p r e s s r e l e a s e

Mapping The Art II
a Summer group show, including

Greg Colson - www.gregcolsonart.com,
Lilian Cooper - www.liliancooper.com,
Aquil Copier - www.aquilcopier.nl,
Julian Faulhaber - www.julian-faulhaber.com,
Peter Ruehle - www.peterruehle.com,
Kim Schoenstadt - www.kimschoenstadt.com,
Jean-Yves Vigneau - www.vigjy.net

July 1 - August 27, 2011

The artists we have chosen prove that map making and working with maps is a contemporary art form that is widely spread, nationwise as well as by the variety of means, or attitudes towards the subject.

Maps have a seductive quality. They embody the idea of definition and of marking place. Making maps create both a sense of permanence and of structure. The act, or even dream of journeying becomes real through a map, it becomes a picture of places been. There is a tangible trail.

For this exhibition, the map is as a medium to extrapolate from, or to create artwork using the mapping process: plotting the delineated line. The core is cartography, yet the artists involved have created their own language, approaching the concept of mapping from different angles.  
 
Early Classical maps of the Holy Roman Empire show the world centred on Rome and the remainder relegated to the margins. In this instance the act of mapping becomes a definition of ownership, placing one’s mark on the environment. The landscape is reorganized on paper to fit the prevailing political climate. Part of the fascination of old maps is finding one’s own present day location in an earlier notation of surroundings.

In our present virtual environment, however, the map has been transposed to the mobile phone interface.  At any given moment we can find out where we are; dynamic virtual maps have become a fluid stream of information. Maybe that's one of the reasons why so many artists nowadays have turned to this medium.

Exhibition co-curated by Lilian Cooper
June 2011