098 - 17|03|09

Map OFFICE curated by Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya - ParaSite/ArtSpace presents at the Second Biennial of the Canary Island, Tenerife, Spain.

NO-STOP ISLAND
Solid Sea | Liquid Land

MAP OFFICE’s territories of production is an extension of a compulsive search for what they call “an Island”. Beyond Hong Kong Island where the two French architect/artists set up their base, their itinerary have taken them from China to Venice, from Lau Fau Shan to Israel, from New Orleans to Tenerife, following the thread of various opportunities in the construction of this Island. In their work, the process of making, and often of appropriating, is the creation of an “archipelago world” or a patchwork of experiences that abort the notion of a “home” or an “elsewhere”. With sea levels most certainly on the rise, the sea becomes their new desert. With the disappearance of numerous islands  across many regions of the world, they propose an infrastructure capable of breeding new ones. 

Paul Virilio announced the “end of geography”, meaning that time (history) won over space. Time is then on the top of space, as  the sea sits on the surface of the earth. Following Deleuze's categorization of islands, the accidental (Continental islands) and originary (Oceanic islands), they would like to propose a third type – the man-made (Infinite or No-stop islands). Continental islands are entropic: they are slowly eroded by the waves, inevitably condemned. Some Oceanic islands, the volcanic ones, grow slowly, sometimes disappearing and reappearing; their relation to time is different, and given by the activity of the volcano. An island can grow and disappear so fast that it leaves no time to be occupied / appropriated / annexed. The volcano as a repulsive element on the top of an attractive one. Is the ultimate luxury to go against nature? Carteret Islands in PNG will be the first islands to disappear due to global climate change in the coming years. Associated to this phenomenon, violent storms such as Katrina flooded large parts of cities  for months. 

The pressure of water is everywhere. Yet, the islands offer a new freedom and serve the desire of its potential inhabitants. So, the shape of the island is not fixed, not important – as it is ever changing. Each island is a fragment of a territorial carpet where the scenarios of occupation are heterogeneous and contradictory. In this new world of fragments the density of existing archipelagos can also be increased. For the Second Biennial of the Canary Island, NO-STOP ISLAND begins with seven miniature stories illustrating our fears, our desires, our anxieties, our obsessions, our wishes.

Gutierrez + Portefaix

Model and Video instalation

Model

Detail of the model: Solid Sea

Detail of the model: Solid Sea / Liquid Land

Detail of the model: Liquid Land

Detail of the model: SUNDAY - The ORIGINAL Island or the Island of ORIGINE

Detail of the model: MONDAY - The MIGRATION Island or the Island of TRANSIT

Detail of the model: TUESDAY - The LABOUR Island or the Island of WORK

Detail of the model: WEDNESDAY - The LUXURY Island or the Island of PLEASURE

Detail of the model: THURSDAY - The AMUSEMENT Island or the Island of MEDIA

Detail of the model: FRIDAY - The DESIRE Island or the Island of SEX

Detail of the model: SUNDAY - The VIRTUAL Island or the Island of FUN