How Do You Map the World?

Charts of the world were created to help humans navigate and orientate, but Thilo Hoffmanns maps effect the opposite: They leave you puzzled, in more than one sense.

Various photographs of the planet from bird’s or satellite’s eye view are cut into 200 puzzle pieces, using the same grid for every photograph. Now, the various puzzles become interchangeable.

Looking at these new maps, the inverted world laid out by the artist is not obvious at first glance. Only if you look closer will you gain entry into this alternative universe, and discover, for example, Le Louvre in Central Park, Panama swapped with Israel, Zurich merging with Geneva, and islands disappearing and popping up at opposite sides of the planet.

Map Series

Zurich / Geneva Series

Louvre Paris / Central Park New York

Locascona Series

With seven satellite images from Google Earth made into puzzles of 200 pieces each, Thilo Hoffmann reassembles the world – at least the one around Ascona and Locarno.

One of the Brissago islands moves into the bay of Ascona; Locarno and Ascona are suddenly no longer divided by the Maggia river, and the harbors of the two towns are joined together, forming a single complex.