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

Cover Story, November 2024: Max Andrews on Robert Smithson’s text “Aerial Art” (1969)

Fri, Nov 1 2024

November 2024 cover story on www.lttds.org

NEW MONTH
NEW MONTHLY COVER STORY

The November 2024 monthly Cover Story “Frequent Flyers: Robert Smithson’s ‘Aerial Art,’ 1969” is now up on Latitudes’ homepage (after November 2024 it will be archived here). Cover Stories are published monthly featuring past, present, or forthcoming projects, research, texts, artworks, exhibitions, films, objects, or field trips related to Latitudes’ curatorial projects and activities.

Max Andrews was commissioned to contribute an essay on a work by Robert Smithson (1938–1973) for the Holt/Smithson Foundation’s Scholarly Text Program.

→Read here

Max chose to write on Smithson’s text “Aerial Art” published in Studio International in February 1969. In the essay, Smithson presented proposals developed for Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport in 1966–67, in collaboration with Tippetts—Abbett—McCarthy—Stratton Architects and Engineers. His proposals envisioned extensive earthworks to be installed between the runways, created by himself, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, and Sol LeWitt.

Bound reproductions of slides accompanying early terminal planning concepts for the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport, presented by airlines to top management in December 1966 and January 1967. The first phase of the runway layout and master plan slide reproductions have been annotated with notes and drawings regarding earthworks by Robert Smithson. Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers, 1905-1987. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

The Scholarly Text Program regularly commissions thinkers from various disciplines to write 1,200 words on single artworks by Nancy Holt and/or Robert Smithson. These essays explore how Holt and Smithson’s ideas resonate through contemporary artistic and cultural production, covering topics ranging from geology to ecology, poetry, and beyond.

Read Mariana Cánepa Luna’s recently published essay on N ancy Holt’s site-responsive installation “Ventilation System” (1985–1992) also part of the Scholarly Text Programme’s Chapter 7.

Thank you to Lisa Le Feuvre, Executive Director of the Holt/Smithson Foundation, for the kind invitation to contribute to the foundation’s growing archive, and to William T. Carson, Program Manager and Assistant Curator, for the research assistance.

https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/scholarly-texts

Abstract:

Max Andrews’ essay delves into Robert Smithson's seminal article "Aerial Art" (1969), which outlines his earthworks proposals for the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport and those of Carl Andre, Robert Morris, and Sol LeWitt. Andrews examines the historical context, including the growth of air travel and global art networks. Importantly, the essay underscores the sustained multi-decade increase in CO2 emissions from air travel and its significant contribution to the climate crisis.

Keywords:

Robert Smithson, Aerial Art, 1969, Studio International, Artforum, Anthropocene, Charles Jencks, postmodernism, Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport, Tippetts–Abbett–McCarthy–Stratton, earthworks, Carl Andre, Robert Morris, and Sol LeWitt, site-specificity, Boing 747, Spiral Jetty, CO2 emissions, frequent flying, transnational art world, contemporary art, decarbonization, exhibition-making, curatorial hypermobility, Harald Szeemann, air travel, global mobility, low-carbon footprint art production, multinational museum brands, biennial model, Fernand Braudel, Gustav Metzger, Reduce Art Flights, Paris Agreement, 2030, global warming.

How to cite:

Andrews, Max, “Frequent Flyers: Robert Smithson’s “Aerial Art,” 1969”, Holt/Smithson Foundation: Scholarly Texts Chapter 7 (October 2024). ISBN: 978-1-952603-36-5

→ RELATED CONTENT:

Other writing
Looking back – Visiting Robert Smithson's “Spiral Jetty” (1970) on 7 September 2004, 7 Sep 2014
Publication “Robert Smithson: Art in Continual Movement” (Alauda Publications, 2012) includes an essay by Max Andrews, 28 Mar 2012
Lecture by Max Andrews "From Spiral to Spime: Robert Smithson, the ecological and the curatorial", 13 March, 2pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Royal College of Art, London, 12 March 2012
Robert Smithson's “Broken Circle/Spiral Hill Revisited” (1971–2011) and The Land Art Contemporary programme, 14 September 2011
Archive of Monthly Cover Stories
Cover Story, October 2024: Nancy Holt “Ventilation System”, 1 Oct 2024
Cover Story, September 2024: THE CREST OF A WAVE, 2 Sept 2024
Cover Story, July-August 2024: Rosa Tharrats, Curtain Call, 1 July 2024
Cover Story, June 2024: TERENCE GOWER—DIPLOMACY, URBANISM, URANIUM, 3 June 2024
Cover Story, May 2024: Richard Serra & Anne Garde—Threats of Paradise, 30 Apr 2024
Cover Story, May 2024: Richard Serra & Anne Garde—Threats of Paradise, 30 April 2024
Cover Story, April 2024: In Progress–Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum, 2 April 2024
Cover Story, March 2024: Dibbets en Palencia, 4 March 2024
Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 February 2024
Cover Story, January 2024: Curating Lab 2014–Curatorial Intensive, 2 Jan 2024
Cover Story, December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View, 2 Dec 2023
Cover Story, November 2023: Surucuá, Teque-teque, Arara: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, 2 Nov 2023

2024, air travel, CO2 footprint, earthworks, emissions, environmentalism, Essay, Max Andrews, Robert Smithson

Latitudes renews their Active Membership with Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC)

Tue, Apr 9 2024

Pantallazo con los miembros de Latitudes mencionados en el anuncio de GCC con los 125 Miembros Activos de 2023.

Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna of Latitudes are among the 125 Members who have successfully achieved Active Membership 2023 with Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC). This is the second year running that Latitudes is an Active Member. This new cohort represents a 50% increase in successful applications and a renewal of over 85% of last year’s Active members.

To renew our Active status we continued implementing environmental sustainability best practices in line with GCC’s guidelines focusing on near-term tangible actions, and had to:

Complete a CO2e report or audit. Latitudes’ carbon footprint was 17.4tCo2e in 2019 (baseline year), 3.8tCo2e in 2022 and 1.5tCo2e in 2023. We reduced our footprint by 78% of the emissions within the first year of the calculations and over 60% in the second year. We calculate our carbon footprint by considering travel, hotel accommodation, and energy consumption emissions, and use the GCC Carbon Calculator and DEFRA conversion factors to ensure consistent and accurate reporting.
Establish and maintain a Green Team. Latitudes is one of the Founding Committee members of GCC Spain, one of the seven International volunteer teams currently operating in Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, Italy, and Taiwan.
Publish an Environmental Responsibility Statement – our extended and illustrated version here.

Active Membership is not a certification of sustainability. Yet, it entails transparency in assessing, reporting, and reducing climate impact, setting targets aligned with science, and searching for working solutions. Active Membership badges are year-stamped and members re-submit annually to retain the latest Active designation.

Active Membership Announcement here.

More on https://galleryclimatecoalition.org

RELATED CONTENTS:

Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 Feb 2024
Latitudes’ Environmental Policy Statement – Extended version here.
Montse Badia sobre GCC Spain en la revista Bonart #198, 25 Oct 2023
Active Membership Press Release, 10 May 2023.
Latitudes qualify as an Active Member of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), 10 May 2023
Cover Story, March 2023: Art, Climate, and New Coalitions, 1 Mar 2023
Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) en el Estado español, 25 January 2023
Latitudes’ essay “Un suelo para las historias del arte del futuro” [Soil for Future Art Histories] in TBA21’s catalogue “Futuros Abundantes / Abundant Futures”, 22 Jan 2023
“‘Minor’ Ornithologies” podcast conducted by Max Andrews of Latitudes for TBA21 on st_age, 27 Sep 2022
18 marzo 2021, 18:30h: Mesa redonda “Transformación geológica y construcción artificial” con Lara Almarcegui y Juan Guardiola, 8 Mar 2021
Lead Faculty, Geologic Time, Banff International Curatorial Institute, Visual + Digital Arts Department, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada, 11 September–6 October 2017
Group exhibition, “4.543 billion. The matter of matter”, CAPC musée d’art contemporain Bordeaux, France, 29 June 2017–7 January 2018
Editors, “Lara Almarcegui. Projects 1995–2010”, Archive Books, 2011
Solo exhibition, “Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies”, Kunsthal Aarhus, Århus, Denmark, 22 January–3 April 2011
Public realm commissions, Portscapes, Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, throughout 2009
Custodians, Reduce Art Flights (RAF) website (2008–ongoing)
Touring film programme, “A Stake in the Mud, A Hole in the Reel. Land Art’s Expanded Field 1968–2008”, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, and other venues, April–October 2008
Group exhibition “Greenwashing. Perils, Promises and Perplexities”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, February–May 2008
Convenors, “Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change”, 3-day symposium during the Sharjah Biennial 8, 5–7 April 2007
Editors, “UOVO #14: Ecology, Luxury and Degradation”, 2007
Editor, “LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook” (2006)
Curator, Tue Greenfort, Arts & Ecology public realm commission in London, 2005–2008.

