Qiu Zhijie

Defne Ayas, Charles Esche, Qiu Zhijie, Bik Van der Pol, Eugene Wang

This small book presents the large-scale maps made by Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie and departs from Blueprints, an exhibition at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. To produce his maps and diagrams, the artist drew from major political and historical narratives, charting new paths, centres, nodes, and relationships, and scrutinizing the mutable boundaries that outline histories of world thought. The publication offers a reading on four works, and features essays from contemporary thinkers like Charles Esche, Chus Martínez, Eugene Y. Wang, and Bik Van der Pol. Inserted in the book is a foldout reproduction of Qiu Zhijie's intricate Map of the Third World.