Longitudes

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

Latitudes’ “Out of office”: wrap up of the 2019–20 season

 Mon, Aug 3 2020
Seen in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat. Photo: @marianacanepaluna

In what has now become something of a Latitudes’ tradition we wrap up the season with a retrospective glance behind the scenes of some of our projects and activities of the previous twelve months (see the 2008-9, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 posts). This last year has of course been unprecedented in so many ways. From mid-March, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that everything that had been in place was suddenly thrown into permanent doubt, delayed, or simply cancelled. As a healthcare crisis now precipitates an economic crisis, and with things we once took for granted (among them international travel, and visiting physical art exhibitions) completely changed for the foreseeable future, it is with more than a little trepidation that we even dare to look back at what once seemed normal. 

Keep well, keep safe.
#DistanciaManosMascarilla
#DistànciaMansMascareta


September 1, 2019: New season, new month, new cover story. ‘Polperro to Detroit’ tracked the improbable connection between Polperro, a small town Latitudes passed through on its summer sojourn, and an American Rust Belt metropolis we would be visiting later this September as participants of the Red Bull Arts Global Curatorial Initiative: Detroit.

September monthly Cover Story on https://www.lttds.org/coverstory

September 9–15, 2019: Beginning of the 2019–2020 season. This was our first trip to Helsinki where we were participating in two events. Firstly Latitudes was a partner organisation in the arts festival ‘Today Is Our Tomorrow’, a three-day event (12, 13 and 14 September) initiated by PUBLICS that presented a collaboratively curated program of temporary public art commissions, live performance, music, dance, theatre, literature and symposia. Latitudes invited Mercedes Azpilicueta to present her performance ‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ (2015) at Club Kaiku, an underground music venue renowned for hosting an innovative lineup of DJs. 

We were also guests of Frame Contemporary Art Finland’s Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities’, a week composed of talks, performative dialogues, interventions and screenings developed in collaboration with a number of local partners.


‘Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities’ organised by Frame Contemporary Art Finland, hosted at the Museum of Impossible Forms.

 
September 12, 5:30h: Mercedes Azpilicueta during her talk in Helsinki.

 
Inga Lace’s Instagram Stories documenting the conversation between Mercedes and Latitudes on September 13, 2019.


Mercedes during her rehearsal at Club Kaiku. 

Mercedes and Max in the ferry to Suomenlinna Island to visit HIAP and a film installation by Marjolijn Dijkman and & Toril Johannessen. 

 

With Jussi Koitela (Head of Programme, Frame Contemporary Art Finland) and curators Anne-Sophie Springer and Sofia Lemos in HIAP's office space in Suomenlinna island. 

Listening to Wet Code, a sound piece by Myriagon at Suomenlinna Island. Photo by Ida Enegren / Frame Contemporary Art Finland.


On top of the Temppeliaukion Kirkko (A church built into rock) with Anne-Sophie Springer and Sofia Lemos.


Our October 2019 cover story featured Azpilicueta's performance programmed during TODAY IS OUR TOMORROW. 

PUBLICS' Library in Helsinki incorporated Latitudes-edited publications to their beautiful shelves in Vallila, Helsinki.



September 18–23, 2019: Joined the 2019 EXPO CHICAGO/Red Bull Arts Global Curatorial Initiative participating in a range of events and visits in Chicago (18–21 September) and Detroit (21–23 September).

→ Read the photo report here.

Caught purchasing books during our visit to ExpoChicago's section Index Art Book Fair. Photo: Casa Bosques. 

Morning session with the participating curators in the EXPO CHICAGO/Red Bull Arts Global Curatorial Initiative together with the Art Institute curatorial staff at the Art Institute Chicago. Photo: Expo Chicago.

The first stop in Detroit was visiting Dabls’ African Bead Gallery where we met its creator, Olayami Dabls led by our fantastic host Scott Campbell, Artist Liaison at Red Bull Arts Detroit, accompanied also by curator Maria Inés Rodríguez. 

Laura Mott (Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Design) leading a tour of her curated exhibition ‘Landlord Colors: On Art, Economy, and Materiality’ at the Cranbrook Art Museum. Painting by Yoan Capote.

September 20, 2019: Meanwhile in Copenhagen, the exhibition Rasmus Nilausen's solo exhibition ‘Bluetooth’ opened at Overgaden. Institut for Samtidskunst, Copenhagen, for which Max contributed an essay.

→ Exhibition views and booklet (pdf).

(↑↓) Views from Nilausen's exhibition at Overgarden, Copenhagen. Photos: Anders Sune Berg. 



October 7, 2019: artfridge.de published the interview Helene Romakin conducted with us over the summer.

