Screening & Talk

Cartographers Presentation | Valentina Bonizzi

Centrespace at the Visual Research Centre invite you to the screening of Cartographers a recent film by artist Valentina Bonizzi, followed by a presentation by the artist: the suburb, the rural and the artistic search for a democratic re-territorialization, on Friday 12 February from 6pm.

Valentina Bonizzi

The suburb, the rural and the artistic search for a democratic re-territorialization

Friday 12 February, 6pm

An art work by Valentina Bonizzi, Cartographers aims to rethink map-making from its traditional two-dimensional form into the subtleties of individual and collective experience.

Bonizzi’s work investigates how cartographic practices can be re-defined and democratized through photography, film-making and engagement with communities. During her presentation at Centrespace, Bonizzi will expand on and unravel a working methodology which she developed for her recent film Cartographers (2015); a documentary which maps social, national and personal cartographies into the trajectories of migration, conflict and autonomy.

The relationship between the photographic apparatus and migration is situated at an intersection between the two-dimensional outcome of marking borders on a map, or printing an image on a flat surface, and the real-time of the events that shape the lived experience of that intersection. The rigidity of geographical borders, and their false appearance of flexibility, has been seen recently in the ‘Migration Crisis’ when Europe has proved (again) that ‘open boundaries’ is an idea and not a reality. The experience of migrants fleeing countries in the midst of conflict is representative of the relationship between the ‘having to deal with’ the happenings, in most cases forced, and at the same time changing, transforming the landscape, leaving or bringing old and new values.

Cartographers is commissioned by Cultural Documents, funded by Arts & Business, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Cultural Documents, and kindly sponsored by IFS World Wide.

Image courtesy of the artist.

Centrespace, Visual Research Centre is part of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design and is located on the lower floors of Dundee Contemporary Arts, 152 Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4DY