Latitudes speak at seminar on Art and Ecology, 21 October 2009, The Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden
Mon, Nov 2 2009
Coinciding with the end of the 'Footprints' exhibition (17 May–25 October 2009) organised by The Wanås Foundation (presenting works by Tue Greenfort, Henrik Håkansson, Tea Mäkipää (with Halldór Úlfarsson), Tomás Saraceno and Nilsmagnus Sköld) this one-day seminar hosted by the foundation on the 21st October included three presentations from different areas of expertise and a panel discussion around the relationship between contemporary art practice and ecology, the language used by the media on climate change, individual and collective environmental efforts, etc.
Speakers include: Folke Tersman (Professor of Practical Philosophy at Uppsala University, author of 'Tillsammans: en filosofisk debattbok om hur vi kan rädda vårt klimat' (2009)); Joanna Yarrow (media commentator and expert in the field of ecologically sustainable lifestyles, founder of Beyond Green in London) and Latitudes, who presented projects including the group exhibition 'Greenwashing Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities' (2008), the publication Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook (2006) and the commissioning series in the port of Rotterdam 'Portscapes' (2009).
Images: Latitudes and The Wanås Foundation.
Sharjah Biennial 8 (2007) part 2 publication with proceedings of the 3-day conference organised by Latitudes and the RSA, London
Mon, Oct 26 2009
Edited by Joseph R Wolin
Paperback
567 pages, 299 visuals. Softcover 350g. Art Matt Card
Paper: 80g. offset wood free and 135 g. Art Matt24 x 16 cm
English and Arabic
Published by Sharjah Biennial, 2008ISBN 978-9948-04-328-6 Part II
The recently published vol. II of the catalogue of the Sharjah Biennial 8 [25º 22’N, 55º 24’E] titled 'Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change (Part II)' includes installation shots of the exhibition as well as proceedings of the 3-day conference Latitudes organised in collaboration with the Royal Society of Art's Arts & Ecology programme (today the RSA Arts and Ecology Centre) (+ info). The book is a companion to volume I, published to coincide with the Biennial’s opening.
The symposium (images here) considered today’s uses and abuses of the ‘eco-’, notions of artistic agency and critical practice, as well as the role of the public realm in today’s artistic and institutional practices. How has it become fashionable (or profitable) to be seen to be eco? How has what we mean by ecology been transformed and evolved through the uses of terms such as ‘environmental’, ‘green’, ‘ethical living’, and so on?; How do some artists desire palliative results, while others offer strategies of friction or resistance? How far are the sources of materials a consideration for artists, designers and architects? And how does this relate to broader questions of resources—water, energy, oil in the Emirate and beyond?
The symposium included focused presentations by keynote speakers such as Bruce Sterling (read his paper here), critical panels by biennial artists Sergio Vega or Peter Fend as well as by Van Abbemuseum director and Sharjah Biennial juror Charles Esche, or Smart Museum's Curator of Contemporary Art Stephanie Smith, as well as breakout seminars with biennial artists Tomás Saraceno and Michael Rakowitz.
You can download the symposium programme, the exhibition guide and view press-related materials in this archive.
The recently published vol. II of the catalogue of the Sharjah Biennial 8 [25º 22’N, 55º 24’E] titled 'Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change (Part II)' includes installation shots of the exhibition as well as proceedings of the 3-day conference Latitudes organised in collaboration with the Royal Society of Art's Arts & Ecology programme (today the RSA Arts and Ecology Centre) (+ info). The book is a companion to volume I, published to coincide with the Biennial’s opening.
The symposium (images here) considered today’s uses and abuses of the ‘eco-’, notions of artistic agency and critical practice, as well as the role of the public realm in today’s artistic and institutional practices. How has it become fashionable (or profitable) to be seen to be eco? How has what we mean by ecology been transformed and evolved through the uses of terms such as ‘environmental’, ‘green’, ‘ethical living’, and so on?; How do some artists desire palliative results, while others offer strategies of friction or resistance? How far are the sources of materials a consideration for artists, designers and architects? And how does this relate to broader questions of resources—water, energy, oil in the Emirate and beyond?
The symposium included focused presentations by keynote speakers such as Bruce Sterling (read his paper here), critical panels by biennial artists Sergio Vega or Peter Fend as well as by Van Abbemuseum director and Sharjah Biennial juror Charles Esche, or Smart Museum's Curator of Contemporary Art Stephanie Smith, as well as breakout seminars with biennial artists Tomás Saraceno and Michael Rakowitz.
You can download the symposium programme, the exhibition guide and view press-related materials in this archive.
Cover and Back Cover, 'Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change (Part II)'. Photos: Sharjah Biennial.