→ Read the interview.

artfridge.de



October 9, 2019: The artist Céline Mathieu (and former BAR TOOL #2 participant) published an article in the Belgian magazine HART on the Barcelona art scene mentioning Latitudes and our three closed-door sessions ‘Barcelona / Such a beautiful horizon: Critical social infrastructure to promote art scene health resilience’ Latitudes led with BAR Tool's 2018–19 participants.



October 17-19, 2019: Lecture ‘4.543 billion and abstract social nature’, Jornadas Eremuak, AzkunaZentroa, Bilbao. Taking as a reference point one of the ten galleries hosting the 2017 group exhibition ‘4,543 billion. The matter of matter’ at the CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, we expanded on the notion of ‘abstract social nature’ coined by environmental historian and geographer Jason W. Moore through the work of four exhibiting artists: Lara Almarcegui, Pep Vidal, Lucas Ihlein and Amy Balkin.

→ Video presentation here (Spanish, 24'45'')
→ Q&A session here (Spanish, 19'52'').


Photo: Eremuak.

October 23, 2019: First meeting with Joan Morey to discuss the adaptation of his retrospective exhibition COLLAPSE for Casal Solleric in Palma de Mallorca, opening at the end of January. Time is of the essence.



November 1, 2019: Max Andrews’s feature-length article ‘The Rise, Fall and Reinvention of Spain’s First Modern Art Museum’ on Valencia’s IVAM was published in the November–December 2019 (issue 207) of frieze magazine. The article focuses on 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.

→ Featured as our November 2019 Cover Story.

November 2019 Cover Story www.lttds.org/coverstory

November 7, 2019: Latitudes presents the lecture ‘Curating in the Web of Life’ as part of the public programme for the group exhibition ‘The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100’, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 7 November 2019. This was our first trip to Russia.

→ Video of the lecture (1h 28min including Q&A).


(↑↓) Latitudes during the lecture ‘Curating in the Web of Life’. Photo: Anton Donikov. © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. 
 
Hello from Moscow's Red Square. 

The lobby of the heartbreaking zoological Museum in Moscow, the second largest zoological museum in Russia in Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. 
(↑↓) The most beautiful, cleanest and ad-free metro network we've ever seen. 



November 20-25, 2019: Trip to Amsterdam Art Weekend (AAW). Mariana was writing a Roundup review on the event for art-agenda (published on December 13). Since we’ve already published a post in December 2020 about what we saw during the week, we’re now remembering on the always beautiful flower arrangements the Rijksakademie displays in their welcoming areas!

→ Earlier iterations of the AAW 2014, 2016 and 2018.





November 28, 2019: Inaugural screening of DART Festival of Contemporary Art Documentaries (28 November–1 December). Latitudes was a jury member this year together with film critic Quim Casas and visual artist Núria Güell, and awarded the film ‘Barbara Rubin & the Exploding NY Underground’ (USA, 2018, 78 min) by Chuck Smith as the best international documentary and ‘Elliott Erwitt – Silence Sounds Good’ (Spain-France, 2019, 61 min) by Adriana López Sanfeliu as the best national documentary.


The inaugural session of the 3rd edition of the festival took place at cinema Phenomena with the 1974 film ‘A bigger splash’ by Jack Hazan, and a welcome intro by TV host Laura Sangrà and DART Festival co-directors Enrichetta Cardinale and Marc Gomariz. Below one of the sessions at the always busy Cinemes Girona. Photo: DART Festival.





December 1, 2019: December gloom was compensated on our homepage by a feature on Edward Steichen’s 1936 exhibition ‘Delphiniums’, at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
September monthly Cover Story https://www.lttds.org/coverstory/

December 3, 2019: Press presentation of the 2019-20 season of Barcelona Producció coinciding with the opening of Martin Llavaneras’s solo show. 

 
(Left to right) Alexandra Laudo (Barcelona Producció 2019-20 jury member and tutor of Martin Llavaneras’ project), Oriol Gual (Capella director), David Armengol (Tutor coordination), and Jordi Ferreiro (artist in charge of the newly created mediation grant).

We-fie with the three artists Latitudes tutored this season (left to right): Lola Lasurt, Consol Llupià, Agustín Ortiz (and Lola's baby Margot).

December 13, 2019: art-agenda publishes Mariana's Amsterdam Roundup, expanded with more photos on this Longitudes' post.

→ Read the review.


December 20, 2019: Mariana attends the last (official) meeting as secretary and board member of the Fundació Privada AAVC, the organisation governing HANGAR Centre de Producció i Recerca d'Arts Visuals. The board has met on a regular basis between December 2015 and December 2019 in order to discuss all aspects regarding its daily running—overseeing expenditure, approving financial forecasts or more philosophical yet pressing issues over its daily governance. A new board begins the next four-year term 2020–24.

