Qiu Zhijie: unicorns in a blueprint

To produce his large-scale ink-based maps and diagrams, Qiu Zhije drew from major political and historical narratives. From Confucianism to Enlightenment, the artist charts new paths, centers, nodes and relationships, scrutinizing the mutable boundaries that outline histories of world thought.

The publication forms a prismatic reading on the artist’s works, The Map of Utopia, The Map of Total Art, The Map of Reactivation, and The Map of Inter-city Pavilion, featuring focused texts from contemporary thinkers, such as Charles Esche, Chus Martinez, Eugene Wang and artist duo Bik Van der Pol, each focusing on one of the maps respectively. The book further includes The Map Of The Third World, produced by Qiu Zhijie during the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, How to Gather? Acting in a Center in a City in the Heart of the Island of Eurasia, 2015.