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Amikejo, yearly exhibition series at MUSAC's Laboratorio
987 curated by Latitudes
On 9 April the Laboratorio 987, MUSAC's independent
project space, presents the second show of the Amikejo
exhibition series, a specific project by artist pair Iratxe
Jaio (Markina-Xemein, Vizcaya, Spain, 1976) and Klaas
van Gorkum (Delft, The Netherlands, 1975). The Amikejo project, set to develop throughout 2011
over a series of four exhibitions, is curated by
the independent curatorial office Latitudes (Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna), and structured around relational and
spatial twinning. The four artist pairs in the cycle are Pennacchio
Argentato (29/01/2011–03/04/2011), Iratxe jaio & Klaas van Gorkum
(09/04/2011–12/06/2011), Uqbar Foundation (Mariana
Castillo Deball and Irene Kopelman)
(25/06/2011–11/09/2011), Fermín Jiménez
Landa and Lee Welch (24/09/2011–15/01/2012). The Laboratorio 987 enters with Amikejo
a new phase in its exhibition programming, focused on providing a projection
platform not only for artists, but also for young curators working in Spain.
Under the new scheme, each year MUSAC will invite a limited number of
curators to submit a year-long curatorial project for Laboratorio
987, guided by the premise of developing a conceptual approach through four
exhibitions for the museum's project room. MUSAC will select the submission
best suited to the project room's approach.
On Amikejo
Amikejo is a series of four exhibitions at
the Laboratorio 987 of MUSAC that is structured
around relational and spatial twinning. This is most evident in the fact that
the artists of each installment are formed by two collaborating individuals,
as is Latitudes, the curatorial office formed by Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna invited to conceive the season. These
artistic pairings involve various modes of binomial friendships—couples in
life, dedicated duos, intermittent work partners, as well as new allies. The
artist partnerships involve an overall 50–50 split of male and female
practitioners, as well as Spanish-speaking and foreign origins.
The series encompasses a further register of doubling prompted by a critical
reflection on the conditions and expectations of a 'project space' such as Laboratorio 987 within today's contemporary art museum.
Such a site is typically annexed from a hosting institution, independent yet
attached, with the understanding that different, more ad-hoc and agile laws
apply. Nonconformist and at the same time authorized, and following spatial
theories such as Michel Foucault's 'heterotopia', a
project space is a typology that is neither here nor there. Shadowing Robert
Smithson's concept of the 'non-site' (an indoor artwork physically and
mentally paired with an outdoor site), the Laboratorio
987 space has been assigned a relation with a specific remote location for
the 2011 season: Amikejo.
Amikejo was an anomalous in-between state which
never entirely existed, and was founded on a desire to foster more effective
international communication through the synthetic language Esperanto.
Following treaties of the early 19th Century, a tiny 3½ km2 wedge of land
between the Netherlands, Belgium and Prussia was established as a neutral
area because of an important zinc mine. In 1908 the 2,500 identity-less
citizens of Neutral Moresnet, as it was known, declared
it to be the world's first Esperanto state: Amikejo
('place of great friendship' in Esperanto). A national anthem was constituted
and stamps and a flag were designed. Yet in the wake of the first World War,
Germany relinquished its claim to the disputed territory, and Amikejo-Moresnet disappeared from the map as it became
part of Belgium, although border markers still exist to this day.
This episode-place, and ultimately, failure, was a unique synthesis of
cartography, language, nationhood, politics, economics and subjectivity, and
is entreated as a twin site to Laboratorio 987 by
lending its name and conceptual borders to the exhibition series. This
association not only implicates the spatial functions of the 'neutral' spaces
of art—how they endorse otherwise unremarkable things with a 'special'
status—yet also establishes a similitude with the desire to institute a
shared and effective means of communication, between participants and with
the world.
