2021: Dismantling of ‘Things Things Say’ exhibition. Always sad to say goodbye to works that have been so present in our minds over the last months. It is unavoidable to think about what remains of a show once it’s gone. In times of COVID-19, this feeling is intensified as fewer people might have had the opportunity to visit, regardless of the circumstances. #ThingsThingsSay


JBM Muntatges i produccions crew and Bea Montoliu (conservation) wrapping up the furniture loaned to form Haegue Yang's piece ‘VIP’s Union’ (2001-2020).




Lifting up the protective glass on Stuart Whipps’s table.



19 January 2021: Videoconference with Antoni Hervàs to talk about his contribution to Panorama 21. #PanoramaMACBA


21 January 2021: Video call with Rosa Tharrats to discuss details of her forthcoming installation at the museum. Around this date, Gabriel Ventura and the editorial Documents Documenta, kindly agreed to give us permission to borrow the title of their latest publication for the Panorama series: ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’, for which we are very grateful. 
#PanoramaMACBA


22 January 2021: Ruta de Autor tell us to meet nearby the Torre de les Aigües del Besòs, a water deposit built in 1882 by Pere Falqués and offering stunning panoramic views over the city – and a Blinky Palermo piece Himmelsrichtungen in the entrance space. The tower is the headquarters of the Arxiu Històric de Poblenou#PanoramaMACBA








25 January 2021: Visiting the Centre d’Estudis i Documentació (CED) with Eulàlia Rovira, looking at maps, project proposals and photos of how MACBA was envisioned and ultimately built in the late 80s and early 90s. #PanoramaMACBA

Photo: Hiuwai Chu


Suitable photo albums from the former Panorama photo lab around town.

26 January 2021: Site visit with Claudia Pagès to MACBA to discuss her forthcoming participation in ‘Panorama 21: Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls’ (Notes for an Eye Fire). #PanoramaMACBA


27 January 2021: Once ‘Things Things Say’ is over and the galleries are empty once again. Eulàlia Rovira films ‘A Knot Which is Knot’ (2020-21), her contribution to the recently closed exhibition based on research done throughout the exhibition period, which will premiered a few days later, on February 15. 

Photo: Eulàlia Rovira

29 January 2021: Online meeting with Bendita Gloria to go through the materials of the forthcoming publication of ‘Things Things Say’, the exhibition that just ended a few days ago at Fabra i Coats.

1 February 2021: Consecutive meetings with Toni Hervàs, Aleix Plademunt and Marria Pratts to discuss their projects on-site, alongside Eva Font (architecture department) and Berta Cervantes (Exhibition, Project Assistant). #PanoramaMACBA




9 February 2021: Live streamed press conference announcing the 2021–22 season of the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). ‘Panorama 21. Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls’ is finally public. #PanoramaMACBA




12 February 2021: Panorama 21 wefie after a meeting with Rasmus Nilausen in Gràcia. #PanoramaMACBA


15 February 2021: Eulàlia Rovira’s video ‘A Knot Which is Knot’, 2020 (video, 12min 21 sec, audio in Catalan) is premièred on Fabra i Coats’ YouTube channel. ‘A Knot Which is Knot’ is the result of an investigation that began with the opening ‘Things Things Say’ (Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Center of Barcelona17 October 2020-17 January 2021), an exhibition curated by Latitudes, which is made public once it has closed and the exhibition galleries are once again empty. 

Ver vídeo (12' 21'', audio in Catalan) 


16 February 2021: First tech checks in the exhibition galleries with Rafa Marcos of El Palomar and MACBA’s A/V technician Miquel Giner, followed by a group meeting with Claudia Pagès to go catch up on her project. 
#PanoramaMACBA




19 February 2021: Opening of Lara Almarcegui’s exhibition ‘Graves’ (Gravel) at the Centre d'Art La Panera in Lleida (on view until 30 May 2021). As part of the opening day events, Lara invited visitors to experience the quarry operated by Sorigué in La Plana del Corb, which stopped its operations for a day. 

Latitudes contributed a text on her new installation and on March 18 at 6:30pm, participated in a round table online discussion with the artist and Juan Guardiola. Due to mobility restrictions between municipalities, we couldn’t attend the opening.

View of Lara Almarcegui’s exhibition ‘Graves’ (Gravel) at the Centre d'Art La Panera in Lleida. Photo: Jordi V. Pou.


22 February 2021: Video call catch up with Adrian Schindler (currently in residency at Casa Velázquez in Madrid until June 2021) to discuss his production for Panorama 21, followed by an in-person studio visit with Arash Fayez in Raval. #PanoramaMACBA

Trying to figure out the volume of works in the exhibition space.


2 March 2021: Running some tests of Aleix Plademunts work in the exhibition space while it’s empty between shows. #PanoramaMACBA




3 March 2021: Check-in meeting with Eulàlia Rovira on her ongoing research for her Panorama 21 contribution followed by a site visit by Stella Rahola to check natural light. #PanoramaMACBA





8 Març 2021: Laia Estruch visit to discuss the production of her work in the middle of the installation of Felix Gonzalez-Torres show. #PanoramaMACBA


13 March 2021: First trip outside of the city in exactly a year (tomorrow is the first anniversary of the declaration of the first state of alarm in Spain). Invited by the Centre d’Art La Panera in Lleida, we were able to attend the opening of David Bestué’s ‘Pastoral’ solo exhibition and Lara Almarcegui’s ‘Graves’ (for which we recently contributed the text of the exhibition). Forthcoming a frieze review of the exhibition by Max in the September 2021 issue.

(Above and below) Lara Almarcegui, ‘Gravera’ (2021), vídeo, 10 min. Cámara: Daniel Lacasa; y ‘Rocas y materiales de la Cordillera de los Pirineos’ (2021). Cortesía de la artista.


(Above and below) Installation view of David Bestué’s ‘Pastoral’ at the Centre d'Art la Panera, Lleida.


18 March 2021: Online conversation with Lara Almarcegui and Juan Guardiola on the occasion of Almarcegui’s solo show ‘Graves’ at Centre d’Art La Panera in Lleida.

During the conversation with Lara Almarcegui. 