Overview of the 53rd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennial: 'Making Worlds // Fare Mondi'
Sun, Jun 14 2009
Daniel Birnbaum's 'Making Worlds' felt less melancholic though still very much in keeping with his recently-curated '50 Moons of Saturn', the 2nd Turin Triennial (see post 10 November 2008). Both exhibitions shared several artists (Ulla von Brandenburg, Koo Jeong-A, Pietro Roccasalva, Spencer Finch, Ceal Floyer, Lara Favaretto, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Haegue Yang, Paul Chan, Tomás Saraceno, Wade Guyton, Keren Cytter and Rosa Barba), while Venice included several students (including Att Poomtangon) or professors (Simon Starling, Wolfgang Tillmans) from the Birnbaum-directed Staedelschule in Frankfurt, and the support of curator Jochen Volz in the artistic organisation (additional advice was provided by a team of 'correspondents': Savita Apte, Tom Eccles, Hu Fang and Maria Finders). In contrast with the 2007 biennial by Robert Storr it felt less painterly and more sculptural and with a notable lack of 'black boxes' with film and video work.
There seemed to be however, a certain self-reflexivity with regard to the biennale context: several works referred to the winter life of the Giardini venues (Steve McQueen's film in the British Pavilion; Haegue Yang's video in the Korean Pavilion) and the challenge artists face when asked to present work for this type of event. This was most evident in Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's video in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (formerly named 'Padiglione Italia'), a touching exorcism of artistic exhaustion. During the last twenty years she has been asked to participate in the Biennale not less than five times, and she speaks about the pressure of expectation in creating something new every time.
Elsewhere in Venice the Biennial threatened to be overshadowed by the opening of François Pinault’s über-collection hosted in the recently renovated Punta della Dogana (the former customs house). The spectacular triangular building has undergone a speedy renovation by Japanese architect Tadao Ando (see video here) and the inaugural exhibition's sombre atmosphere is much in contrast to the über-kitch displays at Palazzo Grassi.
Without trying to be at all comprehensive (with almost one million square feet of exhibition space, more than ninety artists, seventy-seven national contributions, forty-four collateral events that seem increasingly impossible) here are some highlights in no particular order of the Giardini (see first slideshow with 107 images) and Arsenale (slideshow above with 52 images):
Roman Ondák’s 'Loop' contribution in the Czech/Slovak pavilion: a walk-through pavilion with a path running from the entrance to the back door that has been landscaped with exactly the same greenery that exists in the Giardini – it was executed with such precision that some visitors asked the artist if his work was the pavilion building itself as they could not find the 'art' anywhere.
Haegue Yang's 'Condensation' (Korea Pavilion) atmospheric assemblage of Venetian blinds, lamps or bulbs, scent atomizers, infrared motion detectors and crochet.
'The Collectors' in the Nordic and Danish pavilions, taken over by artists invited by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset which included exquisit works by Pepe Espaliú's ('Carrying Project') and Simon Fujiwara.
Lara Favaretto's 'Momentary Monument (Swamp)' at the Giardini delle Vergini as well as the three minute man-horse-motorbike film by David Bestué & Marc Vives, which together with their 'Acciones en casa' presented in the Arsenale, gave one of the only humorous notes in the exhibition.
Finally the biennial at last has a decent cafeteria! Tobias Rehberger was given the Golden Lion for the Best Artist for his neo-pop environment. It could well have been recognised along with another new facility previously in dire need of a revamp: the bookstore, which was designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija and hosted a comprehensive collection of monographs and catalogues.
Off-Giardini (Eventi Collaterali) highlights
(slideshow above with 33 images):
Joao Maria Gusmao & Pedro Paiva's 'Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air' (Portugal) which included five 16mm films, a mixture of humour and magical realism (a sunset with three suns, a man lifting a bucket filled with water by grasping the water...). Truly great.
Teresa Margolles (Mexico) showing 'What else can we talk about?'. An traumatised and almost empty Palazzo Rota Ivancich highlighted the many Mexicans who have recently died in a violent manner. Margolles and her collaborators gathered blankets with blood and mud where victims fell. That mud and that same blood is slowly moistened in the ground floor and later used to mop the main floor. A decadent palazzo in almost complete silence combines personal dramas and national sorrow. As the artist put it 'we live in a country that cries' (La Jornada, 10 June). This, perhaps alongside Taiwan ('Foreign Affairs'), was by far the most self-critical national representation.
At Isola di Certosa: 'Animated Scene' by Irish artist John Gerrard: an amazing three-screen real time computer-generated projection of the American West: a reconstruction of a 1935 Texas dust storm, a year in the life of an automated pig production facility in the Great Sothern Plains and a man blacking out the facade of a white silo in Kansas – see images here.
Disappointments:
The Golden Lion for Best National Participation going to Bruce Nauman's 'Topological Gardens'. Yes, indeed a great artist but partly agreeing with Harry Bellet and Philippe Dagen from Le Monde: 'a retrospective without any new work is far away from the very principle of the Biennale: to reveal the present'. It also presented very familiar work from the 1960s until today from museums and private collections. His presentation did however come more to life in IUAV Tolentini and Ca'Foscari yet the need to cram three venues seems questionable.
