Unmapping the World

"Unmapping the World is part of a segment of my work that relates to cartography and the act of mapping, not only as a form of representing space, but also as a discursive tool for power. As such, my interest resides in subverting this format and questioning the naturalization of ideas backed by these representations.

The series features world map drawings made from sheets of baking paper, crumpled into balls on which the picture of the globe was drawn. These 3D drawings were flattened back into level surfaces, resulting in various fragmented configurations of the map.

The gesture present in the conception of this piece combines two forms of representation of the world: the globe and the world map. A single sheet of paper provides the medium to both representations. When crumpled into a ball, the paper can accommodate the drawing of the globe. As the paper returns to its flat state, the territorial masses that were outlined spread across its surface in different configurations.

As a reduced model of the Earth, the globe enables a more accurate representation of geopolitical territories than its world map counterparts. The difficulty in transposing 3D to 2D paves the way to physical approximations, which are often dictated by power relations. Thus, the tension between object and drawing reinforces issues of representation. Every time the creative process takes place, the artist’s role is to outline a different, temporary world. Unmapping the World suggests the world map as an idea, rather than a fixed image. Being a concept, the map assumes different formal interactions, all of which are temporary and equivalent.

There are several Latin American artists whose work questions the geopolitical representation of the world, including Joaquín Torres García, Cildo Meireles and Anna Bella Geiger. The starting point for most of their work emphasizes the artist’s geographical position somewhere in Latin America.

With Unmapping the World, I take a stance of equivalence and horizontality towards the world (notwithstanding my origin) in order to question the notion of nationality that scarcely represents the movements of exchange - whether they are cultural, economic or otherwise -  which define the contemporary world.

When the territorial masses spread across the surface of the paper, an equation of equivalence takes place, rather than one of exchange, between North and South, or between the center and the margins. Geographical outlines and cardinal references are lost. This fragmentation of the drawing is further complemented by the approach to paper as a three-dimensional surface. There is no pre-established direction in which to hang the piece on the wall. The drawing expands on both sides, so there is no front or back, no bottom or top.

A more critical take on the dynamics of global economic and political power and its social, aesthetical, affective and cultural developments occurred to me when I moved to Los Angeles. Being out of my comfort zone naturally enabled a more acute perception of such dynamics, which have since become more present in my work."

Clarissa Tossin in a statement to PLATFORM:VB (October 2013)