A nation without a map

 

"Geographical maps played an important role in the evolution of modern capitalism; with them, one can see what is not visible, and to see means to know." This quote comes from a book about the incidence of landscape in art and human sciences, but this text won't be about any of that. Instead, it will focus on the ways a drawing can be one and hundreds at the same time.

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In this context, it's important to understand that both maps and landscapes are forms of representing a territory, that is, a portion of the Earth's surface "belonging to." Following this line, it's worth noting that these representations exist under a cloak of artificiality, within a system of conventions. This holds true for an analysis of private property as well as for a question about technique and its relationship to our perception of the world and reality. A critical reading that crosses all the aforementioned points would lead to the need to involve other forms of measurement, or to ignore all of them forever and go out to meet the planet using only intuitive and labile cartographies: unstable forms of orientation, traced more by the body than by reason.

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They say the map obeys the prince more than reality, and this turns out to be a good starting point to converse about Guillermo Mena's work. In recent years, the artist has traveled to different parts of the planet guided by the desire to delve into other configurations of the landscape. He has drawn from different latitudes, contributing to the emergence of a repertoire of movements that can be traversed like one passing through a singular atmosphere, deceptively constant in its composition, vaporous and intangible.

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Each work describes ways of negotiating with the winds and making pacts with light. Each element shows the direction and speed of different phenomena. Every attempt to prove something transforms into a mist of graphics and indications in suspension. Here, drawing is the unit of measure for interpreting the distance home. 

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Here, everything is drifting: mechanisms explode, events are paused, drawing is a way of talking to the charcoal about human hours and anxieties, showing it the clouds, the trees, and the earth.

 

Carlos Gutierrez

2025