Steve McQueen's ticketed entry to the British pavilion, showing a double-screen film portraying the off-season of the Giardini during the winter months: insects silently making their way through the vegetation, rain drops, Venetian bells ringing in the mist, greyhounds scavenging a trash-scattered Giardini, gay cruising in the small hours of the night. One cannot argue against the evident beauty of the piece, yet its impact quickly wore off.
Miquel Barceló representing Spain: not only because the choice of the project didn't follow any semblance of a democratic or juried selection (as did the Catalan Pavilion) but also the frankly flatfooted delivery: a hagiographic mini-retrospective complete with reading area.
Italian Pavilion in the Arsenale curated by Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli: an embarrassingly poor exhibition, doing no justice to the tremendous artistic talent in the host country.
The sudden cancellation of Emily Jacir's project 'Stazione' for the Palestinian Pavilion (to display the names of each vaporetto station along the Grand Canal in Arabic alongside the Italian). It would have been a telling reference to the cross-cultural exchange between Venice and the Arab world and a great addition to the very little public-space work produced for this Biennale.
'In-Finitum' at the Palazzo Fortuny included some great works (include those by Anselmo, and a room with Lucio Fontana) although the exhibition felt much less compelling than 2007's 'Artempo: Where time becomes art'. This year it seems to include more 1950s-1970s work, more monochromes (Gutai group, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Ryman, James Turrell, Mark Rothko, Hiroshi Sugimoto...) and did not exactly run with the concept of 'the infinite'. The strength of this curatorial exercise lies in widening the timeframe while building a link between Fortuny's legacy and 'anonymous' work (e.g. Egyptian ancient sculpture) with contemporary works (on this occasion John Gerrard, Michael Borremans, Berlinde Bruyckere et. al.), which failed to spark this time.
–
53rd International Art Exhibition: Making Worlds // Fare Mondi // Bantin Duniyan // Weltenmachen // Construire des Mondes // Fazer Mundos…
Artistic director: Daniel Birnbaum
Giardini della Biennale / Arsenale
Without trying to be at all comprehensive (with almost one million square feet of exhibition space, more than ninety artists, seventy-seven national contributions, forty-four collateral events that seem increasingly impossible) here are some highlights in no particular order of the Giardini (see first slideshow with 107 images) and Arsenale (slideshow above with 52 images):
Roman Ondák’s 'Loop' contribution in the Czech/Slovak pavilion: a walk-through pavilion with a path running from the entrance to the back door that has been landscaped with exactly the same greenery that exists in the Giardini – it was executed with such precision that some visitors asked the artist if his work was the pavilion building itself as they could not find the 'art' anywhere.
Haegue Yang's 'Condensation' (Korea Pavilion) atmospheric assemblage of Venetian blinds, lamps or bulbs, scent atomizers, infrared motion detectors and crochet.
'The Collectors' in the Nordic and Danish pavilions, taken over by artists invited by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset which included exquisit works by Pepe Espaliú's ('Carrying Project') and Simon Fujiwara.
Lara Favaretto's 'Momentary Monument (Swamp)' at the Giardini delle Vergini as well as the three minute man-horse-motorbike film by David Bestué & Marc Vives, which together with their 'Acciones en casa' presented in the Arsenale, gave one of the only humorous notes in the exhibition.
Finally the biennial at last has a decent cafeteria! Tobias Rehberger was given the Golden Lion for the Best Artist for his neo-pop environment. It could well have been recognised along with another new facility previously in dire need of a revamp: the bookstore, which was designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija and hosted a comprehensive collection of monographs and catalogues.
Off-Giardini (Eventi Collaterali) highlights
(slideshow above with 33 images):
Joao Maria Gusmao & Pedro Paiva's 'Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air' (Portugal) which included five 16mm films, a mixture of humour and magical realism (a sunset with three suns, a man lifting a bucket filled with water by grasping the water...). Truly great.
Teresa Margolles (Mexico) showing 'What else can we talk about?'. An traumatised and almost empty Palazzo Rota Ivancich highlighted the many Mexicans who have recently died in a violent manner. Margolles and her collaborators gathered blankets with blood and mud where victims fell. That mud and that same blood is slowly moistened in the ground floor and later used to mop the main floor. A decadent palazzo in almost complete silence combines personal dramas and national sorrow. As the artist put it 'we live in a country that cries' (La Jornada, 10 June). This, perhaps alongside Taiwan ('Foreign Affairs'), was by far the most self-critical national representation.
At Isola di Certosa: 'Animated Scene' by Irish artist John Gerrard: an amazing three-screen real time computer-generated projection of the American West: a reconstruction of a 1935 Texas dust storm, a year in the life of an automated pig production facility in the Great Sothern Plains and a man blacking out the facade of a white silo in Kansas – see images here.