Christmas 2019: Slow inbox days dedicated to writing and editing artwork captions, finalising an essay and the press release for the new iteration of Joan Morey's retrospective adapted to Casal Solleric in Palma de Mallorca.

Max editing Joan Morey's texts for its new iteration at Casal Solleric. 

January 2, 2020: New Year, New Decade, New Month, New Cover Story. Featuring Adrián Villar Rojas’s ‘Poems for Earthlings’ transformative installation at Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, and featured in Mariana’s recent art-agenda Roundup.

January 2020 Monthly Cover Story on www.lttds.org, archived here. 

January 21, 2020: Publish a refreshed Reduce Art Flights website (first published in 2008!) now including an exhibition history and a transcript of the interview with RAF’s instigator, the late Gustav Metzger.

→ https://reduceartflights.lttds.org


January 22, 2020: First meeting with Clara Renau, Miriam Soms and Joana Hurtado, the team of the Fabra i Coats: Centre of Contemporary Art of Barcelona to begin work on a group exhibition for the Autumn 2020...


January 28, 2020: Launch of the 10th dispatch of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ with contributions from Catalina Lozano and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

→ http://incidents.kadist.org




January 31, 2020: Opening of the solo exhibition by Joan Morey ‘COLLAPSE. Bachelor Machine’ at Casal Solleric, Palma de Mallorca. The exhibition is an adaptation of the first two parts of the project COLLAPSE presented in three concurrent venues in Barcelona between September 2018 and January 2019.


Bringing one of the seven vitrine-coffins exhibiting materials related to Morey's performances. Photo: @joanmorey via Instagram. 

Exhibition vinyl placed at the entrance of the exhibition. 
Installing ‘COS SOCIAL’ (2017) film. Photo: Joan Morey. 

Joan Morey guided tour on the opening night.

 
Celebratory coques i espinagades with Joan at the unbeatable Fornet de la Soca. 

February 21, 2020: Max joins Agustín Ortiz Herrera (whose research ‘Naming, Possessing. Critique of Taxonomic Practice’ is mentored by Latitudes as part of the Barcelona Producció 2019–20 season) the Cabinet of Curiosities of Francesc Bolós in Olot.

→ Featured in Latitudes' March cover story.


Agustín browsing through one of the copies of Linnaeus' "Species plantarum".



February 24, 2020: Ahead of ARCOmadrid art fair, Max (Contributor Editor, frieze magazine) selected some institutional and gallery shows to see in Madrid this week.


Frieze magazine organised evening drinks during ARCOmadrid at the legendary Bar Cock near Gran Via.

March 10, 2020: Attended the opening of Pere Llobera's solo show at La Capella, the second of the Barcelona Producció 2019-20 season. This became the last opening before the state of alarm was declared in Spain (eventually extended until June 21) triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we had to remain at home until June.


View of Pere Llobera's exhibition ‘Faula Rodona. Sols i embogits. Entre la precisió total i una cancó de Sau’ (Circular Fable. Alone and Maddened; Between Total Accuracy and a Song by Sau). Photo: Pep Herrero / La Capella. 

March 13, 2020: Confinement. Projects on hold, conversations postponed. One of them was the three-day seminar Agustín Ortiz Herrera was preparing in the context of his ongoing research project ‘To name, to own. Critique of taxonomic practice’. Agustín’s research is one of the three projects mentored by Latitudes as part of the Barcelona Producció 2019–20 production grant. More on this and other ‘frozen’ projects, hopefully soon.

Photo: Agustín Ortiz Herrera, 2019.

April 2020: This month marks Latitudes’ 15 anniversary, celebrated during a strict lockdown.


April 9, 2020: . Launch of the 11th dispatch of ‘Incidents (of Travel)’ with an itinerary by the artist duo Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker and report and photos by curator Sandino Scheidegger (Random Institute) from Panamá City, Panama. 

→ incidents.kadist.org


May 2, 2020: After more hours than we'd like to know or admit (and one of the few good side effects confinement allowed) we finally launched our rebuilt and redesigned website.

→ https://www.lttds.org 



May 22, 2020: Consol Llupià, one of the three artists we have been tutoring this year as part of the visual arts grant scheme Barcelona Producció, launched her online initiative ‘Vibraera’, part of her long-term ongoing project ‘La Balena de El Prat a El Prat’ [The El Prat Whale to El Prat]. On this day, during the migratory season of Whales around the Mediterranean coast and coinciding with a new moon, Llupià invited collaborators to join her in “an energetic rebellion, a call for collective immaterial action”, as she described it. This unfolding chapter was conceived as a symbolic communicative dialogue between humans and whales and consisted of an energetic global gathering intended to activate the vibrational capacity of humans to generate interspecies connections.


