Whose Map is it?

Posted by Fabio 6 May 2010

Iniva’s summer season at Rivington Place includes a group exhibition – Whose Map is it?, a symposium and other events which present new approaches to mapping. Nine contemporary international artists question the underlying structures and hierarchies that inform traditional mapmaking. They provide individual insights that inscribe new, often omitted perspectives onto the map.

Film, installation, print and audio are used to challenge the authority of the map and explore wider social and political issues. Whose Map is it? includes three new commissions by Gayle Chong Kwan, Susan Stockwell and Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, alongside recent work by Milena Bonilla, Alexandra Handal, Bouchra Khalili, Otobong Nkanga, Esther Polak and Oraib Toukan.

For centuries artists have been drawn to the subject of maps to examine self- positioning and global geographies. The artists in Whose Map is it? continue this process by challenging the objective nature of the map. The exhibition opens a dialogue about contemporary experiences of space, and the meaning of the map today.

‘Maps show where places are, but they also reveal geographical, political, social and artistic landscapes. In the hands of artists, maps can illustrate new perspectives on our world.’ Steve Brace, Head of Education and Outdoor Learning, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Maps are part of debates around subjects such as resources, territoriality, identity and migration. Globalisation has changed how we see the world and the two dimensional map no longer represents the rapidly changing trans-national, multi-authored world that we live in. Our ideas of the map have also changed as a result of increasing access to GIS (Geographical Information System) and new technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning System).

Artists’ projects respond to mapping with Dia Batal’s Cartography in the Education Space, and Damian and Delaine Le Bas’ short film The Strange World of Roderick Wood. The Crossing Boundaries symposium takes place on 2 June 2010, developed in collaboration with the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG); it discusses subjects raised by the exhibitions at Rivington Place and the RGS-IBG. Artists, geographers and theorists lead discussions on the making of maps, considering the power plays and legacy of creative approaches to spatial thinking.

Whose Map is it?
new mapping by artists
2 June – 24 July 2010
Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts)
Rivington Place,
London EC2A 3BA,
United Kingdom
www.iniva.org