Disappointments:
The Golden Lion for Best National Participation going to Bruce Nauman's 'Topological Gardens'. Yes, indeed a great artist but partly agreeing with Harry Bellet and Philippe Dagen from Le Monde: 'a retrospective without any new work is far away from the very principle of the Biennale: to reveal the present'. It also presented very familiar work from the 1960s until today from museums and private collections. His presentation did however come more to life in IUAV Tolentini and Ca'Foscari yet the need to cram three venues seems questionable.
Steve McQueen's ticketed entry to the British pavilion, showing a double-screen film portraying the off-season of the Giardini during the winter months: insects silently making their way through the vegetation, rain drops, Venetian bells ringing in the mist, greyhounds scavenging a trash-scattered Giardini, gay cruising in the small hours of the night. One cannot argue against the evident beauty of the piece, yet its impact quickly wore off.
Miquel Barceló representing Spain: not only because the choice of the project didn't follow any semblance of a democratic or juried selection (as did the Catalan Pavilion) but also the frankly flatfooted delivery: a hagiographic mini-retrospective complete with reading area.
Italian Pavilion in the Arsenale curated by Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli: an embarrassingly poor exhibition, doing no justice to the tremendous artistic talent in the host country.
The sudden cancellation of Emily Jacir's project 'Stazione' for the Palestinian Pavilion (to display the names of each vaporetto station along the Grand Canal in Arabic alongside the Italian). It would have been a telling reference to the cross-cultural exchange between Venice and the Arab world and a great addition to the very little public-space work produced for this Biennale.
'In-Finitum' at the Palazzo Fortuny included some great works (include those by Anselmo, and a room with Lucio Fontana) although the exhibition felt much less compelling than 2007's 'Artempo: Where time becomes art'. This year it seems to include more 1950s-1970s work, more monochromes (Gutai group, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Ryman, James Turrell, Mark Rothko, Hiroshi Sugimoto...) and did not exactly run with the concept of 'the infinite'. The strength of this curatorial exercise lies in widening the timeframe while building a link between Fortuny's legacy and 'anonymous' work (e.g. Egyptian ancient sculpture) with contemporary works (on this occasion John Gerrard, Michael Borremans, Berlinde Bruyckere et. al.), which failed to spark this time.
–
53rd International Art Exhibition: Making Worlds // Fare Mondi // Bantin Duniyan // Weltenmachen // Construire des Mondes // Fazer Mundos…
Artistic director: Daniel Birnbaum
Giardini della Biennale / Arsenale
Open 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Giardini closed on Mondays / Arsenale closed on Tuesdays
http://www.labiennale.orgTurin Triennale (T2) & Artissima 15
Mon, Nov 10 2008
Coinciding with this year Artissima 15 Art Fair, the second Turin Triennial (6 November 2008–1 February 2009) titled '50 Lune di Saturno' (50 Moons of Saturn) opened last week presenting the works of 50 artists, spread throughout 3 venues: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and the Palazzina della Società della Promotrice delle Belle Arti (no website).
Daniel Birnbaum's correct Triennale also presents two 'solo shows' by Paul Chan (three rooms at the Sandretto) and Olafur Eliasson (at Rivoli). Here 'solo shows' means presenting more works by each or simply giving them more room (having said that Eliasson's work is a one-room installation) not necessarily making clear divisions between these 'solo shows' and the rest of the artists in the Triennale.
T2 participating artists:
Meris Angioletti, Rosa Barba, Jennifer Bornstein, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Ulla von Brandenburg, Matthew Brannon, Gerard Byrne, Bonnie Camplin / Paulina Olowska, Valerio Carrubba, Antonio Cataldo & Mariagiovanna Nuzzi, Paul Chan, Kerstin Cmelka, Keren Cytter, Simon Dybbroe Möller, Olafur Eliasson, Lara Favaretto, Spencer Finch, Ceal Floyer, Anna Galtarossa, Andrea Geyer, Loris Gréaud, Wade Guyton, Haegue Yang, Annika von Hausswolff, Ragnar Kjartansson, Joachim Koester, Koo Jeong-A, Sandra Kranich, Robert Kusmirowski, Rivane Neuenschwander, Diego Perrone, Alessandro Piangiamore, Giuseppe Pietroniro, Giulia Piscitelli, Peyman Rahimi, Pietro Roccasalva, Tomás Saraceno, Wilhelm Sasnal, Benjamin Saurer, Alberto Tadiello, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gert and Uwe Tobias, Luca Trevisani, Tatiana Trouvé, Ian Tweedy, Donald Urquhart, Guido van der Werve, Jordan Wolfson and Akram Zaatari.
