Mapping Madrid. IED Madrid. PhotoEspaña 2009

munt Bauman, mentioned above; this relationship
is established not only in a literal sense,
particularly thanks to those who share that prevailing
sense of uncertainty and fleetingness.
As the author himself confesses, “the metaphor
of flowing and liquid defines today’s urban experience,
to the extent that it is undermining
all of the city’s resources, causing the very idea
of the metropolis to fall apart and be replaced
by population nuclei characterised by varying
degrees of shapelessness. The most interesting
thing about this process toward the liquid
is that it is even affecting old cities. While the
memory of places is increasingly fixed thanks
to the tourism phenomenon, the reality of these
places is being diluted at a frenzied pace. This
has given rise to a new form of tourism-nostalgia
which visits only the memory of historic
places. We say only the memory because, in
fact, these places never existed, or, at the very
least, it has been a long time since they were
what we are told about them”.
This reflection is perfectly complemented with
the present piece. As we mentioned above, it
also demands two approaches, each of which
activates different recognition processes. In
the case of Transurbancia, we can clearly
observe the azimuthal view, which is linked
to theories such as that of Michel de Certeau
in The Invention of the Quotidian, according
to which the gaze has stopped being human,
to become that of an all-seeing god, now that,
from the 110 th floor of the World Trade Center,
the whole city becomes a panoptic.
This azimuthal gaze is experienced first-hand
by visitors of Mapping Madrid when they
reach the first installation, and which, in Transurbancia,
becomes a melting pot of satellite
photographs which configure a more complex
image. As Tete Álvarez explains, “The
azimuthal gaze is not a trying to dominate
the space, and is instead circumscribed to a
symbolic realm. “Transurbance” is the method
proposed by Stalker (an urban research collective)
to cross, travel through and map the terrain
vague”. The aim is to map an(other) urban
configuration built on the basis of what Manuel
Castells terms a new spatial logic based
on information flows, in the face of the logic
of social organisation, which is deeply rooted
in the history of places and local territories. A
new cartography would allow us to launch a
new process, conceived as an “uninterrupted
way of going though a range of environments”,
which would also help move us from one place
to another, thanks to a variety of flows.
In a world in which cultural behaviours and
architectural structures are becoming homogenised,
as described by Marc Augé with
his “non-places”, and by Rem Koolhaas with
his “generic city”, what is left is an interesting
laboratory which does not reject a trend toward
similarity by means of a tapestry of differences
which may offer a full view, without losing
that sense of identity that acquires meaning
through its relationship with others.
Starting from this context, Tete Álvarez’s proposal
consists of a vision constructed by means
of a cumulus of superpositions where graphic
elements and satellite images of large cities are
joined together, revolving around the routes of
short-distance trains in Madrid. This collage
presents two views: a general one on the one
hand, allowing us to see the Indian peninsula
surrounded by water, and, on the other hand, a
much more approachable perspective, which
triggers recognition processes and new ways
of understanding a space which is now seen as
connected to other realities.
We can recognise the regular planimetries of
European cities next to the diffuse urban maze
of other large “non-rationalised” metropolis,
which have been taken over by a more natural
and chaotic expansion. Different scales and
eras are intertwined, and we can identify the
Vatican, Caracas and Madrid, among many
other places, but it is most meaningful when
it combines unexpected, or somewhat familiar,
elements, as happens when a “real” river and a
motorway come across the graphics showing
the Madrid short-distance trains.
As one would expect, the construction of new
connections and meanings is multiplied as
we delve deeper into the image, focusing on
India (as a shape, and as a consequence of its
railway map) and Madrid (which appears as
a historic map, through satellite photos and
its short-distance railway network). However,
the main result of this confluence of flows
and spaces is a metaphor of the journey as
a huge image.
This would seem consistent, when considering
reality as something fleeting and “in transit”.
A form of representation emerges once
again, in accordance with our analysis of the
essential characteristics of the current moment,
a universe which is constantly redefining
collective relationships and identities, in
order to establish a forum in which to experience
these transformations and discuss them
from a range of points of view.
This opens up a whole gamut of possibilities
for what could be described as “migratory
aesthetics” or those centred on the idea of
the journey, precisely because contemporary
man is the ultimate traveller; a rootless, fateless,
individual, doomed to wandering the
world in search of certainties which cannot
be attained. Perhaps all we can do is adopt
the form of transit which offers unpredictability,
the dispersion of paths, the asymmetry
of all journeys and the mixing of customs
and languages.
All in all, we hope that Mapping Madrid has
contributed to the reflection on the language
chosen to narrate this reality, discovering that
these representations reveal the richness contained
in many fragments of subjectivity, and
offering a brief example of how the idea of the
map can be redefined through the new media
and collaborative actions.
Therefore, we have chosen the electronic
image as the format which is best suited to
reflecting the fleetingness of that moment,
capturing for an instant the undefined flowing
of life and the way individuals who seek
a discourse that expresses the experience of
a universe which is no longer a shelter are
cast adrift. The metaphor of the journey thus
becomes an ideal mechanism with which to
perceive the contemporary experience, and
this exhibition returns to it in order to rest for
a moment in a setting, Madrid, where it can
remain open and susceptible to new views
and interpretations.
44 Mapping Madrid · IED Madrid & PHE09
Mapping Madrid · IED Madrid & PHE09 45