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Exhibition

Exhibition Maps Unfolded: seven centuries of maps and atlases

Last modified on 27-02-2023
Maps Unfolded takes you through seven centuries of maps and atlases, dating from 15th-century drawings to the maps of the future.
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Start date
02-03-2023
End date
16-07-2023
Location

Allard Pierson

Oude Turfmarkt 127-129

1012 GC Amsterdam

The exhibition starts in Amsterdam with a unique big city plan from 1627 full of small details, and zooms out, via the Netherlands and Europe, to encompass the whole world. Special attention is given to maps of the former Dutch East Indies, Suriname and the Antilles.

Stories about maps

Most of the maps in the exhibition were made in Amsterdam. Nowhere else were such accurate and beautiful maps made as they were on Kalverstraat and Damrak, where Frederick de Wit, Willem and Joan Blaeu and others had their studios. In the exhibition you learn all sorts of things about mapmaking. You discover that behind every map there is a story. Old and more recent maps attest to colonial relationships, geographical developments, the Dutch interaction with water, and changing borders.

Each room highlights one of the maps for visitors to examine. A separate room is devoted to the very latest cartographic techniques, a collaboration with the Amsterdam technology company TomTom.

Reflections on Maps Unfolded

Various contemporary artists find inspiration in the phenomenon of maps. The accompanying exhibition ‘Reflections on Maps Unfolded’ features works by Gert Jan Kocken (1971), Remy Jungerman (1959), Jan Rothuizen (1968) and Qiu Zhijie (1969). Remy Jungerman made a work, specially for the exhibition, in which he reflects on the map by Alexander Lavaux, an extensive and highly detailed survey of Suriname from 1737.

Visit the exhibition

https://allardpierson.nl/bezoek/tentoonstellingen/open-kaart/External link