Charting unknown territory
Charting Unknown Territory
By Tim Zeelie
La Carte de Tendre is a map of love created in the 17th century. It charts the territories of a fictitious country called Tendre, and literally illustrates the routes one can take to either find love, or lose it. Through video installations and performance art, multidisciplinary artists Andrée Weschler and Lynn Lu are revisiting and rereading this classical map. Tim Zeelie caught up with Andrée to find out what she thinks about charting unknown territory.
To read the interview, please click below.
TZ What is it about the original map that you find so compelling, and can you tell us a bit more about its history?
AW First, I’d like to explain the word “Tendre”. In the 17th century it meant “Love”, so this map represents the land of Love. The French language of the 17th century is not the same French we use today; language evolves with time.
To put the map in its social and historical context, in France during the 17th century, peasants made up the vast majority of the population, and the remaining minority were aristocrats, church officials, and the bourgeoisie. In Paris, aristocrats hosted salons, where writers, philosophers and intellectuals met to discuss ideas, art and literature. Mademoiselle de Scudery, the author of the map, often hosted one of these salons with many other women writers. She was a popular author and wrote what we would refer to today as bestsellers.
TZ Speculative cartography has been important for a number of reasons, be these militaristic, political or cultural. From overstating the boundaries of particular territories, and planning military campaigns, to placing fictitious monsters and dragons over uncharted territories. Do you think that La Carte de Tendre had a political, or more particularly, feminist argument it was trying to make, considering the socioeconomic status of women at the time?
AW I like the comparison of military strategy with the conquest of the land of Love. There must be similarities between the two. La Carte de Tendre suggests that when a new love story starts, we should not take the river of inclination that drives one straight to the Dangerous Sea, where one might get lost and drown.
La Carte de Tendre is a 17th century feminist statement. During that time, women had to choose between having an arranged marriage and becoming a nun. Marriages were arranged according to the amount of money one had, or the rank of an aristocrat. Mademoiselle de Scudery refused this practice, which was a very rare thing to do back then. She was part of “The Precieuses” who championed real love, and not arranged marriages. This was a revolutionary and avant-garde idea for her time.
TZ In what ways will you be rereading and reinterpreting the original work, and to what extent will you be engaging with the same themes that the map popularised over 300 years ago? Is there something timeless about the notion of love and its pitfalls?
AW Language and society have changed, infrastructure and technology have been revolutionised, and political systems too, are totally different today. The feeling of love, however, exists independent of society, politics and technology. It hasn’t changed. It’s timeless. Is it, then, a never-ending story, or is it an ever-starting story? This exhibition will look at these themes. It is also being held in a theatre, which is a very different kind of space, and is closer to a landscape than a gallery is; it is a space of possibilities.
La Carte de Tendre Revisited will open with performances on 6 December, 7pm at The Substation Theatre, and the exhibition will run until 11 December 2011. Admission is free.
This interview first appeared in the Singapore Art Gallery Guide in December 2011.
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