One element inside the Arsenale at the 14th Venice International Architecture Exhibition unifies installations, divides them from the spaces where film clips are screened and provides and interesting backdrop for specific architectural projects - a 316 metre long Tabula Peutingeriana.
This fifth century map was drawn in 1265 by a monk from Colmar. It consisted in 11 parchments scrolls measuring approximately 34 cm high by 6,74 m long and was discovered in 1494 by Konrad Meissel, alias Celtes, and given in 1507 to an Antiquarian of Augsburg named Konrad Peutinger.
The map showed the planisphere as it was known in antiquity, with several localities misplaced or called with their Roman names and with Italy extending at the very centre of a vast territory stretching from west to east, from Scotland to India, with no boundaries. Special importance was given to the thermal cities on the map while among the metropolises included there were Rome, Constantinople and Antioch.
Everything was linear, flattened and connected and Italy was represented as part of a network of relationships, in the same way as the Monditalia section in the Arsenale hints at a series of interconnected interdisciplinary experiments.
The Table of Peutinger acted as an illustrated itinerarium, showing the road network in the Roman Empire, so it was a functional document ideal to locate stops and calculate distances or organise supplies. This is the main reason why the table can be compared to present day road maps.
It looks like maps may be quite trendy come next year: "Epizode 4: The Map Man", the Spring/Summer 2015 menswear collection by Latvian duo Marite Mastina-Peterkopa and Rolands Peterkops, better known as Mareunrol's is indeed inspired by cartographical and topographical maps of various times and places.
The duo state in the press release for the new collection that they looked at different types of territorial illustrations, plans, lines, borders and map archives.
The background story for this collection - revolving around flat rigid geometries and '90s silhouettes - also looks at the possibilities that modern virtual communication networks such as map apps and GPS systems can provide us with.
Mareunrol's is a part of the creative team working on the pavilion of Latvia at the Milan Expo 2015 exhibition in Milan, while the new collection will be presented from 28th June till 2nd July 2014 at the Void Showroom (35 - 37 Rue Chapon) in Paris. Looks like not all roads lead to Rome after all, at least not the roads the duo have taken...
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