Mind the gap. Cartografie urbane di luoghi dimenticati

Abstract

This essay’s main goal is getting close to some of the artists which have been using cartography as a means to practice reality during the ’60s. Starting from Henri Lefebvre’s (1901-1991) «cognitive cartography» related to his studies on Everyday life’s critique and the revolutionary situationist concept of the Unitarian Urbanism, a relevant number of artists used mapping - both in a phisical or a mental way - as a means of action and interaction upon the urban context. Using both conceptual and performative practices, artists as Robert Smithson (1938), On Kawara (1933) and Jeremy Wood (1976) have shown how to ‘measure’ the urban ambient way too far from the everyday paths and, for this reason, apparently forgotten.

Keywords

• situazionismo
• Robert Smithson
• On Kawara
• Jeremy Wood
• cartografia cognitiva
• Henri Lefebvre