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Piazza Mafalda di Savoia, Rivoli
Open: from Tuesday to Thursday from 10 am to 5 pm, from Friday to Sunday from 10 am to 9 pm
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Via Modane 16, Torino
Open: from Tuesday to Sunday 12 to 8 pm; Thursday from 12 to 11 pm;
Palazzina della Società della Promotrice delle Belle Arti
Via Diego Balsamo Crivelli 11, Torino
Open: from Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 7 pm
Artissima 15 programme was packed with numerous events Wednesday to Sunday, including:
PRESENT FUTURE (17 projects by artists emerging on the national and international scene selected by Cecilia Alemani, art critic and independent curator, New York; Michael Ned Holte, independent curator and art critic, Los Angeles; Thibaut Verhoeven, curator SMAK, Gent; Aurélie Voltz, independent curator, Berlin); CONSTELLATIONS (11 installations, sculptures, and large-format works) selected by Stéphanie Moisdon, co-curator, 2007 Lyon Biennale and Manifesta 4, and Susanne Pfeffer, curator, Kunst-Werke, Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin); The VIDEO LOUNGE (curated by ourselves, included films and videos by 40+ artists and over 6 hours of screening of materials submitted by the participating galleries – More info); the ITALIAN WAVE (a contest launched to present the work of Italian artists under-35 Italian); l'ECOLE DE STEPHANIE (curated by Stéphanie Moisdon, l'école is a small temporary school that offered lessons, lectures, debates, performances, and screenings); ARTISSIMA CINEMA (a festival of animated shorts and artists films from Indonesia and China); ARTISSIMA VOLUME (devoted to contemporary music); ARTISSIMA COMICS (an exhibition of a promising young talent of Italian comics, Michelangelo Setola); ARTISSIMA DESIGN (an exhibition of Paolo Mussat Sartor, the photographer and narrator of Art Povera) plus the CONTEMPORARY ARTS NIGHT on Saturday 8th, where galleries and art spaces premiered shows or performances until the wee hours...
T2 artists and venues in the user-unfriendly website www.torinotriennale.it
Artissima 15: www.artissima.it
'Greenwashing...' website
Wed, Dec 12 2007 |
| Sergio Vega, 'Paradise on Fire', 2007. Series of five inkjet archival prints, 106 x 134 cm each. Courtesy the artist and Umberto di Marino Arte Contemporanea, Naples. |
We have launched the project website for 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities': www.greenwashing.lttds.org. The site will be updated over time as an extension to the printed catalogue, with expanded contents such as installation shots, interviews, artists CVs, etc.
So far we have confirmed the participation of Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Lara Almarcegui, Maria Thereza Alves, Amy Balkin, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Chu Yun, A Constructed World, Ettore Favini, Cyprien Gaillard, Tue Greenfort, Norma Jeane, Cornelia Parker, Jorge Peris, Wilfredo Prieto, RAF / Reduce Art Flights, Tomás Saraceno, Simon Starling, Nikola Uzunovski, Sergio Vega, Wang Jianwei and James Yamada.
The show will open on 28 February 2008 at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin and remain on view until 11 May. The exhibition is curated by Fondazione's curator Ilaria Bonacossa and Latitudes (Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna).
For any press enquiries please email: press@fondsrr.org
Latitudes contributes in the Walker Art Center's 'Brave New Worlds' exhibition catalogue
Tue, Oct 16 2007
'Brave New Worlds', Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 4 October 07–17 February 08
Accompanying the 'Brave New Worlds' exhibition is a 300-page illustrated catalogue containing essays by Walker Art Center Curatorial Assistants and exhibition curators Doryun Chong and Yasmil Raymond.
The catalogue also includes "correspondent" essays inspired by newspaper reports and penned by art historians, critics, and curators from around the world, including Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna (Spain), Cecilia Brunson (Chile), Hu Fang (China), Tone Hansen (Norway), Mihnea Mircan (Romania), and José Roca (Colombia). Recent texts by philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, celebrated author and activist Arundhati Roy, and award-winning foreign correspondent Janine di Giovanni provide additional perspectives on global affairs of the past decade...
Addressing contemporary international art beyond glib expressions of globalism, the exhibition 'Brave New Worlds' assesses the current state of political consciousness and its multiple artistic manifestations in an era characterized by the unraveling of a unified world order. Guided by the questions “How do we know?,” How do we experience?,” and “How do we dream about the world?,” twenty four artists from more than a dozen countries in Southeastern Europe, South America, the Middle East, East Asia, North America, and North Africa propose their own answers in paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and videos.
Participating artists: Armando Andrade Tudela, Yto Barrada, Yael Bartana, Mark Bradford, Fernando Bryce, Mircea Cantor, Cao Fei, Banu Cennetoglu, GimHongSok, Runa Islam, Gabriel Kuri, Jorge Macchi, Josephine Meckseper, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Rika Noguchi, Dan Perjovschi, Lia Perjovschi, Walid Raad, Tomás Saraceno, Sean Snyder, Erik van Lieshout, Haegue Yang, Zheng Guogu, and Artur Zmijewski.
More on the exhibition on the Walker web and on the Visual Arts Blog
'LAND, ART...' publication reviewed in Frieze
Wed, Jun 20 2007
Brian Dillon reviews LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook in the summer issue (#108) of Frieze, devoted to ecology. Read the article online.
In that same issue, there is also a feature article by Latitudes' Max Andrews entitled 'The Whole Truth' featuring the work of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller, Maria Thereza Alves, among others.
