I am very excited to be showing LOCATIONS & DISLOCATION in a group show on mapping and the politics of space at ACVIC in Vic, Catalonia, Spain.  It opens this Thursday.  Description and info below.

APAMAR. CHARTS, METRICS AND POLITICS OF SPACE
24.03.2011 – 05.06.2011

Exhibition by: Mona Fawaz -Ahmad Gharbieh -Mona Harb / Sarah Nelson Wright / Torolab / Isaki Lacuesta – Isa Campo / Stalker – Primavera Romana / Guifi.net / Hackitectura / Iconoclasistas

Opening 24.03.2011 at 19.30h

Apamar. Charts, metrics and politics of space brings together a selection of proposals that intervene in the city through artistic practices,architecture, design or activism. The projects intersect through proposing alternatives to the representation of space, its interpretation and how to live in it. In some cases they reveal latent conflict situations in the territory by generating maps and interpreting them. In others, they relate to self-managed social processes that activate collective strategies, by creating networks and seeking alternative systems for the citizens.

“Apamar”, in catalan, means to measure a field but also to know something very well. Measuring with one’s palms and being in control of a circumstance or situation supposes a subjective knowledge about the context. The exploration of the territory, critical cartography, the selection and display of data, processing of information or collective creation are issues that relate to subjectivity and socialization of space.
The participating projects in the exhibition, some finished while others still in process, work with the many underlying qualities of geographical maps. Experimenting with this seemingly conventional medium, while staying faithful to some of its main attributes such as accuracy, factuality and intentional objectivity, they create new models from a critical perspective and with the objective of proposing alternative strategies. They are born as a reaction to various situations that represent a need for reflection and active response, and they are materialized in various formats. Together, they come forth as tools that are clearly political and serve for pointing out and making visible spaces in conflict situations; in some cases, they activate collective processes while experimenting with new strategies that allow citizens to intervene in the organization of social space.

In this sense, “Beirut: Mapping Security” by Mona Fawaz, Ahmad Gharbieh and Mona Harb, depicts the numerous types of security measures that have been established in municipal Beirut as a result to the armed conflicts the country has witnessed since the 70’s. Sarah Nelson Wright’s visual mapping of six individuals’ travels in Brooklyn, Locations and Dislocation, is a reflection on the effects of gentrification and urban expansion. In LRPT (La región de los pantalones tranfronterizos), the Tijuana-based collective Torolab makes visible the transnational mobility of the inhabitants of the twin cities of Tijuana and San Diego. Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo visit Places that do not exist, and provide us with an account of the reality of these places that have desappeared from google earth for being protected areas. Geografie dell’Oltrecittà and Agroculture nomadi by Stalker/Primavera Romana are common design projects that generate and share social knowledge and awareness on urban changes, while Guifi.net in Catalunya, Mapeo Colectivo from Iconoclasistas in Buenos Aires and Mapping the Commons, Athens by Hackitectura.net all spur us into participation with the aim of creating common resources.

“Apamar. Charts, metrics and politics of space” is a project of ACVic curated by Maral Mikirditsian, Ramon Parramon and Laia Solé.

For more information:
T. 00 34 93 885 37 04
info@acvic.org
www.acvic.org