threewallsSALON: Cartography 2.0 February 23, 2010

The ancient art of cartography has mysterious and storied resonances of ignorance, journeys and discovery; idealized and paradisiacal utopias; Cartesian desires for quantifiable knowledge; and colonial powers and empires. Today, contemporary artists across the globe employ mapping and diagramming in their creative practice to incredibly diverse ends. Bourriaud locates this practice as characteristic of a new era in art in his curatorial essay on the “altermordern”; for the curator, it reflects our age of invisible but enforced borders; multiple passports; global culture and nomadism. Beyond the obvious socio-political qualities in the art of making a map, however, there is also the fundamental act itself of making connections, of stringing ideas together visually and spatially.

A spate of exhibitions in Chicago and beyond from around 2004 on ignited a flurry of interest in the map, such as the Mapping show at Mess Hall in 2004, Mapping the Self at the MCA from 2007-8 and An Atlas at Gallery 400, 2007-8. These exhibitions and the work of invited guest respondents will figure into our conversation as we explore the political, social, personal and ontological dimensions of the map.

Guest respondents: Bret Bloom, Scott Carter, Adelheid Mers, Deb Sokolow and Sara Schnadt
2010 SALONS were coordinated by Ania Szremski, a graduate dual degree candidate in Arts Administration and Art History, Theory and Criticism at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
This program was made possible by The Presidential Urban Engagement Grant from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.