2023, 2024, CO2 footprint, decarbonising the artworld, environmental responsability, environmental responsibility, Gallery Climate Coalition, GCC, GCC Spain, Mariana Cánepa Luna, Max Andrews

Gallery Climate Coalition en ARCOmadrid, campaña #TrainToARCOmadrid y artículo en la revista Exibart

Mon, Mar 11 2024

Paredes en los pabellones 7 y 9 de IFEMA con información sobre GCC en ARCOmadrid 2024. Fotos: Latitudes.

Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) es una coalición internacional de organizaciones artísticas que trabajan para reducir el impacto medioambiental del sector de las artes visuales. El objetivo principal de GCC es facilitar la reducción de las emisiones de CO2e del sector en un mínimo del 50% para 2030, así como promover prácticas de cero residuos.

GCC desarrolla y comparte recursos prácticos sobre sostenibilidad y proporciona liderazgo en cuestiones medioambientales específicas del sector, aprovechando el poder colectivo de sus +1100 miembros provenientes de 42 países motivados a lograr cambios sistémicos.

A pesar de la influencia única de las artes en el discurso público, las emisiones de carbono y los residuos generados por este sector son desproporcionadamente elevados en comparación con su tamaño económico. Un informe de 2021 (pdf) estimó que las emisiones globales del sector de las artes ascendieron a 70 millones de toneladas de CO2e al año [*], cifra equivalente a las emisiones anuales producidas por todo el país de Marruecos.

Dicho informe, revela que la mayor parte (74%) de la huella del sector se atribuye a las emisiones por viajes de agentes del sector y visitantes (~52 millones de tCO2e). Es por ello que desde GCC se ha iniciado la campaña Climate Conscious Travel para promover la movilidad a eventos culturales con consciencia climática.

Durante la feria ARCOmadrid, y en colaboración con GCC y GCC Spain, se ha lanzado la campaña en redes #TrainToARCOmadrid instando a sus visitantes a optar por el tren a Madrid en lugar del avión, y a compartir su experiencia de viaje a través de las redes. Para respaldar esta iniciativa, y gracias a la cesión del espacio por parte de ARCOmadrid, se han presentado dos gráficas en los pabellones 7 y 9 de IFEMA, presentando el trabajo que desarrolla GCC y compartiendo gráficos comparativos que ilustran las emisiones y costos asociados con viajar en avión o en tren desde Barcelona, València, Londres y París a Madrid.

Complementando la presencia física y en línea durante la feria, la revista Exibart ha publicado una entrevista con la comisaria Carolina Grau, miembra fundadora del Comité de GCC Spain, sobre sus proyectos curatoriales y planteamientos entorno a la sostenibilidad, y un artículo donde se profundiza sobre la labor que realiza Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) y destaca algunas de sus Acciones Efectivas, uno de los varios recursos prácticos que ofrece la organización.