June 1, 2020: Jitsi catching up with the tutors of Barcelona Producció (Antònia Folguera missing) to discuss the results of the co-signed Open Letter (in Catalan) requesting the Barcelona Institute of Culture to immediately launch the 2021 Open Call, a petition that thankfully became effective a week later.

Photo: David Armengol. 

June 24, 2020: The of our contributions to Questions and Appearances, an initiative by Kadist, is Fermín Jiménez Landa’s response to our question “What is your advice, or warning, to the government?”, followed on the 8th by a second one (“What is importantly non-essential?”) which we posed to Arash Fayez.

→ https://www.instagram.com/questionsandappearances/


 

June 29, 2020: Technical meeting in preparation of Lola Lasurt’s forthcoming show at La Capella. David Armengol (Barcelona Producció 2019-20 coordinator, affectionally known as the ‘Tutor of tutors’) picked up an old-fashioned drawing table from Massana art school.


July 1, 2020: New cover story and a new episode of Incidents (of Travel) from Tbilisi, Georgia. A spring itinerary through the city’s former silk industry and the heart of Nino Kvrivishvili’s practice, the tour took place via a screen in Australia as Georgia emerged from the Spring lockdown.

→ incidents.kadist.org

Latitudes’ July 2020 homepage. 

July 21, 2020: After a month's of postponement, Lola Lasurt’s exhibition ‘Children’s Game’ opens at La Capella. It’s been a long process since it was announced as one of the three selected shows to be produced and presented at La Capella.

Lasurt’s exhibition looks back at the 1968 retrospective exhibition ‘Miró. Barcelona 1968-69’ with which La Capella was inaugurated as a venue dedicated to contemporary art. Through a new series of paintings, photos, videos, and ceramics, Lasurt addresses the socio-political turmoil at the end of the 1960s. She depicts imagery related to childhood published in the national press during the two-month state of exception declared in Spain just a few days after the Miró exhibition had ended.

→ Exhibition sheet (pdf)
→ Exhibition publication (pdf)


August 2019 meeting discussing layout and production calendar. 

(↑↓) During the Spring lockdown, we continued to check on each other and share the work-in-process. Lola was working on her ceramics and paintings in a garage-turned-studio nearby her house in Manresa and we were writing the text for the exhibition sheet. 

(↑↓) 14–16 July 2020: Lotema team during the installation. 



Due to the pandemic health measures, there was no opening event and visitors RSVPd in groups of 10. Photo: Pep Herrero/La Capella.

Lola Lasurt during one of the guided visits. Photo: Pep Herrero/La Capella.

Publication designed by Carles Murillo. 

July 23, 2020: Joan Morey presented the performance “COLLAPSE. Possible Machine” at the house museum Can Balaguer as part of his retrospective exhibition ‘COLLAPSE. Bachelor Machine’ at Casal Solleric (now extended until 6 September 2020). The performance took his 2017 performance ‘TOUR DE FORCE’ as a departing point but situated it in the present SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic.

(↑↓) July 9, 2020: Rehearsals with the actresses Anna Sabaté and Candela Capitán, protagonists in ‘COLAPSO. Máquina posible’ alongside Nadal Roig. Photo: @joanmorey 

(↑↓) Poster produced for the performance with an essay by Latitudes. Photos: Joan Morey. 
Latitudes’ August 2020 Cover Story.

Looking forward to (hopefully) attending some Autumn activities for Lasurt’s recently opened exhibition at La Capella, to publicly present Agustín Ortiz’s ongoing research and publication in October, as well as Consol Llupià’s publication. And, most importantly, to open on October 17, the group show ‘Things Things Say’ we have been working on since January, to be presented at Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Center of Barcelona’s ground floor. Things will be revealed in due course.


→ RELATED CONTENTS:

 2019, 2020, Agustín Ortiz, Barcelona Producció, Bilbao, Consol Llupià, covid-19, Incidents of Travel, Joan Morey, Lecture, Lola Lasurt, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Moscow, out of office, visitor programmes
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2019 in 10 monthly Cover Stories

 Mon, Dec 23 2019
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 Story—March-April 2019: Icelandic refraction.
Cover Story—February 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 
 2019, art-agenda, Bilbao, Buenos Aires, Chicago, cover story, end of the year, field trip, Francesc Ruiz, Frieze, Joan Morey, Lara Almarcegui, latitudes, looking back, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Moscow, report
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Report: Latitudes' participation in the festival TODAY IS OUR TOMORROW initiated by PUBLICS in Helsinki

 Fri, Oct 4 2019
Poster announcing the festival in a street in central Helsinki. Photo: Latitudes.

As partner organisation in the transdisciplinary festival ‘Today Is Our Tomorrow’ initiated by PUBLICS, Latitudes' participation consisted in inviting Argentinian-born, Amsterdam-based artist Mercedes Azpilicueta, to perform at Club Kaiku on September 13, 2019.

