The imaginary world
of a mind explorer.
Jorge Macchi
Argentine artist Jorge Macchi certainly likes playing with
maps. In his
works we find imaginary maps of the Buenos Aires metro, road
maps where all
the buildings have been removed, cities made only of cemeteries.
His large work "Lilliput" is an accidental map
of the world. The artist cut
out all the countries in the world, scattered them randomly
on a big white
sheet and stuck them into the precise place they fell. Many
countries ended
up upside down, thus being harder to spot. Others appear fallen
casually as
if they were leaves bobbing in a puddle. It is not the result
of an
uncoodinated break-up of continents but rather the result
of an unexpected
"big bang". But the randomness of the geographical
distribution is balanced
by the millimetric precision of the scale of distances between
the various
cities printed in the bottom left-hand corner. And the term
millimetre is
particularly apt, since the numbers indicate the precise number
of
millimeters that separate various cities on the map. But if,
for example,
the 882 millimetres on the scale of distances is what really
divides Chicago
from Kabul, then that would mean that what looks like a map
is in reality
not a map but a life-sized place. That is why the work is
called "Lilliput"
like the legendary island in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
Because it
is not a world to scale, it is simply a very small world.
This implies that
only the limits of our sight and the extremely reduced dimensions
of what
now does not appear like a map but like a sort of aquarium,
prevents us from
distinguishing within each nation the inhabitants, cars, aeroplanes
and
indeed any form of life too microscopic to be seen with the
naked eye.
Peering closer at the glass protecting the work we cast a
brief shadow over
the surface, darkening four or five countries. Perhaps this
gesture of ours
is mistaken by the inhabitants of this miniature world for
an enormous cloud
or even an eclipse which darkens part of the earth's surface
for a few
seconds.
by Giorgio Guglielmino
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