The duo MAP Office have created a fun mapping project of places, real or imaginary, which are described or appear in the work of artists represented at the Asia Art Archive.
From the collection, the team have created an Atlas of Asia Art Archive: a “unique visual cartography in which combinations of text and image dissolve the conventional borders of Asia, the Atlas is a new categorisation of the region, charting artists and the territories they invent, use, appropriate, and transform much like Jorge Luis Borges’ reference to the ancient Chinese encyclopædia ‘Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge.’ In continuity with their current practice, MAP Office is attracted by territorial concerns, walking the line between art and architecture, aesthetics and activism, image and text.
The installation presents the territories of 111 artists configured into 12 possible categories. In this list of 12 categories, geography goes beyond the conventional means of defining territories. Usually constrained by national interests and geographic borders, these categories propose another taxonomy in which territories are defined by the nature of their creations and ambitions.”
Artists include Ai Weiwei on the World Wide Web, Yoko Ono on the Sky, Suh Do-ho about Seoul Home, Lee Bul on Utopia, Song Dong on Banshang (hutong) Lane, Cai Guoqiang on Iwaki, amongst others.
For more information and pictures of the project visit the Asia Art Archive here.
