“Mysterium Cosmographicum, how from Ptolemy to Kepler the circles were crushed into colored ellipses”

“Mysterium Cosmographicum, how from Ptolemy to Kepler the circles were crushed into colored ellipses”, 2020. Pencil, ink, graphite, silver powder, matt varnish, 85.5 x 117.5 cm. (framed)

This work comes from a series of drawings started in early 2020 whose title is: Wait, wait and enter time and is the sister of: Wait, Wait and enter time or get lost in the rhumb lines of the Carta Pisana whose description is the same:

It is primarily inspired by Ptolemy’s studies on geocentrism. He describes the way in which certain stars revolve around the Earth according to a system of epicycles. These studies made it possible, among other things, to explain why the drawings formed by the trajectory of these stars are made up of circles rotating on themselves and going back and forth. It is a look into the heavens that attempts to unravel the secrets of how the universe works. This concerns neighboring planets because beyond that, the constellations are fixed with respect to each other.

Second Places, this drawing is inspired by the Carta Pisana which is the oldest preserved portulan. Portulans are nautical charts used between the 13th and 18th centuries to show the maritime routes between the various ports in activity. These maps had in addition to the layout of the dimensions, two specific graphic characters: first, the rhumbs which are straight lines perpendicular to the lines of dimensions and starting from the ports. They form a grid on all marine surfaces. Then, they display the lines of the compass roses that help establish the course and set a course.

This drawing is the bridge between these gazes on the horizons represented by the oceans and the skies. It’s kind of a treasure map. It indicates paths to be invented at the end of which wonderful things. Whether in the charts of the sky or those of the seas, I like to get lost observing them. This mental wandering allows one to escape where the body cannot go.

This work can be read on two levels; it can be approached like a geographical map, that is to say that it places us above the territory to be traveled. It can also be read from the inside as a land in which we find ourselves, that is to say a mental space in which we can move.