Diagrams - AMO/OMA at Prada Foundation Venice

"There is no such thing as an innocent map, observes Philippe Rekacewicz in his catalogue essay that accompanies Diagrams, a new exhibition at the Prada Foundation in Venice.

A renowned cartographer, the Paris-born Rekacewicz is well aware of his medium's capacity to transform narratives for good and ill. His own work includes maps that illustrate the deaths of migrants as they bid for new lives in Europe. "A map," Rekacewicz continues, "is above all a social and political act - and therefore inherently subjective."' p.5.

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

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Group

Am I Free? My history ...	Philippe Rekacewicz / The African big wheel, 2007 The wheel symbolizes permanence and continuity in the context of a profoundly unequal exchange, drawing, color pencil and ink, exhibition copy. Courtesy Philippe Rekacewicz (Image credit: Philippe Rekacewicz)
SOCIETY ... is our history ...	Freedom National & International Law Justice

'Other pictures are equally revealing for what they conceal. Consider the diagram entitled "Universal commercial history", a visual analysis drawn up by the Scottish engineer William Playfair in 1805 which traces the rise and fall of global wealth since 1500 BC against what he terms "Remarkable Events Relative to Commerce". Playfair, who is said to have invented the pie chart, includes moments such as "Rome founded" "Mahomet's Flight" and "America discovered". He never mentions slavery.

With such a broad-brush approach, lacunae are inevitable. It is a shame that the work of Viennese social scientist Otto Neurath - who, along with his wife Marie and colleague Gerd Arntz, invented the Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education) - is not on show. Based on pictograms, Neurath's Isotypes are an lmportant forerunner to the digital vernacular (from emojis to icons) so familiar to us today. Nor does the exhibition include maps of the devastation of Gaza since October 2023, such as those made by investigative research agency Forensic Architecture, which are proving among the most critical diagrams of our time.' p.5.

Philippe Rekacewicz - https://www.grida.no/resources/10988

My source:

Rachel Spence. Hidden truths in the best laid plans. Diagrams | What charts, maps and graphics can - and can't - tell us. Collecting, FTWeekend. 26-27 April 2025. p.5. 

With many thanks acknowledging length of quotation.

Image source:

https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/oma-amo-diagrams-prada-foundation-venice

See also: 'icon' : 'symbols' : 'diagram' : 'map' : 'Forensic Architecture'

Archived listing Links II Sciences - inc. 'Diagrams' & 'Visualization I' and 'II': 

https://web.archive.org/web/20150822143740/http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/linksTwo.htm

A key to Health & Art...?

INDIVIDUAL

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INTER-PERSONAL : SCIENCES

HUMANISTIC -------------------------------------------------- MECHANISTIC

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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GROUP

"When you have no power, no rights, no privacy, and no control - when your humanity is denied and your liberty revoked - creativity can still save you. That is the radical message message of The Pencil is a Key, a potent and timely exhibition at the Drawing Center in New York. ... As Milton declared, "the mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven". The pencil can be a tool in this act of self-creation. Drawing unlocks the brain's shackles, empowering the passive prisoner with private forms of dignity and escape." p.15.

T h e P e n c i l

Chester Brost, Devon Daniels, Joseph Dole, Francisco “Paco” Estrada, Darrell W. Fair, R Dot Nandez,  Damon Locks, C. McLaurin, Flynard “Fly 1” Miller, Andrés Reyes, Sarah Ross,  B.R. Shaw, Bring, Johnny Taylor. The Long Term, 2017–2018. Video animation, 13:05 minutes. Courtesy of the artists. Image courtesy of C. McLaurin.

i s a K e y

My source:
Ariella Budick, The mind unlocked, Life&Arts, FT Weekend, 2-3 November 2019, p.15.


... and looking forward next week to:

RCGP’s 7th Health and Justice Summit: Journeys Through Justice – Leadership and Transformation
Bristol, 25-26 November 2019

- on which more to follow ...