INGE PANNEELs


Map-i: Mercator Revisited



BELGIUM 2013



The Map-i: Mercator Revisited series was inspired by an artist-in-residency at the Mercator Museum in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium which was exhibited from March till December 2013 in the refurbished Museum, with the launch of Map-i: Mercator Revisited book, published by Snoeck. This series of work reconsiders Mercator's life and work; the 16th century maps from the Age of Discovery juxtaposed with a 21st century digital worldview; from the tiny Micro Macroworld map and the large Compendium, inspired by the Mercator world projections, which was purchased by the Museum for its permanent collection.


This project has been made possible by funding from the University of Sunderland and a grant from Creative Scotland, a collaboration with Dr. David Forrest from the University of Glasgow and the support from the International Institute for Research in Glass.


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Quadratum and Circulus



‘Quadratum (Squaring the Circle)’ is a contemporary world map using the Mercator projection, depicting 21st century air traffic routes.


In ‘Circulus (Circling the Square)’, the world map is depicted on a Langrange projection and depicts a recent map of the internet. Together, these pieces present two different world map projections, which highlight the exponentially increased speed of travel and communication of our age versus the painstakingly acquired knowledge of Age of Discovery.



Compendium



‘Compendium’ took its inspiration from the influential 1569 Mercator World Map’s form, layout and colouring. The 18 individual glass panes, which make up ‘Compendium’, depict the geography of the world of his map and are overlaid with text from the title pages of his book collection, as referenced in the ‘Mercator and his books’ exhibition at the Mercator Museum in 1994. It highlights the unfamiliar world layout, unaccustomed to 21st century eyes, constructed on contemporary knowledge of Mercator’s era. It was also the first time the projection, which now bears his name was used.


Terra Mundi



The Mercator projection remains relevant today and is still used in many online mapping applications .The streetmaps used in the series of twelve curved vessels in the Terra Mundi series are abstractions based on Googlemaps of significant places in the artist’s life with the colour scheme dictated by the beautiful hand coloured print in Mercator’s atlases. The final map entitled ‘Utopia’ is left blank;


“A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.”


(‘The Soul of Man under Socialism’ by Oscar Wilde). This work was later also selected for the British Glass Bienale in 2015.



Mercator Micro Macro



‘Micro Macro (Mercator)’ juxtaposes a large map of the world on a Mercator projection with the same image on much smaller scale; a process which comes at the expense of entire countries disappearing; Britain, Iceland, Japan, Indonesia… The same image exposes a different version of ‘reality’.


This work lead to the later Magic Earth project.



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