23 March 2021: Catch up with a provider for Laia Estruch’s installation and discussion of Panorama’s identity with graphic designer and ‘Panorama 21’ participant, Ana Domínguez. #PanoramaMACBA



29 March 2021: Morning meeting with Rasmus Nilausen and pm meeting with Gabriel Ventura and Rosa Tharrats to discuss the progress of their respective contributions for Panorama 21, titled after Gabriel’s latest book poem ‘Apunts per a un incendi dels ulls’ (Notes for an Eye Fire). #PanoramaMACBA



7, 14, 21 and 28 April 2021: Four reading groups are programmed this month as part of Adrian Schindler’s project to be presented as part of MACBA's inaugural Panorama exhibition in October 2021. These open-format groups constituted the last step before the production of his film Tetuan, Tetuán, تطوان , the first chapter of which will be shot in Barcelona in late Spring 2021. 

The reading group “A quienes la inspiraron y no la leerán: Goytisolo, Marruecos y el Otro” (To those who inspired it and will not read it: Goytisolo, Morocco and the Other) proposes a critical approach to the theoretical and fictional work of Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo (1931–2017), influenced by Morocco. Contrasting his ambition to deconstruct the islamophobic literary tradition with the fantasies that inhabit his novels, we will address issues such as the construction of the image of the Other in Spain, the ghosts of the colonial project and the tensions inherent to decolonial works developed by white cultural agents. Participants read excerpts from the novels Reivindicación del conde Don Julián (1970), Juan sin tierra (1975) and Makbara (1980), as well as from the essay collection Crónicas Sarracinas (1981). The sessions were carried out with Salma Amzian, Núria Gómez Gabriel and iki yos piña narváez funes, who contributed to examining Goytisolo’s contradictions and potentialities through other literatures and epistemologies. The meetings took place in the Parc de la Ciutadella, near a colonial monument and an orientalist sculpture. #PanoramaMACBA


2 April 2021: Video call with Claudia Pagès to check in the development of her project while at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. #PanoramaMACBA


7 April 2021: MACBA’s 2021-22 exhibition programme is up. Just over 6 months to the opening. #PanoramaMACBA


9 Abril 2021: Catch up meetings with Ruta de Autor and Nyamnyam (from Montpellier). #PanoramaMACBA



12 April 2021: Publications meeting with Ana Domínguez. #PanoramaMACBA



13 April 2021: Meeting with Adrian Schindler at the museum’s offices to discuss the production of his work for MACBA’s ‘Panorama’. #PanoramaMACBA


15 April 2021: Monthly catch up with the communication department with dazzling spreadsheets, followed by a visit to Stella Rahola Matutes's project at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. Curators’ outfits merging – too many hours together ;-) #PanoramaMACBA




22 April 2021: Design briefing with MACBA’s communication team, Marta Reus and Carla Ventosa, and Panorama 21 designers Ana Domínguez and Lara Coromina, about the exhibition. #PanoramaMACBA


30 April 2021: Meeting with Arash Fayez and walk through the museum galleries with Ana Domínguez and Lara Coromina, designers of the first edition of MACBA’s Panorama
#PanoramaMACBA



4 May 2021: Plotting with Antoni Hervàs and Marc Vives, with the valuable help of Eva Font. Tip of the day: always bring a tape measure when doing a site visit! #PanoramaMACBA

Photo: Hiuwai Chu



7 May 2021: Balcony break in between meetings with Eulàlia Rovira and Ruta de Autor#PanoramaMACBA

Photo: Hiuwai Chu



8 May 2021: Presentation of Agustín Ortiz Herrera’s research ‘To name, to own. Critique of taxonomic practice’ project and publication at the Gabinet Salvador (Institut Botànic de Barcelona), one of the best-preserved examples of a cabinet of curiosities. Agustín’s research is one of the three projects Latitudes mentored throughout 2019–20 as part of the Barcelona Producció season at La Capella.

Representation of the cabinet of curiosities by the Danish naturalist and antiquarian Ole Worm in 1655. Salvador Library, Botanical Institute of Barcelona.

11 May 2021: Recording the teaser to be launched with the announcement of the participants in the inaugural Panorama exhibition. #PanoramaMACBA



12 May 2021: Review of David Bestué’s exhibition ‘Pastoral’ at the Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida, published online at frieze.com



12 May 2021: Visiting Ana Dominguez studio and lunch with her and Lara Coromina to discuss the elements of the exhibition graphics. #PanoramaMACBA


Some artist portraits for the exhibition website.

13 May 2021: A new
 dispatch of the ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ online series is live on incidents.kadist.org this time from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where curator Àngels Miralda narrates a day navigating COVID restrictions with Salim Bayri. + info

17 May 2021: Jitsi catch up with nyamnyam (Iñaki Álvarez and Ariadna Rodríguez) and Pedro Pineda. #PanoramaMACBA


20 May 2021: Catch up with Eulàlia Rovira at the museum. #PanoramaMACBA


21 May 2021:
Birdwatching with Laia Estruch around the Vall del Llobregós and the plains north of Santa Maria de Montmagastrell, in preparation for her upcoming project ‘Ocells perduts’ to be premiered in MACBA’s ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’ exhibition. 
#PanoramaMACBA


22 May 2021: Laia Estruch rehearsing at El Graner. #PanoramaMACBA


Foto: Hiuwai Chu.

28 May 2021: Catch up with Ruta de Autor at the museum. #PanoramaMACBA

Photo: Hiuwai Chu.

1 June 2021: Work meeting at Rasmus Nilausen’s studio in L’Hospitalet. #PanoramaMACBA


4 June 2021: Final presentation of the graphic image of Panorama 21 by Studio Ana Dominguez. #PanoramaMACBA


7 June 2021: Meeting at TMDC in La Verneda with Pedro Pineda and nyamnyam (Ariadna Rodríguez & Iñaki Álvarez). #PanoramaMACBA



Photo: Hiuwai Chu.



8 June 2021: Visiting Rosa Tharrats and Gabriel Ventura in Cadaqués and visit Rosa’s two-person exhibition in the Museu de l’Empordà, Figueres. #PanoramaMACBA

View of the two-person exhibition ‘Tura Sanglas/ Rosa Tharrats: Un diàleg artistic. Subjectivitat de la material, poètica de l’objecte’, curated by Laura Cornejo at Museu de l’Empordà.  

