In the organizer's words:

Franz Ackermann, Jens Bleckmann, DAG, Ólafur Elíasson, Esther Ernst, Julius Hartauer, Michael Golz, Christian Pilz, Isabell Schulte

The group exhibition Uncertain Maps in KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION shows works of visual art that make it clear that maps never just depict reality, but also follow ideas, fantasies and personal perspectives. In this way, they lead us along unfamiliar, open paths through real and fictitious worlds.

Cartographic plans are also rarely unambiguous records of the given. Even if they suggest rationality and objectivity, they move in a space never free of subjectivity between images and signs, between image and language - ultimately between reality and fiction. They follow standards that determine where accuracy ends in detail. The location of KAI 10 will hardly be found on printed maps of the world. Only digital maps allow you to zoom in at will. At the same time, there are countries and places that can only be found on fictional maps, such as Lummerland from Michael Ende's famous Jim Button novels.

Such cartographically inspired fictions can be found not only in children's books, but also in the work of numerous artists. Their works range from subjective records of real travel experiences to detailed sketches of imaginary places and countries. Structures that appear cartographic, proliferate in symbolic language or ornamentally can develop into very individual world designs.

The works shown in Uncertain Maps remain deliberately ambiguous: are they depictions of the evocation of an external reality, of landscapes and cities? Are they attempts to record inner, mental states - emotional or cognitive maps that represent spatial information in memory? Or are digital data streams made visible?

Even images created for practical and scientific purposes can be 'read' differently than for the intended cartographic project, such as satellite images from the Icelandic National Land Survey. When artists explore a terrain, be it real or imaginary, their mappings usually become Uncertain Maps that lead us to paths that cannot be found in any ordinary atlas.