“A map of our own”
2 December 2022
On September 27, 2022, the Géopolis 4.0 Festival and the 115th Encounter of Sciences, Arts, and Humanities took place at the Institute of Geography of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. This sought to share different contributions of Geography with high school and undergraduate students.
The TRYSPACES student project “Un mapa propio/” participated in the event with the participatory literary mapping workshop “Un cachito de ciudad/ a little patch of the city”. The workshop proposed to reconfigure Mexico City from the reading of different literary fragments, through two mapping exercises. Each person was invited to randomly choose literature fragments in which the urban is present; then they were invited to locate those places on a collective map; then, to paint on a blank tile a drawing of what the fragment reminded them, made them think or imagine. Finally, they were invited to place their drawing on a canvas to recompose Mexico City. Little by little the canvas was filled with tiles to give life to a new space composed of the different experiences of reading about the city. Each contribution provided insights to rethink the multiple cities behind the city’s daily experience and to create a common space for reflection on other ways of imagining urbanity.
It was a day full of participants, ideas, and exchanges. As a result of the workshop, we produced two cartographies. Both show the different ways of living and experiencing Mexico City. And they allow us to recognize how we compose the city on a daily basis from narratives, emotions, memories, and fantasies. For more information, go to the Instagram account @un_mapa_propio
