
swisstopo
iArt in public space
Asphalt, boxwoods
ca. 1000 square meters

swisstopo, Bundesamt für Landestopografie Bern, 2005. Photo: Andrea Gohl
swisstopo — The idea of a 1:1 map, a supreme scientific achievement, though useless and even threatening in everyday life, is indebted to J. L. Borges’ story On Exactitude in Science. I started with the two poles that he describes: a homogeneous layer that once supposedly covered everything and a vital force that makes room for itself again with the help of time and the influence of the climate. In my project, a layer of asphalt stands for the map. One can tell that it must once have covered the entire courtyard. Now box trees are growing there. The asphalt is broken and will continue to crumble. The two “levels of reality” merge and are perceived as one single environment.
swisstopo, Bundesamt für Landestopografie Bern, 2005. Photo: Katja Schenker

swisstopo, Bundesamt für Landestopografie Bern, 2005. Photo: Katja Schenker

swisstopo, Bundesamt für Landestopografie Bern, 2005. Photo: Katja Schenker
swisstopo, Bundesamt für Landestopografie Bern, 2005. Photo: Chevallaz

swisstopo, Bundesamt für Landestopografie Bern, 2005. Photo: Katja Schenker

swisstopo, Bundesamt für Landestopografie Bern, 2005. Photo: Stefan Rohner

swisstopo, Bundesamt für Landestopografie Bern, 2005. Photo: Stefan Rohner