In recent years, the potential validity of a regional approach to art from the Arab world has been a focus of debate in academia and, even more so, professional arenas. However, with the exception of a few occasional mentions, there has been no in-depth study of the reactions to this issue from the perspective of artistic practitioners. The truth is that, at this time of global reconsideration of notions such as place, territory and mapmaking, art forms an important space for critical reflection and renewal of the ways in which the world has been portrayed. Maps, cartography and storytelling about space through their experience, referred to herein as cartobiography, have also permeated artistic practice in the Arab world throughout recent decades. This article explores a selection of projects in which maps are subverted and the exercise of mapmaking is reinvented as part of a global commitment which transcends family boundaries and imagines other possible territorial belongings, practices and definitions.
Arab world, cartography, map, experience, story.