Sharjah Biennial 8 - part 1
Sun, Apr 1 2007
Sharjah Biennial 8, 4 April – 4 June 2007
Symposium: 5–7 April 2007
Venue: Expo Centre, Sharjah
Symposium Organisers: Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna (Latitudes, Barcelona) and Michaela Crimmin (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, RSA, London), with
Symposium: 5–7 April 2007
Venue: Expo Centre, Sharjah
Symposium Organisers: Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna (Latitudes, Barcelona) and Michaela Crimmin (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, RSA, London), with
Roderick Grant (American University of Sharjah, AUS), Amir Berbic (American University of Sharjah, AUS), Tarek Talat Al-Ghoussein (American University of Sharjah, AUS) and Jeremy Bendik-Keymer (American University of Sharjah, AUS).
Symposium Coordinator in Sharjah: Sharon Ahimaz (Sharjah Biennial team)
Offset of 70 tonnes of Carbon.
The conference language is English.
The Symposium, which forms part of the Sharjah Biennial, aims to explore specific aspects of the relationship between culture and ecology - not least the challenges and the contradictions. The event will profile the extraordinary work taking place in architecture, the visual arts, across new technologies, in design and on screen. Discussions will involve artists, academics and students, architects and designers, people living locally and a number of key contributors from other continents. It draws from and will build on previous discourse - capturing the perspectives of people who are addressing ecological issues on a daily basis. The Symposium bravely takes place in a country which is prepared to look to the future and the changes we are all going to have to make.
THURSDAY 5 April 2007
9.30 – 10am: Refreshments and Orientation
10 – 10.15am: Welcome by Jack Persekian (Artistic Director SB8) and Michaela Crimmin(Director RSA Arts and Ecology).
10.15 – 10.45am: Keynote speaker: ‘Ecology and the Politics of Change’, Bruce Sterling, Author, journalist, editor and critic, Texas and Serbia.
10.45 – 12.00: Panel Discussion: The lure of the 'eco'
Eco-art, eco-fashion, eco-tourism, eco-politics, eco-activism, eco-village ... In almost every aspect of how and where we live, work and play, the eco has embedded itself. How has what we mean by ecology transformed and evolved through the practice of everyday life?
Panellists:
Sarah Rich (Managing Editor, Worldchanging and inhabitat.com, a weblog covering sustainable design and green building, Seattle)
Sergio Vega (Artist, Gainesville; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
Siobhan Leyden (producer and presenter of the daily talk show ‘Siobhan Live’ on Dubai Eye radio, 103.8 FM)
Stephanie Mahmoud (Marketing and Management student, AUS)
Chair: Jeremy Bendik-Keymer (Philosophy teacher in the Department of International Studies, AUS)
12 - 12.45pm: Film Programme Excerpt: Riverglass: A River Ballet in Four Seasons. Andrej Zdravic, 1997 (41 mins)
"Riverglass presents the 'materiality' of the river Soca. A symbol of importance in Slovenian culture, the film presents the force and clarity of the water from the point of view of the river itself, a Gaian perspective possibly. In its content and development of specialist filming equipment it recalls other film-makers landscape interventions (for instance Michael Snow's La Region Centrale (1970) or Robert Beaver's The Stoas, (1991-97)." – Mark Nash
12.45 – 2 pm: Lunch Break
1.45 – 3.00pm: Parallel Seminars:
I. Emergencies and Risk
What is the role of architects, designers and artists concerning housing and communities? With increasing pressure on resources and space, and an increasingly volatile political climate how can we move from coping with aftermaths to try to mitigate risk before crises? Can design and architecture be a political act?
Susi Platt (Architecture for Humanity's leading post-Tsunami reconstruction designer, Sri Lanka)
Michael Rakowitz (Artist, New York; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
Moderator: Mehdi Sabet (Associate Professor, Architecture & Interior Design, School of Architecture and Design, AUS)
II. Resources: Truth and Materials
How far are recycled or sustainable materials a consideration for artists, designers and architects? How do such considerations affect our experience/perception of materiality in art and the built environment? And how does this relate to broader questions of resources—water, energy, etc.?
Mona El Mousfi (Sharjah Biennial architect and Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Design, AUS)
Tomás Saraceno (Artist and architect, Frankfurt; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
3.00 –3.30pm: Coffee Break
3.30 – 4.15pm: Feedback and Group Discussion
4.15 – 5.15pm: In Conversation. ‘Kumar Shahani: Politics and the ecology of change’
Mark Nash (curator of Sharjah Biennial 8 film programme; Director of the MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London) and Geeta Kapur (Critic and Curator, New Delhi, and member of the Jury for the 2007 Sharjah Biennial 8 Art Prize) in conversation about the work of Indian filmmaker Kumar Shahani.
