Ana Leonor Madeira Rodrigues

(Portuguese – Lisbon, 1971)

Maps of the Earth after the end of the World

Actual Location

Inscriptions over silkprints
May 6 - June 24th 2023

"The world changed, after the end. The Earth was covered by a crust of plastic material, sometimes soft, sometimes hard. This new surface begins to be registered with new names for lakes, rivers, seas, islands, plains and mountains. It’s not possible to detail the shape of this new geography never knowing if they are accurate or desired records. Slowly the new cartography of Earth began to appear with maps and atlases that result from collective information, from memories from before and the desire for the new surface to stabilize.”
From the epigraph of the atlas of the earth after the end of the world.
The post-end of the world maps project aims to build a set of post-apocalyptic maps and Atlases. (After the end of the world the Earth was covered by a thin cover that then has solidified over large areas and which then are in fact equivalent to those of previous continents) The concept of cartographic systems is present implying the existence of 24 meridians, the time zones, the five parallels, although the relationship map/cartographic system happens only, in the mind of the observer.
One archaeological cartography that is made from the end to the beginning where each one can discover his memories or can remake it all over again.

The project:

The project, which began in 2018 was largely developed in an artistic residency between 2020/2022 in Makeeindoven (Eindhoven, Netherlands), has had phased presentations, namely:
In February 2020, the Atlas of the Earth after the end of the World, plaque1, map #1 in the Arte Contínua Building, in Oeiras.
In September 2020, Plates, Blades and Prints, were shown folded at the Passevite Gallery, in Lisbon, maps #1, #1A, #1B, #1C, #1D, #2, #3, #4 and #5, and silicone pads #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, and #7.
In March 2021, map #2, at Galeria na Montra, in Oeiras, the silicone matrix and printed variants #2A, #2B, #2C, #2D, #2E and #2F.
In June 2022, atlases of the earth after the end #mapa 2B, at the Galeria Monumental, in Lisbon, the large enlargements of map 2B are part of the exhibition, as well as a first part of the atlas.
In September 2022, Maps of the Earth after the end of the World, at Albert van Abbehuis, Netherlands, were presented all phases of the map project, developed till then.
In May 2023, Actual Location, at the Tinta nos Nervos gallery, in Lisbon, all 32 Atlas plates resulting from the enlargement of Map #2B are shown.

The artist:

Lives and works in Lisbon, the artist has been  exhibiting regularly since the 90s.
Most of the work deals with science in a conceptual and playful way.
The artist changes true scientific hypotheses into poetical, ironical or plastic possibilities.
This includes the BBB effect, where the artist investigates and records a self-created bacteriological accident that alters the relationship between closed inhabited spaces (mostly kitchens) and their inhabitants: the Burned By Blue collapse. But it further includes the remake of skeletons of imagined creatures or the Maps of an Earth-to-be.
She also has an intensive activity in drawing as a draughtswoman and as a scholar, (FA-ULisboa) and her interest in drawing relates not only to human-made drawings but also to accidental images, particularly those resulting from mechanical devices.
As an academic researcher, she is interested in the cognitive processes of the act of drawing and in its specificity as a mode of non-verbal communication.

Artist website here