‘Les babes de la molsa’ (2020) by Rosa Tharrats.

‘Els ancestres de les anênomes’ (2020) by Rosa Tharrats.

Photo: Ivo Wald.




Photo: Ivo Wald.

Meetings by the shore.

10 June 2021: Visiting Marria Pratts’ studio L’Hospitalet. #PanoramaMACBA


17 June 2021: Meeting with Arash Fayez and Rosa Tharrats and the MACBA team. #PanoramaMACBA



18 June 2021: Round of meetings with nyamnyam followed by Ruta de Autor and Stella Rahola at the museum. #PanoramaMACBA




20 June 2021: Recording the 8th and last episode of the podcast series ‘Quasi Veu’ in the lobby of Fabra i Coats – released 2 July 2021. In the first part of the +2h programme, Mariana discussed some aspects of ‘Things Things Say’, the exhibition Latitudes curated last fall at the Fabra i Coats: Centre d’Art Contemporani.


22 June 2021: Adrian Schindler filming Tetuan, Tetuán, تطوان  at Plaça Tetuan. Schindler's project will be presented as part of MACBA’s inaugural Panorama exhibition in October 2021. #PanoramaMACBA



1 July 2021: Announcement of ‘Notes for an Eye Fire’ participants, launch of the web with the graphic image of the Panorama exhibition series: Ana Domínguez, El Palomar (Mariokissme & R. Marcos Mota), Laia Estruch, Arash Fayez, Antoni Hervàs, Rasmus Nilausen, nyamnyam (Ariadna Rodríguez & Iñaki Álvarez) with Pedro Pineda, Claudia Pagès, Aleix Plademunt, Marria Pratts, Stella Rahola Matutes, Eulàlia Rovira, Ruta de autor (Aymara Arreaza R. & Lorena Bou Linhares), Adrian Schindler, Rosa Tharrats, Gabriel Ventura, and Marc Vives. #PanoramaMACBA


6 July 2021: Online catch up with public programmes’ Tonina Cerdà and Alicia Escobio. #PanoramaMACBA


14–16 July 2021:
Press trip to visit the newly opened Hauser & Wirth, at the Illa del Rei, Maó (Menorca). Max Andrews will review Mark Bradford’s show ‘Masses and Movements’ for frieze







Carlos Cruz-Diez at Galería Cayón, Maó. 

17 July 2021: Rough cut screening of Adrian Schindlers filmTetuan, Tetuán, تطوان  to be premiered as part of MACBA’s inaugural Panorama exhibition in October 2021. #PanoramaMACBA

Photo: Hiuwai Chu.

26 July 2021: Visiting Toni Hervàs at La Escocesa alongside MACBA’s team Alex Castro, Eva Font and Berta Cervantes (conservation, architecture and coordination). #PanoramaMACBA






→ RELATED CONTENTS:

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2019 in 10 monthly Cover Stories

Since our 10th anniversary in Spring 2015, Latitudes has published a monthly cover story on its website (www.lttds.org) featuring past, present or forthcoming projects, as well as research, texts, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects or travel related to our curatorial work.  

2019 has been an active year of field trips. We have been lucky to visit ARCOmadrid, Buenos Aires (May 2019), Valencia (to research for an article and to participate in a conversation), Devon and Cornwall (September 2019), to Chicago and Detroit (hinted at in the September 2019 Cover Story), Helsinki (October 2019), Bilbao, Moscow (December 2019) and Amsterdam (and Reykjavík from the screen as featured in the April-May cover story).

Happy holidays and a joyful 2020!

Cover Story—December 2019: Curating and the Web of Life.
Cover Story—November 2019: ‘Fighting fires in Valencia: the 30-year story of the IVAM’.
Cover Story—October 2019: Mercedes Azpilicueta in Helsinki.
 Cover Story—September 2019: ‘Polperro to Detroit’
Cover Story—Summer 2019: Francesc Ruiz’s Brexit Bristol sequel, ten years ago.
Cover Story—June 2019: ‘Thinking like a drainage basin: Lara Almarcegui’s ‘Concrete’.
Cover Story—May 2019: Buenos Aires in Parallel.
Cover StoryMarch-April 2019: Icelandic refraction.
Cover StoryFebruary 2019: Schizophrenic Machine.
Cover Story—January 2019: "Seesaw".


RELATED CONTENT:
  • Cover Story—December 2018: "Treasures! exhibitionism! showmanship!" 1 December 2018
  • Cover Story—November 2018: "Joan Morey—postmortem judgement reenactment" 1 November 2018
  • Cover Story–October 2018: "I can’t take my eyes off you: Eulàlia Rovira and Adrian Schindler" 1 October 2018
  • Cover Story–September 2018: Harald Szeemann’s travel sculpture, 10 September 2018
  • Cover Story–August 2018: Askeaton Joyride, 2 August 2018
  • Cover Story–July 2018: No Burgers for Sale 2 July 2018
  • Cover Story—June 2018: Near-Future Artworlds Curatorial Disruption Foresight Group, 4 June 2018
  • Cover Story – May 2018: Shadowing Roman Ondák, 7 May 2018 
  • Cover Story – April 2018: "Cover Story—April 2018: Dates, 700 BC to the present: Michael Rakowitz" 3 April 2018 
  • Cover Story – March 2018: "Armenia's ghost galleries" 6 March 2018 
  • Cover Story – February 2018: Paradise, promises and perplexities 5 February 2018 
  • Cover Story – January 2018: I'll be there for you, 2 January 2018 
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Max Andrews' Valencia Feature in frieze magazine, November-December 2019

Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM), 1989. Courtesy: Institut Valencià d’Art Modern. Photograph: Juan García Rosell.

Max Andrews, co-director of Latitudes and contributing editor to frieze magazine, has written the feature-length article ‘The Rise, Fall and Reinvention of Spain’s First Modern Art Museum’ for the November–December 2019 (issue 207) of frieze
The article focuses on the rise, fall, and reinvention of the city’s trailblazing Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) through the cultural and (often notorious) political agents that have forged its institutional history since it opened in 1989. It also touches on the roles of other important institutions in the contemporary art landscape in Valencia, such as the Centre del Carme, the galleries Luis Adelantado, espaivisor, and Rosa Santos, and the private art foundation Bombas Gens Centre d'Art, that opened in 2017 in a former 1930s hydraulic pump factory.

