Map is being installed on the roof of SFMOMA for the upcoming ‘snap+share’ show. I made the first iteration of this piece in 2006, more than a decade ago—an epoch in Internet time. It is fascinating to see how much the context and meaning of this piece have changed over the years. Thirteen years wouldn’t usually be a huge timespan for a work of art to age, but in this particular case the speed of developments mean Map now looks very different. It has already become a historical work.

In 2004, Google bought Where 2 Technologies, a company that had worked on the digital map service that became Google Maps a year later. It was still the mid-early days of the web. The Internet was not as present in society as it is today, but tech giants like Google were already taking shape.

It was part of my practice back then to make such translations, to take an object from a computer game or an icon from a web service and to transform it into a physical sculpture. What would happen if I turned this 15-pixel computer icon into a real thing and put it in the city? Is this the center of the city? These and other projects were an attempt to understand how this new world of computers, networks, and screens would affect society and physical space. They were a sign of what was to come.

Today the situation is very different. We have the famous oligarchy of Internet tech giants who are constantly squeezing more data and money from every bit of communication, movement, and interaction everyone produces worldwide. They have expanded into all kinds of markets in a never-ending run of disruption with little objection or regulation from government. Today, data extraction markets are deeply woven into a very physical fabric of everyday life in cities, business, homes, and personal communication. The dualism of digital versus analog has been obliterated; everything is deeply interconnected.

Of course, it is an honor to show Map in such a prominent location at the SFMOMA in downtown San Francisco. But in a way, it is also an irony of history that this piece from 2006 is ‘coming home’ today to the heart of Silicon Valley in an era dominated by full-blown surveillance capitalism data markets.

Aram Bartoll

Map, 2019
dimensions: 900 x 530 x 20 cm
material: steel, aluminum mesh, steel cables

Thanks to the whole team at SFMOMA making this possible!!

SFMOMA: snap+share
transmitting photographs from mail art to social networks
March 30–August 4, 2019
https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/snap/

curated by Clement Cheroux
with: Thomas Bachler, Ray Johnson, Aram Bartholl, On Kawara, Joseph Beuys, Erik Kessels , Moyra Davey, William Larson, Jan Dibbets, Eva and Franco Mattes, Walker Evans, Peter Miller, Jeff Guess, Ken Ohara, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Stephen Shore, Kate Hollenbach, Endre Tót, David Horvitz, Corinne Vionnet

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Beautiful time-laps of the setup of ‘Map’ by Jason Wittig, thx! I arrived in SF and we are doing some the final touches on the show install. “snap+share” will open to the public Saturday, March 30. Looking fwd to meet all the artists for the preview next week!

SFMOMA: snap+share
transmitting photographs from mail art to social networks
March 30–August 4, 2019
https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/snap/

curated by Clement Cheroux
with: Thomas Bachler, Ray Johnson, Aram Bartholl, On Kawara, Joseph Beuys, Erik Kessels , Moyra Davey, William Larson, Jan Dibbets, Eva and Franco Mattes, Walker Evans, Peter Miller, Jeff Guess, Ken Ohara, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Stephen Shore, Kate Hollenbach, Endre Tót, David Horvitz, Corinne Vionnet

NOTRE ITINÉRAIRE

16 mai – 8 août 2014

With: Aram Bartholl, Cèsar Escudero Andaluz, Hassan Darsi, Manuel Fernandez, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Florent Lagrange, Simon Nicaise, Jean-Christophe Nourisson, Evan Roth, Vaan et Addie Wagenknecht.
Curated by Alexis Jakubowicz

at Espace Verney-Carron, Lyon

‘A’ for Art

In the summer of 2006 I built the first Google map pin physical representation and set it up temporarily in the backyard of my studio in Berlin Mitte. It was six meter tall and made from a wooden frame mounted with red cloth showing the capital ‘A’. The year 2006 was an important year in my early artistic career. I made a lot of new works and had my first big group shows etc. As it turns out the piece ‘Map’ became one of my important and iconic works. Since 2006 this sculpture  was shown worldwide in many different places, art shows and cities. It was made from different materials and in different sizes and it marked many different city centers around the world.

