Maps

The Imago Mundi, or the Babylonian Mappa Mundi, is the oldest known representation of the world that has survived to this day. Now housed in the British Museum, it depicts the known world of the 6th century BCE, surrounding Babylon on the Euphrates, Assyria, and Armenia with their settlements, and the great "bitter river": the Ocean.
Maps, although increasingly accurate and faithful to the image of the globe thanks to technological advances in cartography, have historically represented a specific worldview, shaped by the perspective of the cartographer. Just as the Babylonians placed themselves at the center of a concentric world, so too did 16th-century Europeans spread the conformal cylindrical projection developed by the Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator, which placed Europe at the center of the world. Mercator’s map is still extremely familiar to us today: it is the world map found in all our schoolbooks.
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Embrace Differences, 2005
Thermodet Mirror / Specchio Thermodet / Thermodet-Spiegel
27 1/2 x 38 5/8 in
70 x 98 cm

It is no surprise, then, that art—especially contemporary art—has often revisited the concept of the map, reworking it not to represent reality exactly, but to convey a message. One example is Embrace Differences by Michelangelo Pistoletto (2005). On a mirrored surface, the artist traces the outline of the European continent with various intersecting curved lines in different colors. “Love Differences” symbolizes not only a united Europe but also an interconnected, colorful reality in which everyone can see and recognize themselves.
Piero Pizzi Cannella
Mappa del mondo "per andare via", 2002-2009
Series: Opera singola
Oil on canvas / Olio su tela / Öl auf Leinwand
height 70 7/8 in
height 180 cm

In World Map "To Go Away", part of the World Maps series created for an exhibition at the Teatro India in Rome, Piero Pizzi Cannella draws trajectories on the globe that connect different territories—almost as if they were traces of enigmatic imaginary journeys—leading from one part of the world to another. This vision is no longer geopolitical but inspired by movement and the desire to travel.
Luigi Carboni
In assenza di prove, 2004-2005
Acrylic on canvas / Acrilico su tela / Acryl auf Leinwand
78 3/4 x 98 3/8 x 2 in
200 x 250 x 5 cm

Luigi Carboni also frequently engages with this theme and the representation of the world. In In the Absence of Evidence, the artist is not interested in the map as a reflection of known reality, but as a starting point for a new interpretation of the world. Starting from geopolitical data, he alters colors and shapes, blurring borders until they become unreadable and meaningless. Similarly, in Other Worlds, Carboni works with the negative of the world: starting from an existing map, he blurs the image, making it impossible to define a deterministic reality. The result evokes a sense of precariousness and openness—a concrete but indeterminate reality.
Artworks
Luigi Carboni
Altri mondi, 2002
Acrylic on canvas / Acrilico su tela / Acryl auf Leinwand
98 3/8 x 98 3/8 x 4 in
250 x 250 x 10 cm
Diamante Faraldo
Dentro l'occhio dell'Occidente, 2010
Black marble from Belgium, inner tube, wood and aluminium /Marmo nero del Belgio, camera d'aria, legno e alluminio / Schwarzer Marmor aus Belgien, Fahrradschlauch, Holz und Aluminium
85 x 159 1/2 x 2 in
216 x 405 x 5 cm

In Dentro l’occhio dell’Occidente by Diamante Faraldo, on the other hand, the artist represents an objective and extremely concrete reality, starting with the materials: using marble, wood, and aluminum, the artist emphasizes the problematic nature of the subjective gaze in interpreting reality and history.

The gaze, in this case, is that of a polarized West, where the seas are the raised component, creating a reversed cartographic—and political—perspective.

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Maps

Luigi Carboni

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