7.00 – 7.45pm: Presentation by OMA/ Rem Koolhaas, Reinier De Graaf at Qanat Al Qasba
8.00pm: Film Programme Excerpt held at Qanat Al Qasba: The Form of the palace of Matsumae-kun’s Brothers 1, 1988 - Oki Hiroyuki – (17 min)
8.30pm: Film Programme Excerpt held at Qanat Al Qasba: The Char Adhyay, 1997 - Kumar Shahani – (110min)
FRIDAY 6 April 2007
Welcome by Michaela Crimmin, RSA Arts and Ecology Director, London
4 – 5.30pm: Panel discussion: Offsetting / Upsetting. 'Art vs. issues'
Much work in the field of art and ecology has emerged in the field of remedial actions in industrial sites. Today, carbon trading and offsetting are, more abstractly, being proposed to restore the balance of the atmosphere. How might these two motions be linked? How or should the work of some artists might generally be regarded as a form of offsetting or redressing? How do some artists desire tangible palliative results, while others offer strategies of friction or resistance? What is more important, the issues or the art?
Panellists:
Koyo Kouoh (Cultural producer, Arts Manager and Programming Consultant, Dakar)
Peter Fend (Artist, Berlin; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
Charles Esche (Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and member of the Jury for the 2007 Sharjah Biennial 8 Art Prize)
Chair: Stephanie Smith (Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Curator of Contemporary Art, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago)
5.30 – 6pm: Break
6 – 7pm: Jonathan Watkins (Co-curator, Sharjah Biennial 8 and Director Ikon Gallery, Birmingham) and Cornelia Parker (Artist, London; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8) to introduce Parker's project for Sharjah Biennial 8: Video interview with Noam Chomsky
Followed by Q+A from the audience.
7.30pm: Film Programme Excerpt held at Qanat Al Qasba: Darwin's Nightmare, Hubert Sauper, 2004 (107 min),
SATURDAY 7 April 2007
4.30pm: Welcome back by Michaela Crimmin, RSA Arts and Ecology Director, London
4.30 – 5.30pm: Artists' presentation: e-Xplo with Ayreen Anastas (Artists US/Austria; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
5.30 – 7pm: Panel discussion: Urban Planning and the future city.
What is the future of the city as a habitat for humanity? Increasingly dense housing, commercial, cultural, infrastructural and civic spaces contradict our desire for space, openness and freedom. What lies ahead for the city as a living, symbiotic form of inanimate structure and animate inhabitants?
Panellists:
Samir Srouji (Artist, Palestine; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
Rula Sadik (General Manager, Design and Planning, The Design Group, Nakheel, Dubai)
Samer Kamal (Founder, Bee’ah, Sharjah Environmental Company, Sharjah)
Chair: George Katodrytis (Architect; Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture and Design, Professor of Architecture, AUS)
7.30pm: Film Programme Excerpt held at Qanat Al Qasba: The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk, 2006 (112 min).
Symposium Coordinator in Sharjah: Sharon Ahimaz (Sharjah Biennial team)
Offset of 70 tonnes of Carbon.
The conference language is English.
The Symposium, which forms part of the Sharjah Biennial, aims to explore specific aspects of the relationship between culture and ecology - not least the challenges and the contradictions. The event will profile the extraordinary work taking place in architecture, the visual arts, across new technologies, in design and on screen. Discussions will involve artists, academics and students, architects and designers, people living locally and a number of key contributors from other continents. It draws from and will build on previous discourse - capturing the perspectives of people who are addressing ecological issues on a daily basis. The Symposium bravely takes place in a country which is prepared to look to the future and the changes we are all going to have to make.
THURSDAY 5 April 2007
9.30 – 10am: Refreshments and Orientation
10 – 10.15am: Welcome by Jack Persekian (Artistic Director SB8) and Michaela Crimmin(Director RSA Arts and Ecology).
10.15 – 10.45am: Keynote speaker: ‘Ecology and the Politics of Change’, Bruce Sterling, Author, journalist, editor and critic, Texas and Serbia.
10.45 – 12.00: Panel Discussion: The lure of the 'eco'
Eco-art, eco-fashion, eco-tourism, eco-politics, eco-activism, eco-village ... In almost every aspect of how and where we live, work and play, the eco has embedded itself. How has what we mean by ecology transformed and evolved through the practice of everyday life?
Panellists:
Sarah Rich (Managing Editor, Worldchanging and inhabitat.com, a weblog covering sustainable design and green building, Seattle)
Sergio Vega (Artist, Gainesville; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
Siobhan Leyden (producer and presenter of the daily talk show ‘Siobhan Live’ on Dubai Eye radio, 103.8 FM)
Stephanie Mahmoud (Marketing and Management student, AUS)
Chair: Jeremy Bendik-Keymer (Philosophy teacher in the Department of International Studies, AUS)
12 - 12.45pm: Film Programme Excerpt: Riverglass: A River Ballet in Four Seasons. Andrej Zdravic, 1997 (41 mins)
"Riverglass presents the 'materiality' of the river Soca. A symbol of importance in Slovenian culture, the film presents the force and clarity of the water from the point of view of the river itself, a Gaian perspective possibly. In its content and development of specialist filming equipment it recalls other film-makers landscape interventions (for instance Michael Snow's La Region Centrale (1970) or Robert Beaver's The Stoas, (1991-97)." – Mark Nash
12.45 – 2 pm: Lunch Break
1.45 – 3.00pm: Parallel Seminars:
I. Emergencies and Risk
What is the role of architects, designers and artists concerning housing and communities? With increasing pressure on resources and space, and an increasingly volatile political climate how can we move from coping with aftermaths to try to mitigate risk before crises? Can design and architecture be a political act?
