Simonetta Moro

Mapping Boundaries

ink drawing on round paper of maps and constellations ink drawing on round paper of maps and constellationsreconstructing babel reconstructing babel reconstructing babel reconstructing babel reconstructing babel reconstructing babelreconstructing babel

installations collage


Mapping Boundaries,
  2008
Central piece: mixed media on mylar, 42”x36”, side pieces: punctured mylar, 24”x18” each, panel: oil on board, 10”x10”, wall drawing: graphite dust on wall
Installation view: L(A)ttitudes, The Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery, DCJCC, Washington, DC,  2008

In November 2007, I was invited by Wendy Fergusson, Director of the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery in Washington, DC, to participate in an exhibition on mapping borders and boundaries of Israel/Palestine. Over the years, I had collected many maps and atlases of the ancient world, including Palestine, and a recent newspaper article brought to my attention an architect’s plan for an underground train that would connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip (bypassing the checkpoints above the ground). I created a site-specific mural piece including three map drawings on mylar encased in plexiglas, a spolvero drawing on the wall representing the underground train, and a small oil painting on panel with a black and white postcard-style view of the Mediterranean coast. The three maps behind plexiglas represent: the State of Israel (the large one in the middle), quoting a found postcard from the 1950s celebrating the water system in a Jewish settlement, and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (on the two opposite sides) as blank shapes. Running across the wall, as a symbolic thread connecting the pieces, the faint drawing of the underground train alluded to the fragility and precariousness of Utopian ideals.