Journal

A Fictive New World

For the exhibition MIABER at the Art Center South Florida, Miami 2015

Map systems provide facts and deliver only an apparently valid overall view of territories, settlements, geographical and economic conditions, suggesting that we had obtained or could obtain a complete picture of the world.

Borders change, are relocated through wars and border conflicts – each failed border a potential war. Mineral resources are depleted, industrial sites disappear, new production centers come into existence, new traffic routes are developed, cities rise, grow, dwindle. The world is in motion. But also white spots on the map exist – unexplored, undefined, or forbidden areas.

Through observing cartographical portrayals – abstract, seen from above, our inner images and ideas of world connections and real distances are developed, influencing our understanding of space and time as well as of our socio-cultural placement. The map as a system of orientation underlies our projections, acting at the same time as a producer of, and screen for, our projections of our conceptions of the world.

It results from our assumption of what constitutes the here and there and the comparison with one’s own position, leading to the acceptance of us here and the others there, locating the familiar here , and the foreign there. I use old school maps as the basic material for “Fictive Worlds” which were usually used in the classroom until the advent of Google Earth. “Fictive Worlds” is not a completed work, but a work- in- progress.

“Fictive Worlds” celebrates biographical memories and the ways one sees oneself, exploring inner concepts of the world, memories of learning experiences, as well as childhood and adolescence as stages in the life cycle– all of which reveals our orientation in relation to space, territories and our own positioning. Historical, social, political and biographical aspects are touched upon here.

Intervention through painting and emblemic reinterpretation create new image associations.

Apparent certitudes are destroyed as a result of such reinterpretations. Sculptural remodeling creates new territorial connections and questions known settings. Artistic interference in the known coordination system creates fictive states and countries.

By painting over old forms, connections are modified and specific graphic elements, depictions, and color systems are altered. The possibility of identifying the exhibited geographical and state contexts will be made more difficult or impossible. The map turns into a painting and is thus subject to artistic and compositional criteria.

A new landscape is emerging – fictive new worlds.

Sabine Schneider, Translation: Dagmar Füner