En cet Empire...
(In that Empire...)

Exhibition Dominique Rappez / Godelieve Vandamme, Espace Kamer 9, Rixensart, Belgium, 2024.
Exhibition Racines, 100th anniversary of La Cambre, La Cambre, Brussels, 2023. Curated by Yolande De Bontridder and Valentine Himpens.

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Paint, pencil, marble dust and gold leaf on old accountancy paper pasted on Arches paper, 57 × 77 cm.

On Rigor in Science

“... In that Empire, the Art of Cartography achieved such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied an entire City, and the map of the Empire, an entire Province. In time, these inordinate maps did not satisfy, and the Colleges of Cartographers produced a Map of the Empire, which was the size of the Empire and coincided exactly with it. Less Addicted to the Study of Cartography, the succeeding Generations understood that this dilated Map was Useless, and not without Impiety they surrendered it to the Inclement of the Sun and the Winters. In the deserts of the West there are still in pieces Ruins of the Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Country there is no other relic of the Geographical Disciplines...”