Fermín Jiménez Landa, ‘Salvar el foc’ (Save the Fire), 2018, public sculpture and performance documentation. Courtesy: the artist.

"On the night of 19 March 2017, artist Fermín Jiménez Landa lit a match from the embers of a smouldering monument in a square within the Spanish city of Valencia. From that flame, he lit a candle, then a lantern, then a gas heater, keeping the fire alive through various technologies for 365 days and nights, until it sparked the incineration of his own monument, a wooden representation of an apartment block. Jiménez Landa’s action was done as part of Valencia’s fabled fallas festivities, which culminate each Saint Joseph’s night with a vast spectacle of burning all over the city, as hundreds of elaborate sculptures, conventionally groups of clownish figures, go up in smoke. The fallas have long brought a satirical zest, and an irresistibly primal symbolism, to Spain’s third-largest city. They’re a searing reminder of the transience of art." 

→ Continue reading here.


View of the collection gallery ‘Matter, space and time. Julio González and the avant-gardes’, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM). Photo: Latitudes, May 2019.
(Above and below) Views of the collection show ‘TIMES OF UPHEAVAL. Stories and microstories in the IVAM collection’, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM). Photo: Latitudes, May 2019.
View of the exhibition ‘The Gaze of Things. Japanese Photography in the context of Provoke’ at Bombas Gens Centre d’Art, Valencia. Photo: Latitudes, May 2019. 


RELATED CONTENT:
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      Cover Story—November 2019: ‘Fighting fires in Valencia: the 30-year story of the IVAM’

      Latitudes' homepage www.lttds.org

      The November 2019 monthly Cover Story ‘Fighting fires in Valencia: the 30-year story of the IVAM’ on Latitudes' homepage: www.lttds.org
       

      "How does a museum recover from scandal? What imperatives exist for regional institutions outside of capitals? When, in 1989, the IVAM (Institut Valencià d’Art Modern) opened the doors to its imposing, new, slab-like building on the edge of what was once Valencia’s medieval walled core, it became the first public museum in Spain dedicated to collecting and exhibiting 20th-century art. Discussing IVAM’s rise, fall and reinvention, an article in the current frieze (issue 207, November–December) by Latitudes' Max Andrews (also a frieze Contributing Editor) is a case study on how right-wing politics impacted an entire city art ecology."


      → Continue reading
      → After November 2019, this story will be archived here.

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

      → RELATED CONTENTS: 

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      Latitudes' "out of office": wrap up of the 2018–2019 season

      Seen in Malasaña, Madrid. Photo: @marianacanepaluna

      This is our tenth ‘Out of Office’ post, a tradition which started with this 2008-9 post in pre-Facebook, pre-Twitter, pre-Instagram days. We’ve come a long way, but remain faithful to the idea of sharing behind-the-scenes moments. Below we share a selection of the art we’ve seen, the trips we had a chance to take, the conversations we began, the meals we shared, and (oh, we particularly love these) installation scenes. Subverting the institutional convention of the year-end report, our ‘out of office’ mixes official and unofficial photos, screengrabs and we-fies, even! Revision, reflection, remembrance, re-ignition. Create or die!

      September 1, 2018: New season, new month, and new cover story on the Harald Szeemann exhibition in Bern (cover story archive here).
      September 5, 2018: Launch of a new dispatch of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ from Buenos Aires, Argentina. In this eighth episode, Móvil co-founder and curator Alejandra Aguado followed the itinerary devised by the artist Diego Bianchi around the self-regulated community Velatropa, the buzzing commercial area of Once, identifying human and non-human flows and interactions. This became an entry point for discussing Bianchi’s interests in how, as consumers, we define a particular zeitgeist and appropriate trends that enable us to affirm our identities.

      Each of the 20 photographs is augmented by one or more extra assets – a brief commentary, a sound or a caption – accessed by clicking the words overlaying the images. 

      ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ is an ongoing editorial project edited by Latitudes and produced by KADIST. Earlier offline conversations have taken place in Chicago (USA), Jinja (Uganda), Suzhou (China), Lisbon (Portugal), Terengganu (Malaysia) and Yerevan (Armenia).


      September 11–15, 2018: Installation and opening of the exhibition ‘Cream Cheese and Pretty Ribbons!’ at Martin Janda Gallery, Vienna. 

      But before that, works like those by Eulàlia Rovira and Adrian Schindler were carefully crated and traveled to Vienna from their studio in Barcelona.


      Photo: Eulàlia Rovira and Adrian Schindler.

      Installation process of ‘Cream Cheese and Pretty Ribbons!’. Photo: Martin Janda Gallery.

      Exhibition file with correspondence, floor plan, artist's CVs, checklist, price list, technicians notes, etc. Above and following photos: Latitudes.

      Mariana installing David Bestué’s ‘Trencadissa’ (2013).

      (Left) Eulàlia Rovira and Adrian Schindler’s ‘Els peus fixats al terra delatant cap impaciència’ [THE FEET FIXED TO THE GROUND BETRAY NO IMPATIENCE] (2016) and (right) photograph series by Sean Lynch, part of the installation ‘A BLOW BY BLOW ACCOUNT OF STONE CARVING IN OXFORD’, (2013-14).


      Eulàlia and Adrian holding their print. Where shall we hang it?

      With Sean, Eulàlia and Adrian. Unanimously decided Adrian’s arm was the longest and therefore would perform better as a ‘we-fie’ stick. 


      September 14, 2018: The day after the opening Eulàlia and Adrian presented “One motif says to another ‘I can't take my eyes off you’” a new performance produced for the occasion at the gallery (focus of the October Cover Story), and Sean Lynch performed the lecture ‘A Blow by Blow Account of Stonecarving in Oxford’, parrots and owls! More photos.
      October 2018 cover story. Archived here.