On Latitudes
Latitudes is an independent Barcelona-based [41º 23'N, 2º 11'E] curatorial
office initiated in April 2005 by Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa
Luna. Latitudes collaborates with artists and institutions in the conception,
organisation and production of exhibitions, public
commissions, conferences, editorial and research initiatives across local,
pan-European and international situations. Latitudes is on the editorial
board of Archive Books, Turin/Berlin, is a curatorial advisor for APT
Intelligence, collaborates with Vena (por la), is
part of Plataforma Curatorial as well as being on
Hangar's Programming Committee 2010–12. Latitudes was awarded the GAC 2010
curatorial award given by the Catalan gallery association.
Among Latitudes' recent projects are the edition of the publication 'LAND,
ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook' (2006); the co-curatorship of the group
show 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises
and Perplexities', Fondazione Sandretto
Re Rebaudengo, Torino (2008); the curatorship of an
exhibition project in four parts with Lawrence Weiner, 'THE CREST OF A WAVE',
Fundació Suñol, Barcelona
(2008). They have taken part in the two editions of 'NO SOUL FOR SALE. A
Festival of Independents' in X Initiative, New York (2009) and in Tate
Modern, London (2010), as well as the development of 'Portscapes',
an accummulative series of newly commissioned
projects in and around the extension of the Port of Rotterdam, The
Netherlands, (2009), that culminated in an exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rótterdam (2010). Recently, Latitudes participated as
associated organization in the exhibition 'The Last Newspaper', at New
Museum, NewYork (2010–11).
Additional information: www.lttds.org
Laboratorio 987, MUSAC's project space
Laboratorio 987, MUSAC's project space, is an
annexed venue that develops its own independent programme.
Previous artists exhibiting at the Laboratorio 987:
Silvia Prada (Ponferrada, Spain,1969), Fikret Atay (Batman, Turkey,
1976), Abigail Lazkoz (Bilbao, 1972), Ryan McGinley
(New Jersey, USA, 1978), Wilfredo Prieto (Santi Spíritus, Cuba,
1977) Monika Sosnoswka (Ryki,
Poland, 1972), Philipp Fröhlich (Schweinfurt,
Germany, 1975), Pauline Fondevila (Le Havre,
France, 1972), Clare E. Rojas (Ohio, USA, 1976), Marc Vives
(Barcelona, Spain1978) + David Bestué (Barcelona,
Spain, 1980), Joao Maria Gusmao (Lisbon, 1979) +
Pedro Paiva (Lisbon, 1977) Matías
Duville (Buenos Aires, 1974), Ivan Grubanov (Serbia, 1976) and Ángel
de la Rubia (Oviedo, 1979), Dan Attoe
(Bremerton, Washington, 1975), Nicolás Paris
(Bogotá, Colombia, 1977) and Ignacio Uriarte
(Krefeld, Germany, 1973), Antonio Ballester, Regina
de Miguel (Malaga, Spain, 1977), Mateo López
(Bogotá, Colombia, 1978), Cyprien Gaillard (Paris,
1980), A Kassen, Yorgos Sapountzis (Athens, Greece, 1976), Alexander Apóstol (Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 1969), Simon Fujiwara
(London, UK, 1982), Fran Meana (Avilés,
Spain, 1982), Moris (México City, 1982), Warren Neidich (New York, USA, 1962), Jenny Perlin
(Wiliamstown, MA, EEUU, 1970), Diego del Pozo (Valladolid, Spain, 1974), Pedro G. Romero (Aracena, Spain, 1964), Maria Ruido
(Ourense, Spain, 1967), Danh
Vo (Vietnam, 1975), Marcelo Cidade (Sao Paulo, Brasil, 1979), Marcius Galán (Indianápolis, USA,
1972), André Komatsu (Sao Paulo, Brasil, 1978), Nicolás Robbio (Mar del Plata,
Argentina 1975), Carla Zaccagnini (Buenos Aires,
Argentina, 1973), Isabel Carvalho (Paranhos, Portugal, 1977), Carolina Caycedo
(Londres, Reino Unido, 1978), Carla Fernández
(Saltillo, Coah, México, 1973), Adriana Lara
(México DF, México, 1978), Judi Werthein (Buenos
Aires, Argentina, 1973).
MUSAC
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León
Avda. Reyes Leoneses,
24
24008 León (Spain)
www.musac.es
musac@musac.es
t. +34 987 09 00 00
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