Susi Platt (Architecture for Humanity's leading post-Tsunami reconstruction designer, Sri Lanka)
Michael Rakowitz (Artist, New York; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
Moderator: Mehdi Sabet (Associate Professor, Architecture & Interior Design, School of Architecture and Design, AUS)
II. Resources: Truth and Materials
How far are recycled or sustainable materials a consideration for artists, designers and architects? How do such considerations affect our experience/perception of materiality in art and the built environment? And how does this relate to broader questions of resources—water, energy, etc.?
Mona El Mousfi (Sharjah Biennial architect and Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Design, AUS)
Tomás Saraceno (Artist and architect, Frankfurt; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
3.00 –3.30pm: Coffee Break
3.30 – 4.15pm: Feedback and Group Discussion
4.15 – 5.15pm: In Conversation. ‘Kumar Shahani: Politics and the ecology of change’
Mark Nash (curator of Sharjah Biennial 8 film programme; Director of the MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London) and Geeta Kapur (Critic and Curator, New Delhi, and member of the Jury for the 2007 Sharjah Biennial 8 Art Prize) in conversation about the work of Indian filmmaker Kumar Shahani.
7.00 – 7.45pm: Presentation by OMA/ Rem Koolhaas, Reinier De Graaf at Qanat Al Qasba
8.00pm: Film Programme Excerpt held at Qanat Al Qasba: The Form of the palace of Matsumae-kun’s Brothers 1, 1988 - Oki Hiroyuki – (17 min)
8.30pm: Film Programme Excerpt held at Qanat Al Qasba: The Char Adhyay, 1997 - Kumar Shahani – (110min)
FRIDAY 6 April 2007
Welcome by Michaela Crimmin, RSA Arts and Ecology Director, London
4 – 5.30pm: Panel discussion: Offsetting / Upsetting. 'Art vs. issues'
Much work in the field of art and ecology has emerged in the field of remedial actions in industrial sites. Today, carbon trading and offsetting are, more abstractly, being proposed to restore the balance of the atmosphere. How might these two motions be linked? How or should the work of some artists might generally be regarded as a form of offsetting or redressing? How do some artists desire tangible palliative results, while others offer strategies of friction or resistance? What is more important, the issues or the art?
Panellists:
Koyo Kouoh (Cultural producer, Arts Manager and Programming Consultant, Dakar)
Peter Fend (Artist, Berlin; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
Charles Esche (Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and member of the Jury for the 2007 Sharjah Biennial 8 Art Prize)
Chair: Stephanie Smith (Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Curator of Contemporary Art, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago)
5.30 – 6pm: Break
6 – 7pm: Jonathan Watkins (Co-curator, Sharjah Biennial 8 and Director Ikon Gallery, Birmingham) and Cornelia Parker (Artist, London; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8) to introduce Parker's project for Sharjah Biennial 8: Video interview with Noam Chomsky
Followed by Q+A from the audience.
7.30pm: Film Programme Excerpt held at Qanat Al Qasba: Darwin's Nightmare, Hubert Sauper, 2004 (107 min),
SATURDAY 7 April 2007
4.30pm: Welcome back by Michaela Crimmin, RSA Arts and Ecology Director, London
4.30 – 5.30pm: Artists' presentation: e-Xplo with Ayreen Anastas (Artists US/Austria; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
5.30 – 7pm: Panel discussion: Urban Planning and the future city.
What is the future of the city as a habitat for humanity? Increasingly dense housing, commercial, cultural, infrastructural and civic spaces contradict our desire for space, openness and freedom. What lies ahead for the city as a living, symbiotic form of inanimate structure and animate inhabitants?
Panellists:
Samir Srouji (Artist, Palestine; participating in Sharjah Biennial 8)
Rula Sadik (General Manager, Design and Planning, The Design Group, Nakheel, Dubai)
Samer Kamal (Founder, Bee’ah, Sharjah Environmental Company, Sharjah)
Chair: George Katodrytis (Architect; Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture and Design, Professor of Architecture, AUS)
7.30pm: Film Programme Excerpt held at Qanat Al Qasba: The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk, 2006 (112 min).
Tomás Saraceno
Sat, Jan 13 2007
Post-leakage view of project by Tomás Saraceno at Centre d'Art Santa Mònica / CASM, the institution with possibly the best programme in Barcelona, but certainly the one with the most useless website. Also showing Jack Pierson and Joan Morey.