      September 2—18, 2018: Intermittent installation of Joan Morey’s exhibition ‘COLLAPSE’ at the Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona — Fabra i Coats.


      Deciding among the two options for the façade banners. Italics or not?

      Last-minute proofreading of exhibition captions and panels.
      Planning the next steps during the installation with technician guru Alberto Calvete.
      A heads up to visitors.
      Listing the contents in each vitrine.
      Wall labels, exhibition guide, essay and remote controls.

      September 19, 2018: Opening of Morey’s exhibition ‘COLLAPSE’, Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona – Fabra i Coats. 


       Opening photos: Eva Carasol. 

      September 27, 2018: First reenactment of Joan Morey’s performance ‘POSTMORTEM. Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu’ [POSTMORTEM. To have done with the judgment of God] (2006–2007) interpreted by Sònia Gómez, in the context of the exhibition ‘Desiring machine, Working machine’ at the Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona – Fabra i Coats.

      ‘POSTMORTEM. Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu’ [POSTMORTEM. To have done with the judgment of God] (2006–2007) published in frieze magazine Instagram.

      September 28–October 7, 2018: Research trips to London  during Frieze art week (blog post here, art-agenda round-up here) and Liverpool for the Liverpool biennial (photo report here). 


      While in London we met with Valentina Ravaglia, Assistant Curator, to donate Lawrence Weiner's limited edition tote bag, designed in 2015 to commemorate Latitudes’ 10th anniversary. Shortly after, the tote was included in Tate's ‘ARTIST ROOMS: Lawrence Weiner’ exhibition, on view from November 2, 2018, at The McManus Museum and Galleries in Dundee, Scotland, until February 17, 2019.

      (Above and below) View of ‘Lawrence Weiner. ARTIST ROOMS’, National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. ©Lawrence Weiner. 

      October 11, 2018: Second reenactment of Joan Morey’s performance within the exhibition ‘Desiring machine, Working machine’ at the Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona – Fabra i Coats. ‘LLETANÍA APÒRIMA’ [APORIC LITANY] (2009) was interpreted by Jordi Vall-lamora.

      Joan Morey. LLETANIA APÒRIMA (2009). Performance reenactment within the frame of the exhibition ‘COLLAPSE. Desiring MKachine, Working Machine’ (2018–2019). Photo: Noemi Jariod. Courtesy the artist.

      October 12, 2018: art-agenda.com publishes Mariana Cánepa Luna’s Frieze Roundup review. Read it here.


      October 12–14, 2018: Train to Arlès to visit the exhibition ‘Picture Industry: A Provisional History of the Technical Image’ at LUMA Arlès (Max Andrews’s review was published in December).



      Frank Gehry’s building under construction. 
       A large exhibition devoted to Gilbert & George works. 
      Saturday morning reception at LUMA.
      Before the morning reception, a quick walkthrough Arlès busy Saturday market. 

      October 19, 2018: (Secret) Site-visit to La Modelo prison with Joan Morey (artist) and Esther Doblas (executive production) to check the spaces, discuss script possibilities (plan A, B, C, D...), identify mobility issues, etc. At this point in time, nobody knew the location of the event which was only disclosed the very same evening of the performance.

      Salvador Puig Antich, the last political activist executed by Franco’s dictatorial regime, was jailed in this wing, in the cell 443. He was garroted in March 1974 in a room where parcels were delivered to the prison.
       Advanced tangle wiring techniques.
       Central space. Morey makes notes on his map of all the access, exits, gallery numbering, etc.
       Exit to the largest prison yard.
       Cisterns placed outside the cells in cages to avoid prisoners hiding anything in them.

       Joan taking further notes nearby the room where prisoners were given methadone.

      Joan, Esther and Mariana discuss options in the Panopticon-inspired central space (this cabin is not the original structure).

      October 25, 2018: Fifth reenactment of Joan Morey’s performance within the exhibition ‘Desiring machine, Working machine’ at the Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona – Fabra i Coats. ‘GRITOS Y SUSURROS. Conflicte dramàtic cinquè (amb l’obra d’art)’ [CRIES & WHISPERS. Fifth Dramatic Conflict (with the Work of Art)] (2009) was interpreted by Carme Callol and Tatin Revenga.

      Carme Callol and Tatin Revenga rehearsal. Photo: Joan Morey.

      Joan Morey, ‘GRITOS Y SUSURROS. Conflicte dramatic cinquè (ambos l’obra d’art)’ [CRIES & WHISPERS. Fifth Dramatic Conflict (with the Work of Art)], 2009. Interpreted by Carme Callol and Tatin Revenga. Performance reenactment within the frame of the exhibition ‘COLLAPSE. Desiring Machine, Working Machine’ (2018–2019). Photo: Noemi Jariod. Courtesy the artist.

      October 26–27, 2018: Attending the opening of ‘Te toca a tí’ in Espai d'art contemporani de Castelló (EACC). Mariana’s review of the exhibition would be published on
       January 7, 2019, in art-agenda


      Teresa Lanceta’s work, exhibition view of ‘Te toca a tí’ in Espai d’art contemporani de Castelló (EACC). 

      November 1, 2018: Morey’s first performance of the series is this months’ focus on Latitudes’ home page. 
      November 13, 2018: frieze.com publishes the review of Pere Llobera show at Bombon Projects and SIS galería by Max Andrews. Read the review here. Also included in the January-February 2019, issue #200, page 242.

      November 15, 2018: Fourth reenactment of Joan Morey’s performance within the exhibition ‘Desiring machine, Working machine’ at the Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona – Fabra i Coats. ‘BAREBACK. Fenomenología de la comunión’ [BAREBACK. Phenomenology of Communion], (2010) was interpreted by Manuel Segade.

      Preparation of Manuel Segade’s outfit before the reenactment of the performance ‘BAREBACK. Fenomenología de la comunión’ [BAREBACK. Phenomenology of Communion], (2010) by Joan Morey. Photo: Noemi Jariod. Courtesy the artist.

      Portrait of Manuel Segade at the end of his performance ‘BAREBACK. Fenomenología de la comunión’ [BAREBACK. Phenomenology of Communion], (2010) on Max Andrews’s Instagram.
      November 18–22 Vienna Art Week; November 22-25 Amsterdam Art Weekend: This blog post documents the exhibitions and studios visited during our trip to Vienna, hosted by the Vienna Art Week. As part of the programme, Latitudes participated in a panel discussion on ‘Some Current Positions of Curating’ at das weisse haus.