Façade of Kaiku, Helsinki.

A day earlier, on September 12, 2019, Latitudes and Mercedes maintained an open conversation introducing her artistic practice and, in particular advancing details of both her ‘Yegua-Yeta-Yuta’ performance taking place a day after, as well as her forthcoming solo exhibition at CentroCentro, Madrid, opening October 3, 2019, and her solo presentation as part of Van Abbemuseum's ‘Positions #5’, a series of exhibitions presenting the work of artists working in the Netherlands.

September 12, 2019, 5:30–6:30h: (Above and below) Mercedes, Mariana and Max (Latitudes) in conversation at Club Kaiku. Photo: Jonni Korhonen/PUBLICS.
Photo: Jonni Korhonen/PUBLICS.
Photo: Aman Askarizad/PUBLICS.

Azpilicueta performed ‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ (2015-ongoing), an evolving solo performance that is part scripted, part improvised. Composed from a litany of hundreds of pejorative, abusive, and vulgar insults directed at women in Argentina, it transforms the everyday language of misogyny and harassment into a kind of tragicomic exorcism. Many of the words derive from the street slang of Buenos Aires, especially Lunfardo, a colloquial and cryptic dialect that first arose among working-class Italian-immigrant and tango communities in Argentina and Uruguay during the late 1800s. For example, yegua literally means a mare – a female horse, a slur for a “difficult” woman. A yeta is a person who brings bad luck, while a yuta is someone corrupt or unscrupulous, and slang for the police. Accompanied by a percussive beat, Azpilicueta reclaims the power to offend, distorting and distending the epithets into something powerful and playful rather than weak and degrading. Azpilicueta performed to the beat of a new soundtrack produced for the occasion in collaboration with Chilean choreographer Rodrigo Sobarzo de Larraechea. 

See documentation on our photo gallery.

Photo: Aman Askarizad/PUBLICS.

Mercedes Azpilicueta during her performance ‘Yegua-Yeta-Yuta’ (2015-ongoing) for TODAY IS OUR TOMORROW festival, organised by PUBLICS, Helsinki. Photo: Latitudes.
Photo: Jonni Korhonen/PUBLICS.

Photo: Aman Askarizad/PUBLICS.


Photo: Kush Badhwar/PUBLICS.


Photo: Kush Badhwar/PUBLICS.
Photo: Kush Badhwar/PUBLICS.

Photo: Kush Badhwar/PUBLICS.

Photo: Latitudes.


Mercedes Azpilicueta is an Argentinian visual and performance artist based in Amsterdam. Her practice has spanned theatrical mises-en-scènes and video installations, textile sculptures and drawing, sound works and 3D animation. With a particular interest in notions of the vulnerable or collective body, and the primal or dissident voice, her works have drawn inspiration from sources as diverse as Baroque painting, text messaging, medieval tapestries, street slang, and literary fiction, as well as singular figures including the Italian art critic and feminist activist Carla Lonzi (1931–1982), the Argentine-French performance artist Lea Lublin (1929–1999), the French futurist Valentine de Saint-Point (1875–1953), and the Costa Rican-born Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas (1919–2012). A major survey of Azpilicueta’s work to date, ‘Cuerpos Pájaros’ (Body-birds) was recently staged by the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (November 2018–April 2019 — see Latitudes' Buenos Aires report). On October 3, 2019, she presents ‘Bestiario de Lengüitas’ (Bestiaire of Tonguelets), curated by Virginie Bobin, at CentroCentro, Madrid, an exhibition which will then tour to Museion, Bozen, and CAC Brétigny in 2020. Later in 2019, she will have a solo presentation as part of ‘Positions #5’ at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
(Above) Mercedes during her performance ‘Oh, Eduarda!’ on April 14, 2019, presented at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires. Photo: Latitudes.

→ RELATED CONTENTS
 2019, conversations, documentation, Helsinki, in photos, Latitudes-curated, Mercedes Azpilicueta, partner organisation, performance, PUBLICS, report
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Cover Story—October 2019: Mercedes Azpilicueta in Helsinki

 Tue, Oct 1 2019
Latitudes' homepage www.lttds.org

The October 2019 monthly Cover Story ‘Mercedes Azpilicueta in Helsinki’ is now up on Latitudes' homepage: www.lttds.org

“Buitre! burra! cabeza! cabezona! cabrona! cachivache! cachucha! cachufleta! cagada! cagadora! cagona! cajeta!…” Mercedes Azpilicueta’s performance ‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ (2015–ongoing) is a part scripted, part improvised litany of hundreds of pejorative, abusive, and vulgar insults directed at women in Argentina. Performed on the inauspicious date of Friday 13th September, it was Latitudes’s contribution to the collectively-curated and inaugural Today is Our Tomorrow festival initiated by PUBLICS at Club Kaiku and neighbouring venues in Helsinki, Finland.”

