Maider Lopez is an artist from Basque Country, Spain and joined Deveron Arts for a three-month residency at the end of 2010. 

'Space defines landscape, where space combined with memory defines place'

Lucy R. Lippard in Lure of the Local

Every day new technologies are mapping the spaces we inhabit with greater accuracy and objectivity, producing a publicly available map of our immediate and wider environment. But how does this map relate to the individuals of Huntly? This issue provided an opportunity to examine the practices of early Scottish cartography, with particular reference to James Gordon of Rothiemay. How is the legacy of this important cartographer attached to current ways of making and thinking about maps? And what effect do these practices have on the public spaces they intend to represent?

Through her work, Maider Lopez investigates the use of public space. Her sensitivity to the symbiotic relationship between civic/public architecture and the daily movements and routines of the public allow her to effectively interpret and understand specific qualities of early cartography. The imposition of boundaries, visible and invisible lines, as well as their subsequent elasticity, is something to be found in this school's early development and also in the artistic concerns of Maider Lopez.

Studying the maps and practices of James Gordon, Maider became fascinated with the subjective nature of Gordon's methodology: measuring distances was based on his own footsteps which may have varied considerably based on his disposition throughout a single day. Thus, it was suggested that his maps were subjectively rendered guides of his own experience of a place. By asking the people of Huntly to consider their own experiences of the town and how they respond to the public space in their daily lives, Maider created an opportunity to produce a map based on these memories and subjective experiences. Giving each participant of her project five coloured stones that represent different feelings or memories of a place (e.g Blue = I have a special memory of this place, Orange = This used to be a favourite place, but now it has changed, etc), people were free to position their stone in a place appropriate to their personal experience. As well as a subjective map, a unique temporary signage was created which contrasted with the regular civic signage that denotes how the place should be lived from an authoritarian point of view. The event was an empowering one for the people of Huntly.

The Collectively authored map was the focus of a discussion hosted by Artachat, Mapping Communities, in which writer and activist Lucy R. Lippard, town planner Piers Blaxter and artist David Harding examined the nature of such a project in the public sphere.

To view Maider’s own website click here.

Shadow Curator: David Beech