      (Above and below) Photos by eSeL.


      November 22, 19:30h: Unfortunately due to our earlier engagement to attend the Vienna Art Week and a sudden change of dates, we were unable to attend the opening of Joan Morey’s ‘COS SOCIAL’ at Centre d’Art Tecla Sala, the second chapter of ‘COLLAPSE’. Below some install shots when the works arrived from Lleida’s La Panera.


      Morey striking a pose on the façade of Tecla Sala. Photos: Latitudes.

      November 22-25, 2018: Amsterdam Art Week. Visited De Appel, Rijksakademie OPEN Studios, Andriesse, Oude Kerk, RongWrong, Stedelijk museum, Ellen de Bruijne, Fons Welters, tegenboschvanvreden, andriesse eyck, a.o. Photo report here (with photos from the Vienna Art Week, too).

      November 29, 2018: Fifth reenactment of Joan Morey’s performance within the exhibition ‘Desiring machine, Working machine’ at the Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona – Fabra i Coats. ‘IL LINGUAGGIO DEL CORPO. Prólogo’ [IL LINGUAGGIO DEL CORPO. Prologue] (2015–2016) was interpreted by Catalina Carrasco and Gaspar Morey.

      The final shot of ‘IL LINGUAGGIO DEL CORPO’ published on Max Andrews' Instagram (later deleted by Instagram due "not following their community guidelines on nudity").

      December 1, 2018: Following on our recent trip to Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum to see their historic Brueghel exhibition, we decided to dedicate December’s cover story to another of their current shows: ‘Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and Other Treasures’ conceived by filmmaker Wes Anderson and his partner Juman Malouf. 
      December 2018 cover story on www.lttds.org

      December 2–4, 2018: Short research trip to Madrid to visit exhibitions: group show ‘Querer parecer noche’ at the Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo in Móstoles; Lúa Coderch’s ‘La vida de O.’ at CentroCentro; comprehensive solo shows by Luigi Ghirri, Luis Camnitzer, Dorothea Tanning, and Dierk Schmidt at Museo Reina Sofia; Lina Bo Bardi at Fundación March; works by Portuguese artists Alexandre Estrela and João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva at La Casa Encendida; and a few solo exhibitions in commercial galleries such as David Goldblatt at Elba Benítez; Alejandro Cesarco in Parra & Romero; Eva Fàbregas at garcía galería; Enric Farrés Duran at NoguerasBlanchard and Daniel Jacoby at Maisterravalbuena. We also had time to squeeze in a visit to the Museo Geominero, a place we’ve long wanted to visit and never managed to find time for. And it didn’t disappoint. Highly recommended to everyone not only into minerals and stones but also nerds (as we are) on exhibition display and cabinets.

      Lúa Coderch’s ‘La vida de O.’ at CentroCentro.
      Alejandro Cesarco at ParraRomero, Madrid.

      Above and below: Museo Geominero, Madrid.


      Group exhibition ‘Querer parecer noche’ at the Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo (CA2M) in Móstoles.


      Dierk Schmidt at Museo Reina Sofia’s Palacio Velázquez.

      December 13, 2018: Sixth and final reenactment of Joan Morey’s performance within the exhibition ‘Desiring machine, Working machine’ at the Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona – Fabra i Coats. ‘TOUR DE FORCE. El cos utòpic’ [TOUR DE FORCE. The Utopian Body] (2017) was interpreted by Eduard Escoffet.


      Backstage makeup and application of fake tattoos – in the hurry the ‘Memento Mori’ tattoo on one on Escoffet’s arm was upside down. No big deal. 

      December 20, 2018: frieze.com publishes Max’s review on the exhibition ‘Picture Industry: A Provisional History of the Technical Image’, a survey exhibition at LUMA Arlès captures the history of mechanically-reproduced imagery from the 19th century to the present. Read the review here.
      January 7, 2019: art-agenda publishes Mariana’s review of the group exhibition ‘Te toca a tí [It's your turn]’ at Espai d'art contemporani de Castelló (EACC). Read the review here.

      The review is also the focus of our January’s Monthly Cover Story on Latitudes home page (archived here).

      January 8–10, 2019: Set up for the performance ‘Schizophrenic Machine’ by Joan Morey, the closing event of the three-part project ‘COLLAPSE’. Both exhibitions at the Centre d’art contemporani de Barcelona – Fabra i Coats and Centre d’art Tecla Sala close on January 13, 2019. 



      January 10, 2019, at 7pm: Performance ‘COLLAPSE. Schizophrenic Machine’ by Joan Morey. Performance structured in a prologue and five acts inside Barcelona’s La Model prison. A group of people was driven by coach to the location from each of the two art centres that hosted the first two parts of ‘COLLAPSE’. The performance was integrated into the architecture and the memory of the building, creating an imposing immersive experience. Public restricted by capacity to 113 spectators. Attendance had to be requested in advance and was subject to prior selection and the acceptance of specific rules and a strict dress code. More here.

      ‘COLLAPSE. Schizophrenic Machine’ by Joan Morey.© 2019. All documentation photographs by Noemi Jariod. Courtesy of the artist.

      January 14, 2019: frieze.com publishes Max’s fan letter on ‘Frank Zappa’s Genre-Defying ‘Civilization Phaze III’’. Published in Issue 200, January - February 2019. Read the text here.
      February 1, 2019: New cover story focusing on Morey’s closing performance ‘COLLAPSE. Schizophrenic Machine’ at La Model prison in Barcelona.
      February 8, 2019: Launch of a new ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ dispatch from Reykjavík (and cover story on Latitudes’ home page between March-April 2019). In this new itinerary, Canadian curator Becky Forsythe and Icelandic artist Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir navigate Reykjavík’s surroundings considering Þorgerður’s “current interest in Icelandic Spar (a form of transparent calcite), its double refraction and light-polarizing properties. In a race with daylight, they travel between sites, collecting moments and considering the ways in which geologic time surfaces in the context of human time.”