 → Continue reading
→ After this month 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:
 2019, cover story, Helsinki, Mercedes Azpilicueta, performance, PUBLICS
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Partner organisation in ‘Today Is Our Tomorrow’, participation with Mercedes Azpilicueta, PUBLICS – club Kaiku, Helsinki, 12–14 September 2019

 Mon, Sep 2 2019
Graphic identity of the art festival. Design: julia.studio.


‘Today Is Our Tomorrow’ is a collaborative, collective, and transdisciplinary festival initiated by Helsinki-based curatorial agency PUBLICS, produced in partnership with local and international organisations, initiatives and institutions. The programme will include a co-commissioned and collaboratively curated programme of temporary public art commissions, live performance, music, dance, theatre, literature and symposia, and will pilot in Club Kaiku complex in Kallio, an underground music venue renowned for hosting an innovative lineup of DJs, and the neighbouring spaces Kieku and Stidilä.

The 2019 edition of ‘Today Is Our Tomorrow’ is curated, commissioned, organised in collaboration with the Finnish partners: Academy of Fine Arts, Baltic Circle, Globe Art Point, IHME Helsinki, Kohta Gallery, Live Art and Performance Studies (LAPS), and Museum of Impossible Forms, and the international partners Index Foundation from Stockholm, osloBIENNALEN from Oslo, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art from Riga, and Latitudes from Barcelona.

The programme looks at ‘other’ versions of the present already being lived in Finland and globally: from Alternative futures to Indigenous-futures, to Afro-futures, to Asian-futures, to Eco-futures, to Bio-futures, to Queer and Feminist futures, and to non-hegemonic futures.
Graphic identity of the art festival.
At the invitation of PUBLICS to participate in the festival, Latitudes has invited Buenos Aires-born, Amsterdam-based artist Mercedes Azpilicueta to present her performance ‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ at Kieku (ground loor, next to Stidilä) on Friday 13 September, 11–11:30pm. A day earlier, on Thursday 12 September, Latitudes will be in conversation with the artist at 5:30h also at Kieku.

‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ (2015-ongoing) is an evolving solo performance by Azpilicueta that is part scripted, part improvised. Composed from a litany of hundreds of pejorative, abusive, and vulgar insults directed at women in Argentina, it transforms the everyday language of misogyny and harassment into a kind of tragicomic exorcism. Many of the words derive from the street slang of Buenos Aires, especially Lunfardo, a colloquial and cryptic dialect that first arose among working-class Italian-immigrant and tango communities in Argentina and Uruguay during the late 1800s. For example, yegua literally means a mare – a female horse, a slur for a “difficult” woman. A yeta is a person who brings bad luck, while a yuta is someone corrupt or unscrupulous, and slang for the police. Accompanied by a percussive beat, Azpilicueta reclaims the power to offend, distorting and distending the epithets into something powerful and playful rather than weak and degrading. Azpilicueta will perform to the beat of a new soundtrack produced for the occasion in collaboration with Chilean choreographer Rodrigo Sobarzo de Larraechea. 

Mercedes Azpilicueta performing ‘Yegua-yeta-yuta’ during the 2017 CA2M Picnic Sessions, Móstoles (Madrid). Photo: Arantxa Boyero.


Mercedes Azpilicueta is an Argentine visual and performance artist based in Amsterdam. Her practice has spanned theatrical mises-en-scènes and video installations, textile sculptures and drawing, sound works and 3D animation. With a particular interest in notions of the vulnerable or collective body, and the primal or dissident voice, her works have drawn inspiration from sources as diverse as Baroque painting, text messaging, medieval tapestries, street slang, and literary fiction, as well as singular figures including the Italian art critic and feminist activist Carla Lonzi (1931–1982), the Argentine-French performance artist Lea Lublin (1929–1999), the French futurist Valentine de Saint-Point (1875–1953), and the Costa Rican-born Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas (1919–2012). A major survey of Azpilicueta’s work to date, ‘Cuerpos Pájaros’ (Body-birds) was recently staged by the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (November 2018–April 2019). In October 2019 she will present ‘Bestiario de Lengüitas’ (Bestiaire of Tonguelets), curated by Virginie Bobin, at CentroCentro, Madrid, an exhibition which will then tour to Museion, Bozen, and CAC Brétigny in 2020. Later in 2019, she will have a solo presentation as part of ‘Positions #5’ at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

(Above) ‘Bestiario de lengüitas’ (2017-ongoing) pieces included in Mercedes Azpilicueta's solo show ‘Cuerpo pájaros’ recently programmed at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires. Photo: Latitudes.

