Atlas Critique: Cartography Under the Knife at Le Parc Saint-Léger

The exhibition 'Atlas critique' at Le Parc Saint-Léger in Pougues-Les-Eaux (March 17 – May 27, 2012) examines cartography as a tool of spatial domination, highlighting its political implications and subverting its claimed objectivity through psychogeographies. Works include Francis Alÿs's 'The Green Line' (2007), a walk along Jerusalem's East-West separation line; Société Réaliste's 'Spectral Aerosion' (2010), a map of Europe scarred by border history from year zero to 2000; and Claire Fontaine's 'France (burnt/unburnt)' (2011), a map of France made of burnt matches. Subjective geographies are proposed against positivist, 'transparent' space: Berger & Berger's all-white globe 'Astre Blanc' (2011) invites fantasy projections; Stalker's drifts through Rome ('Planifero Roma', 1995-1998) and Fernand Deligny's walks in the Savoy countryside ('Lignes d'erre de Janmarie', 1977) trace affective and unconscious paths. Michael Druks's 'Druksland – Physical and Social, 15 January 1974, 11.30am' (1974) telescopes mental landscape and occupied territories, epitomizing epistemological critiques of cartography.