Opening: 30 August 2012, 6:30 – 8pm, Asia Art Archive

Bringing their residency to a close, artist/architect duo MAP Office presents their installation ‘Atlas of Asia Art Archive’, an atlas of real and imaginary places found in the Archive.

A unique visual cartography in which combinations of text and image dissolve the conventional borders of Asia, the Atlas is a new categorisation of the region, charting artists and the territories they invent, use, appropriate, and transform much like Jorge Luis Borges’ reference to the ancient Chinese encyclopædia 'Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge.' In continuity with their current practice, MAP Office is attracted by territorial concerns, walking the line between art and architecture, aesthetics and activism, image and text.

The installation presents the territories of 111 artists configured into 12 possible categories. In this list of 12 categories, geography goes beyond the conventional means of defining territories. Usually constrained by national interests and geographic borders, these categories propose another taxonomy in which territories are defined by the nature of their creations and ambitions.

 

A programme series ‘Performing the Archipelago’, held on 12 & 13 October at Spring Workshop, invites a group of artists to activate the territories through readings, conversation, and performance.

Parallel to the installation, AAA also presents material from the collection that has informed MAP Office’s ‘Atlas of Asia Art Archive.’ 



About MAP Office
MAP Office is a multidisciplinary platform devised by Laurent Gutierrez (b. 1966, Casablanca, Morocco) and Valérie Portefaix (b. 1969, Saint-Étienne, France). The duo of artists/architects has been based in Hong Kong since 1996, working on physical and imaginary territories using varied means of expression including drawing, photography, video, installation, performance, and literary and theoretical texts. Their work critiques spatio-temporal anomalies and documents how human beings subvert and appropriate space. They use humor, games, and fiction as part of their approach, and produce publications that disseminate their work.

Relevant content

mapoffice
Atlas of Asia Art Archive
LIKE A FEVER | Essays

Atlas of Asia Art Archive

Map Office explores how Asia is a point of arrival and departure

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Performing the Archipelago
Programmes

Performing the Archipelago

Fri–Sat, 12–13 Oct 2012

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Artists-in-Residence | MAP Office
Programmes | Residency Programme

Artists-in-Residence | MAP Office

Feb–Jul 2012