Theoretical Frontiers – By Aude Milaguet

From March 5th to April 14th the Julie Saul Gallery has a group exhibition on the theme of mapping called "Uncharted Territory: Subjective Mapping by Artists and Cartographers."

Theoretical Frontiers

By Aude Milaguet

 

 

 

 

From March 5th to April 14th the Julie Saul Gallery has a group exhibition on the theme of mapping called "Uncharted Territory: Subjective Mapping by Artists and Cartographers." This exhibition gathers the work of twenty-one artists using painting, collage, drawing, photography and printmaking to express themselves. In these days when all the world seems to be continually threatened, this exhibition reminds us how borders can be just subjective, just one theoretical fact.

The show puts together some new works and some old maps (for example a world map from 1493) showing how the world has changed. The borders of the 15th century are not the same as the ones we know. And the vision of the world also differs: they imagined that the Earth was flat and thought there wasn’t another continent where America is. This exhibition makes us feel as if the world wasn’t really as we think it is.

There are a variety of kinds of works, and each of them characterizes borders in a different way. When you see a man climbing on a wall covered with world maps, it seems like we could cross over the borders, just forget them, and live in a new but dangerous world. Gonzalo Puch recreates a photograph where a telescope is burning in front of a plain sphere, like the excitement of scientific exploration ignites.

If "Uncharted Territory" can sometimes make us remember how small we could be, it also insists on the power of understanding borders and making the frontiers more bearable. We made these borders, exactly as the artists made these works: with an idea one day and the will to make it happen, even if that means disagreeing with other people or being disliked. We did it. Now we have to live with this past and respect how imperfect the world can be. We can change some details but we can’t change everything. We are too weak to fight for everything.

This show is a very interesting perspective on the "objective world" translated coldly in maps, because despite of the borders, we all know how difficult it is in reality to have frontiers which are respected and tolerated.