En julio 2023, un informe de Greenpeace Vienna comparando precios de billetes de tren vs. avión en Europa, rezaba que “la ruta Madrid-Barcelona es una de las pocas en las que el tren es rápido, circula con frecuencia y siempre es más barato que el avión. (...) A pesar del perfecto servicio de tren, en 2019 casi 2,6 millones de personas volaron en esta ruta convirtiéndola en el 5º vuelo de corta distancia más utilizado de la UE que cuenta con una alternativa de tren. Prohibir este vuelo completamente inútil ahorraría 176.000 toneladas de gases nocivos de efecto invernadero.” (...) y concluía que “de todos los países analizados, España tiene la mayor densidad de aerolíneas de bajo coste”.

Según un estudio sobre vuelos cortos presentado por Ecologistas en Acción en octubre 2023, un total de 11 rutas aéreas serían potencialmente sustituibles en España [al contar con alternativa ferroviaria], eliminando más de 50.000 operaciones anuales que podrían proporcionar un ahorro de más de 300.000 toneladas de CO2, equivalentes a casi el 10% de todas las emisiones producidas por la aviación doméstica en España. O, dicho de otra manera, eliminar unos 200.000 coches de nuestras calles y carreteras al año.”

El sector del arte por sí solo no puede resolver la crisis a la que nos enfrentamos. Pero sí puede predicar dando ejemplo, sentando precedentes y cambiando hábitos de movilidad, adoptando acciones efectivas contra el cambio climático y utilizando su influencia cultural para introducir reflexiones cruciales sobre nuestros recursos materiales y económicos, entre otros.

GCC Spain es uno de los siete capítulos internacionales de GCC y representa a la coalición a nivel nacional. Contacte con el grupo escribiendo a espana@galleryclimatecoalition.org o siga a @gcc_spain en Instagram.

––––––

[*] La mayor parte (74%) de la huella del sector se debe a las emisiones de los viajes de los visitantes (~52 millones de tCO2e). Se calcula que el 26% (18 millones de toneladas de CO2e) se debe a la construcción, el envío de obras de arte y los viajes de negocios. El impacto digital, aunque sigue siendo una pequeña proporción de la huella, está creciendo. Esta huella anual equivale a la electricidad generada por 8.692 aerogeneradores de 10 MW.

RELATED CONTENT:

Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid, 1 Feb 2024
Montse Badia sobre GCC Spain en la revista Bonart #198, 25 Oct 2023
Latitudes qualify as an Active Member of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), 10 May 2023
Latitudes’ (Full) Environmental Policy Statement, 17 April 2023
Cover Story, March 2023: Art, Climate, and New Coalitions, 1 Mar 2023
Cover Story, February 2023: Soil for Future Art Histories, 2 Feb 2023
Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) en el Estado español, 25 Jan 2023

2024, ARCOmadrid, climate emergency, CO2 footprint, Gallery Climate Coalition, GCC Spain, travel

Cover Story, February 2024: Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid

Thu, Feb 1 2024

February 2024 cover story on www.lttds.org

The February 2024 monthly Cover Story “Climate Conscious Travel to ARCOmadrid” is now up Latitudes’ homepage: www.lttds.org

“As part of its wider Climate Conscious Travel campaign, Gallery Climate Coalition and its International Volunteer Team, GCC Spain, are collaborating with ARCOmadrid on the initiative #TrainToARCOmadrid to encourage more climate-conscious travel choices when traveling to the art fair, which this year runs from 6–10 March 2024. ”

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

Cover Stories are published monthly 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:

Archive of Monthly Cover Stories

Cover Story, January 2024: Curating Lab 2014–Curatorial Intensive, 2 Jan 2024

Cover Story, December 2023: Ibon Aranberri, Partial View, 2 Dec 2023

Cover Story, November 2023: Surucuá, Teque-teque, Arara: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, 2 Nov 2023

Cover Story, October 2023: A tree felled, a tree cut in 7, 2 October 2023

Cover Story, September 2023: The Pilgrim in Ireland, 6 September 2023

Cover Story, July–August 2023: Honeymoon in Valencia, 1 July 2023

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

2024, ARCOmadrid, CO2 footprint, cover story, GCC, GCC Spain, sustainaibility, travel