Running parallel during the same week (9–14 September), Latitudes will attend the ‘Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities’, a six-day event organised by Frame Contemporary Art Finland in which artists, curators, researchers, and audiences in the field of contemporary art ‘are invited to rehearse and debate hospitality towards diverse ways of knowing and challenging of dominant knowledges’. Alongside the public programme, Frame will arrange studio visits, one-on-one meetings and networking situations.

(Two Above) Moments from the performance ‘Oh, Eduarda!’ on April 14, 2019, also presented at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires. Photos: Latitudes.


→ RELATED CONTENTS:
 2019, artist talk, conversations, Helsinki, Latitudes-curated, Mercedes Azpilicueta, participation, partner organisation, performance
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Report: Buenos Aires during Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires, Semana del Arte and arteBA fair

 Mon, Apr 22 2019

Invited by Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires to participate in their Parallel Talks programme during ArteBA, Latitudes spent a week in Buenos Aires (9–15 April) visiting a range of studio spaces, non-profit initiatives, commercial galleries, residency programmes, collectors, artists, and the arteBA art fair itself. 

(Above) Mariana Tellería ("Dios es inmigrante", 2019) and Carlos Huffmann (below) "Hito de frontera", 2019).

Tuesday 9 April 2019: We arrived in the evening in time to join the opening of the Buenos Aires Art Week (Semana del Arte) at Plaza Seeber. On the square, several sculptures were commissioned for the occasion, including works by Mariana Tellería (representing Argentina in the 2019 Venice Biennale), as well as works by Margarita Paksa, Marie Orensanz, Luna Paiva and Carlos Huffmann (photographed below).


Façade of MALBA — Museo Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires.

Wednesday 10 April: Morning visit to MALBA — Museo Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, who just announced the appointment of Gabriela Rangel as its new director. MALBA we saw "Inner world Modern Argentine Photography 1927-1962" with really compelling photographic work by Horacio Coppola, among others, as well as the survey "Latin American Art 1900–1970" from the MALBA collection.


 (Above) Pistal Central de La Rural.

In the afternoon we went to the Pista Central of La Rural to attend the opening of ArteBA. Later in the week, twelve concurrent talks — the Parallel Talks programme organised by Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires — would take place inside transparent geodesic domes installed on this arena.

"Cultivar el suelo es servir a la patria" (Cultivate the soil is to serve the homeland).

 Inside the art fair ArteBA.


‘Lleno de sonrisas serias’, a 1963 work by conceptual artist and fashion designer Dalila Puzzovio (work above, the artist is photographed below on the left) was presented at Rolf Art gallery. Her discarded cast piece was included in the 1964 exhibition ‘New Art of Argentina’, organized by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires (installation view in the background where her piece was presented on the floor). As Walker curator Siri Engberg wrote, the show ‘brought to Minneapolis Argentine artistic trends in geometric, abstract, and collage painting, constructivism, and other developments’. Rolf Art also presented works by José Alejandro Restrepo ‘Parquedades’ (1987) and María José Arjona's performance ‘Línea de Vida’.


 (Above and four images below) Nicolás Robbio at Museo Sívori

In the evening we had welcome drinks at the Museo Sívori, which hosted the fantastic solo show "3 de espaldas" by Nicolás Robbio, curated by Sebastián Vidal Mackinson.



Thursday 11 April 2019: Morning visit to several studios in the Once neighbourhood, including that of Eduardo Basualdo (above and two images below).

Later visited a group exhibition at galería Revolver which included "Aspiradora" (2017) by Alberto Borea.

Vicente Grondona's work also at Revolver.

cheLA studio spaces in parque Patricio neighbourhood.

In the afternoon we divided into smaller groups. We went to cheLA, a large 1930s industrial building in Parque Patricios hosting a programme of international residencies directed by Pablo Caligaris. In its 5,000m, cheLA hosts a range of organisations ("Constellations") including Móvil, a non-profit directed since 2014 by Alejandra Aguado and Solana Molina Viamonte, occupying the sala Tatraba.

Entrance to Móvil in cheLA. 

(Above and below) Exhibition "Sí, no y otras opciones" by Tucumán-born artist Mariana Ferreira at Móvil.


Evening opening at Centro Cultural Kirschner (CCK) (pictured above) hosted a large survey by 47 Argentinian artists titled "La marca original: arte argentino" presented over their vast exhibition spaces on the second and fourth floors. The building was a former post office and reminded us of Madrid's CentroCentro which has undergone a similar readaptation of its use, both struggling to adapt their spaces to the presentation of contemporary art.

 House-gallery of Maria Casado.

 Friday, April 12, 2019: Morning visit to El Tigre, north of Buenos Aires, visiting the home-and-gallery of Maria Casado and the residency programme Proyecto URRA.