      Each of the 27 photographs is augmented by one or more extra assets – a brief commentary, a sound or a caption – accessed by clicking the words overlaying the images.


      ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ is an editorial project that began in Spring 2016. It’s edited by Latitudes and produced by KADIST as part of their online projects. Earlier offline conversations have taken place in Chicago (USA), Jinja (Uganda), Suzhou (China), Lisbon (Portugal), Terengganu (Malaysia), Yerevan (Armenia) and Buenos Aires (Argentina).




      February 20, 2019: After a few weeks facing the screen and months mining hard disks, we finally upload Latitudes’ redesigned portfolio, available to download for desktop/laptop/tablet view (83pp, 30.9 MB), for mobile (164pp,15.8 MB) or for print (164pp, 155.3 MB).



      February 26–March 1, 2019: Three intensive days navigating ARCOmadrid events. We enjoyed Reina Sofía’s exhibitions dedicated to Chicago-based artist H. C. Westermann (reviewed by Mariana in the April issue of L’Officiel Art International) and Mapa Teatro’s site-specific installation as part of the Fisuras programme; David Bestué’s solo show at García Galería; Catalina Lozano’s exhibition ‘Winning by Losing’ at CentroCentro; Charlotte Moth’s subtle play with three works from CA2M’s collection in Móstoles, and Armando Andrade Tudela also at CA2M.


      Above and below: David Bestué solo show at García Galería, Madrid.
      (Above and below): Following on from Joao Laia’s earlier exhibition ‘Transmissions from the Etherspace’ in the same institution, his latest exhibition ‘Drowning in a sea of data’ —despite the ubiquity of the topic of the incessant presence of technology and algorithms in our daily lives — included great works such as Clemens von Wedemeyer’s film and Tomasz Kowalski’s small canvases.

      Downstairs the highlights of this year’s Generación 2019 were Susanna Inglada and Lucía P. Moreno.
       Catalina Lozano’s group exhibition ‘Winning by Losing’ at CentroCentro. Above: work by Patricia Esquivias. Below: Work by Asier Mendizábal and (next images) Jorge Satorre and Xavier Salaberría.
      (Above and below) Bravo to Charlotte Moth’s subtle play with three pieces in CA2M’s collection in dialogue with some of her work. A highlight was the two-part theatre backdrop painted by Leonor Fini in the 1950s and commissioned by Antonio el Bailarín for the 1956 International Festival of Granada.


      March 13, 2019: Max’s review on ‘Domènec. Y la tierra será el paraíso’ exhibition at adn galería, Barcelona, published on frieze.com (also included in frieze, issue 202, April 2019).
      23 March–16 April 2019: Montevideo (family trip) and Buenos Aires (work trip). Read a fully documented report of our week in Buenos Aires, invited by arteBA.

      Max Andrews and Lara Marmor conversation ‘First Things First: Making Exhibitions for a General Audience’ covered the contradictions for curatorial and artistic strategies addressing larger audiences. Photo: Art Basel.

      In ‘Beyond the Museum: New Institutional Frames for Art’ Mariana Cánepa Luna and Solana Molina Viamonte discussed some of the current transformations institutions undergo, as well as identifying forthcoming challenges. Photo: Art Basel.

      Pizza and fugazza at El Cuartito with Alejandra Aguado.

      April 2019: Two articles were published this month. Latitudes wrote a 14-page feature on Joan Morey for THE SEEN—Chicago’s International Online Journal of Contemporary and Modern Art, and Mariana wrote a review of H. C. Westermann’s retrospective ‘Goin’ Home’ (Volver a casa) exhibition at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, published in L’Officiel Art International’s issue #29. More on our writing archive.


      The first page of the 14-page feature on Joan Morey’s performative practice was published on THE SEEN—Chicago’s International Online Journal of Contemporary and Modern Art.

      Views of the H. C. Westermann's retrospective "Volver a casa" exhibition at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. Photo: Latitudes.

      Additionally, a third text appeared later this month: the essay ‘Thinking like a drainage basin’ included in the exhibition catalogue ‘Lara Almarcegui. Béton’ published by Silvana Editoriale, accompanying her solo exhibition at CAIRN centre d’art in Digne-les-Bains in southern France.

      In 2011 Latitudes edited the monograph ‘Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010’ published by Archive Books.

      (Two above) IVAM’s new sculpture park under construction.



      (Two above) Views from their current permanent collection display ‘TIEMPOS CONVULSOS. Historias y microhistorias en la colección del IVAM’.

      (Above and below) Views from the exhibition ‘Ice and Earth: The Shimmering Abstractions’ by Anna-Eva Bergman at Bombas Gens, Valencia. Read here


      May 2–4, 2019: Trip to Valencia to research for an article on the Valencia art scene in the framework of IVAM’s 30th anniversary (to be published in November 2019 in frieze magazine).

      May 6–31, 2019: Intense jury duty selecting Barcelona Producció awardees of the 2019–2020 season, 
      an initiative of La Capella. Three long weeks reading 259 applications, debating with the rest of the jury, and interviewing 32 shortlisted candidates in order to award 15 production grants.


      On June 3, winners are announced. Latitudes will tutor three of the fifteen awarded projects: ‘Joc d'infants’ [Children’s game] by Lola Lasurt (solo exhibition, June-October 2020), the offsite project ‘La Balena del Prat al Prat’ [The El Prat Whale to El Prat] by Consol Llupià, and the research ‘Nombrar, poseer. Crítica de la práctica taxonómica’ [To name, to own. Critique of taxonomic practice] by Agustín Ortiz Herrera.
      May 29, 2019: Frieze published Max’s review ‘Ice and Earth: The Shimmering Abstractions’ on Anna-Eva Bergman’s retrospective of the terrestrial geographies at Bombas Gens, Valencia. Printed in the September 2019 issue of frieze (#205). 

      Exhibition catalogue ‘Lara Almarcegui. Béton published by Silvana Editoriale.

      June 4, 2019: We received copies of the publication ‘Lara Almarcegui. Beton’ (Silvana Editoriale, April 2019), which includes Latitudes' essay ‘Thinking like a drainage basin’. 


