RETHINKING SPACE: Explorations in the invisible city is an body of research, an exhibition catalogue, and a curatorial project that was launched as a public event at XPACE Cultural Centre, Toronto on April 24, 2010.
Abstract:
Using the concepts of the map and the tour as a form of curatorial practice that takes the exhibition out of the gallery in order to engage the city as both the gallery and the artwork, Rethinking space: explorations in the invisible city locates itself in the sites of the everyday, and aims to translate spatial notation (the map) into a spatial experience (the tour). Expanding on the Situationist term dérive -- a method of moving through the city developed and theorized by Situationist International -- these curated walks ask the individual to explore the urban landscape using the map as a guide for their tour, and to activate spaces by walking them.
As a device for spatial representation, like the score or script, maps are used to indicate possible tours: itineraries and instructions that indicate paths and suggest actions that render distinct spatial experiences for the participant based on my own peripatetic explorations of the city. This project proposes that walking is a means of doing something with the city, and further suggests that walking in tandem with mapping produces new possibilities for exploring, inhabiting and reconsidering space through a physical engagement with it.
Drawing on artistic precedents and theories of walking, spatial notation and everyday practices, this thesis presents a series of projects for the city. It demonstrates how mapping, as an artistic and curatorial practice, can generate a subtle recalibration in the way we see, experience and imagine the spaces around us.
© Deborah Wang 2010