In 2005 Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen designed the map pin symbol for Google Maps which was launched later in the same year. The startup ‘Where 2’ co-founded by Rasmussen which in fact became Google Maps got acquired by Google the year earlier. To point out the locations of search results on the map the pin symbol showed letters of the alphabet. Starting with an ‘A’ through ‘J’ the red pins on the map corresponded with the first 10 search results listed on the page. A couple months ago in spring 2014 Google did a complete overhaul of the design of the Google Maps page. The red map marker does still exist in the new interface but it is displayed in more rare occasions and is only showing a black dot. The lettering A – J is gone. An era of almost 10 years of the Google Maps ‘A’ marker seemed to be over. But just recently in June 2014 the Architecture and Design department of the MoMA acquired the classic map pin symbol with capital ‘A’ from Google for its collection.

I am very pleased to see this symbol, made for a web page on the Internet by Rasmussen a decade ago is now in the collection of the MoMA. The red pin and its creator Rasmussen very much deserve this attention. This 35 pixel icon became a very important symbol for a whole new era. An era in which society slowly realized the actual impact of computers and Internet. The way we live, communicate and perceive the world has changed dramatically over the last 10-20 years. With my piece ‘Map’, the physical representation of Rasmussens interface symbol I try to point out this paradigm shift since 2006.

Aram Bartholl,  June 19, 2014

Screen shot Google Maps, Summer 2006. The developer back then proposed to seach for pizza.

First physical representation, ‘Map’ Summer 2006. Bartholl studio backyard, Borsigstr. 33, Berlin

Screen shot: MoMA website, recent acquisitions, Arch & Design, June 19 2014

Screen shot: Google Maps,  June 19, 2014, re-shaped map pin and no more ‘A’

‘Hello World!’ at Kasseler Kunstverein, 2013

Map at GDFB

Map at GDFB

(800 kg!)

I’ll be showing ‘Map’ at Rencontre Arles “From Here On” “beginning of July. Since the mayor didn t allow to have the piece for 3 months in the main square of Arles, France it was set up temporary and documented. The piece itself and the pictures will be in the show. Thx to Joachim Schmidt, all curators and team for making this possible!!

with:
adrian sauer, andreas schmidt, aram Bartholl, claudia sola, constant dullaart, corinne Vionnet,
cum*, david crawford, doug Rickard, ewoudt Boonstra, Frank schallmaier, gilbert hage, hans aarsman,
hermann Zschiegner, James howard, Jenny odell, Jens sundheim, John haddock, Jon Rafman,
Josh Poehlein, kurt caviezel, Laurence aëgerter, marco Bohr, martin crawl, mocksim, mishka henner,
monica haller, nancy Bean, Pavel maria smejkal, Penelope Umbrico, Roy arden, shion sono,
tony churnside et les get out clause, thomas mailaender, Viktoria Binschtok, Willem Popelier.

Pictures by Anne Foures, thx!!

clément cheroux, Joan Fontcuberta, erik kessels, martin Parr and Joachim schmid like to invite you
for the opening of the exhibition ‘From here on’ .
this exhibition is a major statement about artists and photographers who use the vernacular,
and any other images located on internet as the starting  point for their work.
By showing 36 artists we will try and give their work and this movement a new status.
the exhibition will take place from July 4 till september 18 at the Rencontres d’arles
international photofestival and is located at atelier de mécanique, 33 Boulevard Victor hugo, arles.
the opening will take place on monday July 4 at 11.30 am.

The latest print issue of art Oct.2010 includes  a short feature of ‘Map’ in Taipei.

Thx Alain!

Map at Good Time Public Art Festival’ Taipei, Taiwan, will be up for 3 months till November 2010. It came out very well! Great job! Thanks to the building crew and thx to Joanna from VERY for pics and organization. Thanks to Chang-Chih CHEN for the great pictures!