Common Territories

The objective of the project is to explore common territories and boundaries of contemporary visual arts and geography through the crossing of the frontiers of diverse cultural contexts to establish a discussion on the differences and common territories in cultural and physical landscapes. In July 2016 Pruciak started a one year, round the world on motorbike journey. The journey, having started in Brazil, South America, took him along 45 000 km, across 40 countries and 4 continents and in July 2017 he successfully completed a full circumnavigation of the planet. The journey was mapped along trade routes, as those function as unique spaces as well as ties that bound cultures together and have acted as the conduits along which political influence, knowledge and people flowed across time. Control of the trade routes has proved a far more profitable venture than simple possession of the sources of raw materials. The existence and flourishing of trade routes has been dependent on a secure environment for the conduct of trade. Examining them, therefore, can tell one much about the interactions between trading regions, and of the factors, which have led to economic expansion or to the contrary: economic contraction and political collapse. The work is a dialogue between geography, visual culture, performance and new media and as such contributes to a little-explored field of geoasthetics. The work in the first year (2018) of its showing as an exhibition will be presented in three venues of different nature and agenda: political (Palais de Nations in Geneva, Switzerland - headquarters of the United Nations in Europe), geographical (Royal Geographical Society in London, UK) and artistic (Zampelas Art Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus). All of the exhibitions will be accompanied by associated talks positioning the project in different ways, e.g. RGS talk will explore the ideas around the impact of recorded motorcycle journeys on geographical knowledge and the developments in geoaesthetics