(Left to right) Stuart Fallon (Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburg), Marie Christine Schuh (Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires), Latitudes, Richard Parry (Glasgow International), gallerist Maria Casado and Sandino Scheidegger (Random Institute).


Onwards to the nearby Proyecto URRA artists residencies, also in El Tigre. Introductions by the resident artists Antonio Castillo Coo, Claire de Santa Coloma, Enrique Radigales, Lucas Despósito and Marisol San Jorge, and URRA director Melina Berkenwald.

Photo: Stuart Fallon.

 (Above and below) Installation by Madrid-based artist Enrique Radigales.

Enrique discusses his piece with visitors and other residents. Photo: Stuart Fallon.

Afternoon at the Parque de la Memoria—a fourteen-acre remembrance park situated in front of the Río de la Plata, commemorating the victims of state-sponsored terrorism from the 1976–83 military regime. Here we met Florencia Battiti (Curator at Parque de la Memoria) who explained the mission, programme and public commissions. 





Saturday 13 April 2019: On Saturday morning we joined the arteBA tour to a few galleries in La Boca neighbourhood: Fundación El Mirador (showing Alfredo Prior), Quadro Galería (showing Karin Idelson) and (photographed) Galería Barro exhibiting Marcelo Pombo. Fundación PROA presented contemporary Argentinian design, and we had ‘choripán’ lunch at the nearby Fundación PROA 21.


Back at the fair, transparent geodesic domes had been set up by Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires at the Pista central in La Rural. Each space hosted the three consecutive conversations, starting 5:30. Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna's individual conversations ran consecutively (at 6:30 and 7:30) each for an hour. 

As narrated by co-guest Sandino Scheidegger of the Random Institute, other talks included topics such as ‘An Exhibition By Any Other Name’, ‘How Can Art Institutions Foster Experimentation?’ or ‘Curating in Context: How to Be Site-Specific’ (programme pdf here).

 On the subject of the 3-year relationship between arteBA and Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires, Kerry Doran wrote his impressions in Artforum diary. 





Sunday 14 April 2019: A very welcome free day Sunday. We visited MUNTREF—Centro de Arte Contemporéneo's recently opened Premio Braque 2019 exhibition featuring works by fifteen Argentinian artists: Alfredo Dufour, Belén Romero Gunset, Celina Eceiza, Erica Bohm, Gustavo Nieto, Julián Sorter, Malena Pizani, Mariana Ferrari, Mónica Heller, Nacha Canvas, Nicolás Mastracchio, Juan Sorrentino, Mariana López, Dani Zelko and Cecilia Szalkowicz, awarded this year Premio Braque with her piece ‘Cosmos’. The award consists of a six-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. 

 (Above and below) ‘Cena recalentada’ by Celina Eceiza.

 (Above, left) Belén Romero Gunset ‘Pensar sola es criminal’ and (right) Erica Bohm ‘El cristal perfecto’. 
(Above) Julián Sorter ‘Doble de cuerpo’.
View of the show with works by Alfredo Dufour ‘Cest la vie I’, Malena Pizani ‘Cinco monos’ and Nicolás Mastracchio ‘Inducción VI’. 
(Above, foreground) works by Nacha Canvas ‘Símil’ and (background) Mariana Ferrari ‘Vivir aquí’.

Entrance to Carla Zaccagnini's "Mañana iba a ser ayer" curated by Lucrecia Palacios y Agustín Pérez Rubio also on view at MUNTREF—Centro de Arte Contemporéneo.




A classic fugazzeta at El Cuartito was followed by 1h walk to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bellas Artes in San Telmo, with a short diversion to El Ateneo bookstore (below).




At the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires: "Una Historia de la imaginación en la Argentina", subtitled "Visiones de la Pampa, el litoral y el altiplano desde el siglo XIX a la actualidad", one of the most interesting shows in town. We wished we had seen it earlier as a means of introduction to the historical and artistic context. It included 250 works from different geographical points of the country, selected around their representation of nature, the feminine body and violence. It was curated by Javier Villa, Chief Curator at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires.

(Above) Works by Calixto Mamani and exhibition views below.



Installation "Mi Silencio miseria" (2015-19) by Carlos Herrera.


Also at MAMBA, we caught the last day of Mercedes Azpilicueta's solo show ‘Cuerpos pájaros’, and more specifically, her performance "Oh Eduarda!".





(Above) Azpilicueta performing during her "Oh Eduarda!", a script realised in collaboration with Agustina Muñoz, who performs alongside the artist. 


RELATED CONTENT:
 2019, Argentina, Art Basel, art fairs, art weekend, Buenos Aires, Gallery Weekend, Mercedes Azpilicueta, report, residency, studio visit, studios facilities, talks programme
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