      One of the cleverest interventions: (Theresa) ‘May you live in interesting times’, Venice Biennale 2019.

      June 10–14, 2019: Visiting the Venice Biennale. Highlights: Jannis Kounellis at the Fondazione Prada; in the biennale enjoyed works by Khalil Joseph, Ed Atkins, Gabriel Rico, Hito Steyerl, Otobong Nkanga, Haris Epaminonda, Ulrike Müller, Michael Armitage, Gauri Gill (a highlight of Documenta14), Cyprien Gaillard, Jimmie Durham and Lara Favaretto, et. al. The group show at Punta della Dogana (always impeccably installed) had great pieces by Hicham Berrada, Charbel Joseph H. Boutros, Stéphane Saade, and Ari Benjamin; Christopher Kulendran Thomas at V-A-C; mixed feelings about Luc Tuymans at Palazzo Grassi; visited the empty Lithuanian (performances were only on Saturdays, Wednesdays has now been added to the schedule). In the Giardini, we enjoyed the presentations in France, Brazil, Belgium and Switzerland, and elsewhere Ghana, Cyprus, Wales, France, Madagascar, Dineo Seshee Bopape's work in the South African pavilion, the maze-like Italy and Hong Kong. Future Generations is always good to visit, though we'd be grateful if they could provide a leaflet or sheet with information on the exhibited works and artists. We enjoyed the presentations by Toyin Ojih Odutola, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Daniel Turner and Gala Porras-Kim and had time to swing by Victoria Miro which presented great paintings by Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Others are photographed below.

      Detail from Cathy Wilkes’s work at the British Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2019.

      Ingela Ihman’s work at the Nordic Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2019.

       Sergio Prego’s sculptures at the back of the Spanish Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2019.

      Yu Ji sculptures in the Central Pavilion, Giardini, Venice Biennale 2019

      Jimmie Durham’s ‘Black Serpentine’ in the Central Pavilion, Giardini, Venice Biennale 2019.

      Lara Favaretto's ‘Thinking Head’ in the Central Pavilion, Giardini, Venice Biennale 2019.

      Haris Epaminonda in the Arsenale, Venice Biennale 2019.

      Joël Andrianomearisoa at the Madagascar Pavilion, CorderieVenice Biennale 2019.

      Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings at the Ghana Pavilion, Corderie, Venice Biennale 2019.

       Irish pavilion with work by Eva Rothschild, Corderie, Venice Biennale 2019.

      Welsh Pavilion presented work by Sean EdwardsVenice Biennale 2019.

      July 1, 2019: New cover story rewinding 10 years to Francesc Ruiz's (visionary?) participation in the group show ‘Sequelism, part 3: Possible, Probable and Preferable Futures’ in Arnolfini, Bristol.
      July 11, 2019: Conversation with Lara Almarcegui at the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) in the context of her new exhibition ‘Lara Almarcegui. Agras volcano. Mining rights


      Photo © Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM).

      July 16, 2019: Website update with a new page on our forthcoming participation in PUBLICS’s ‘Today Is Our Tomorrow’ art festival taking place in early September in Helsinki. Running parallel during the same week (9–15 September), Frame Contemporary Art Finland is organising ‘Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities’, a six-day gathering in which artists, curators, researchers and other critical minds ‘are invited to rehearse and debate hospitality towards diverse ways of knowing and challenging of dominant knowledges’.
      July 19, 2019: As a board member of the Fundació Privada AAVC governing HANGAR since 2015, Mariana attends the last HANGAR board meeting before the Summer break. This is a longer than usual session as 2018 accounts have to be approved. Enjoying the blue sky and bright colours before entering the spreadsheet world.



      Nearby building to HANGAR on c. Marroc / Espronceda.


      July 22, 2019: We learn Joan Morey is one of the eight beneficiaries of the 27th edition of the Botín Foundation’s International Visual Arts Grants. Yey! 

      July 26-28, 2019: Trip to Madrid to catch a few exhibitions before they finished and the August exodus. Henrik Olesen, David Wojnarowicz, Miriam Cahn, Sara Ramo and Rogelio López Cuenca at the Museo Reina Sofía; Inéditos 2019 at La Casa Encendida; Eva Fàbregas and Aimée Zito Lema at CentroCentro; the recently inaugurated Paloma Polo at CA2M in Móstoles; Joël Andrianomearisoa (at Galería Sabrina Amrani) and Darío Villalba at Sala Alcalá 31, two shows ending this weekend.


       Joël Andrianomearisoa at Galería Sabrina Amrani.

       Above and below: Darío Villalba at Sala Alcalá 31

       Eva Fàbregas ‘Gut feeling’ at CentroCentro.

        Paloma Polo, ‘A Fleeting Moment of Dissidence Becomes Fossilised and Lifeless After The Moment Has Passed’ 2014, at CA2M in Móstoles.

       Henrik Olesen, ‘SOME GAY-LESBIAN ARTISTS AND/OR ARTISTS RELEVANT TO HOMO-SOCIAL CULTURE BORN BETWEEN C. 1300–1870’ (2007) at Museo Reina Sofía.

      David Wojnarowicz's photograph ‘What Is This Little Guy’s Job in the World’ (1990) at the Museo Reina Sofía


      The 2019–2020 season will kick off on 9–15 September. We'll be in Helsinki participating in two events. Firstly the art festival ‘Today Is Our Tomorrow’, a three-day event (12, 13 and 14 September) initiated by PUBLICS presenting a collaboratively curated program of temporary public art commissions, live performance, music, dance, theatre, literature and symposia, local and international organisations. Latitudes’ has invited Mercedes Azpilicueta to present the performance ‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ (2015) at Club Kaiku, an underground music venue renowned for hosting an innovative lineup of DJs. 


      Skype conversation with the artist Mercedes Azpilicueta and Paul O'Neill from PUBLICS.

      And secondly, we'll be part of Frame Contemporary Art Finland's ‘Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities’, a week composed of a series of talks, performative dialogues, interventions and screenings developed in collaboration with a number of local partners.

      A few days later, we'll be participating in the 2019 EXPO CHICAGO/Red Bull Arts Global Curatorial Initiative visiting a range of institutions and artists in Chicago (17–21 September) and Detroit (21–23 September).


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