The complexity of political maps, and the beauty of physical ones. They show mankind’s curiosity for our world, and the way we deal with our surroundings. From what is thought to be a schematic of the night sky found in the caves of Lascaux, dating to 16,500BCE, passing through the babylonian clay tablets, to the maps I used when I was in school, and the ones I show to my students in the Universit
y today. I view maps as a form of art, as a sublime interpretation of the world. As a visual artist, as a photographer, I'm always looking for patterns, forms, geometries, light, and color. Aerial photography and satellite imagery have expanded my ability to find these patterns, geometries, and colors, on the earth's surface. Ultradistancia is my attempt at making sense of our world, using Google Earth as a starting point. As an avid voyager, Ultradistancia allows me to travel without moving, to scope the immensity of our planet from a computer screen, distort and experiment with forms. The whole world has become my canvas. The result is a kind of aesthetic geography that I want to share with others. In Ultradistancia, I intercept satellite images beamed to us by Google Earth and capture them at very high resolution. I spend endless hours flying over the earth until a geometry catches my eye, until one human construction emerges above others. And then I immerse myself in the image, and I emerge with something new. When I start shaping, I never know where a work is going, only I know when a work is done. The possibilities are endless: Welcome to Ultradistancia. Federico Winer
