Due to the impossibility of transferring the image of a volumetric surface to a planimetric one with no alteration, the world map produced by the German cartographer Gerardus Mercator is considerably distorted concerning the proportions of the actual size of the land masses.
Del Paso references the planisphere of Dr. Arno Peters, who proposes cartography that bases its point of view on the equator, with the consequent deformation of the continental masses. This shows that any map is a subjective, biased, and profoundly ideological interpretation rather than an objective instrument of measurement and location.
Del Paso appropriates the image commonly known as the world map but presents it upside down. This dislocation of order provokes a new point of view, revealing the power relations behind the apparent innocence of cartographic conformity. This map was made with ‘Duck Tape’… a tape used to “…repair things”.
1992/2007/2014
