The way a territory is described is an intrinsic part of how it is appropriated, how it is understood, and how in the broadest sense it is provided with political meaning. The voyages of exploration and colonization as of the late the 15th century included draftsmen and painters among their crew, men capable of recording the territories to be conque red. Indeed, there were also cartographers, who were in charge of drawing the maps of the new lands. Maps, drawings and paintings, along with extensive accounts, provided the foundations for knowledge and control. This tradition is critically reviewed in the obsessive gesture of Anna Bella Geiger when she draws her Elementary Maps (1976). Jean-Christophe Norman also sets his gaze on roads, streets, and sidewalks, recognizing different marks of identity in each one and crafting unique Constellations (2008). This exhibition proposes an updated view of the problem of territorial control from the perspective of issues of access and exclusion; in short, power issues. Diana B. Wechsler
