Weltkarten. Panorama

Abstract

This paper is the “translation” of an oral presentation that explored the relationship between theory based research and art practice. It contemplates how theory can be incorporated into artistic practice and thus rendered visible. WeltKarten. Panorama explores the visualization of the bond between concepts and actions, between theoretical and factual practices, between ideas and the gestures that give concepts a specific (art) form. It seems important to start by pointing out the three fundamental thinking processes that converge in this paper—and in its public presentation as a “talk” in Barcelona. Firstly, my inquiries take the form of artworks that consider how maps represent existing places—but also reflect on how these same maps affect, create, and reconfigure the places to which they refer. Cartographical representations are forms of conceptual and instrumental knowledge about the world. Since they imply the convergence of theoretical and technical artistry, maps seem a natural matter for me to devote my investigations to. Secondly, such artworks should be considered as the constitutive elements of a broader thought process—that is, my practice as a whole. This concept is fundamental since it considers artistic practice itself as an ongoing phenomenon, one that involves the tracing of ideas and the development of lines of thinking. Along with marking, depicting, or conforming to a territory, my approach to mapping examines the relationship between thought processes and the gestures involved in creating images—the hand performing a perhaps indelible trace. The third element to consider is the format: the talk per se