Tossin's series of drawings on Amazon delivery envelopes explores how mapping and naming serve as technologies for colonial visions of 'discovery.' In 'Facsímil de la disputada carta portulana de Cristóbal Colón, Mappa Mundi, siglo XV,' Tossin retraces a portolan chart of the Mediterranean believed to have belonged to Christopher Columbus. Traditional navigational symbols, such as rhumb lines and scale bars, intersect with their contemporary counterparts: barcodes and QR codes. By superimposing a map used by Columbus, who led the first European expeditions to the Americas in the late 15th century, Tossin collapses time and space, examining how current technologies continue to facilitate conquest.
Facsímil de la disputada carta portulana de Cristóbal Colón, Mappa Mundi, siglo XV (Facsimile of Christopher Columbus’s Disputed Portolan Chart, World Map, Fifteenth Century), 2023
archival ink on used Amazon.com delivery envelopes
38 ¼ x 52 ½ in.