From the series “Big Code”, oil and pencil on paper.
When we consider a road map or a map of the territory we note that they contain different information that are represented by different means, according to the purpose for which they were created: each time we find colors, symbols and words that recall a precise meaning. What happens if I take these techniques of representation, these symbols, and take off the scope for which they were created and mingle them with each other? Will it be for the reader a text in a foreign language, that is meaningless, or through the world of associations and references that each of us possesses, will generate a new language and associate to those images a new meaning?
These drawings are similar to the series "Code" but larger. While in that series the initial idea of the map is entirely invented, here sometimes I start with the virtual exploration (via Google Maps) of a real city, whose name then appears in the title of the drawing. But even in this case the real city is only a pretext. Its forms are gradually modified and reinvented. New symbols are added, the hierarchy of colors and the associations between the various elements are gradually distorted and lose their original meaning so that hardly an inhabitant of that city would recognize it as his own. With this process of work I explore the possibilities of change and evolution of the original language.

www.federicocortese.com