Map Project - No Borders / Freedom of movement

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I believe it was the end of summer.
We were walking to the market at a brisk pace, hoping to catch a glimpse of something special.  
The sun was going down very quickly and the evening started catching up with us.
Unfortunately, when we got there it had begun to rain and all the shops and stalls were already closed.
Except, there were hundreds of beautiful old wooden tables lying around.
During the hectic hours of business in the market you can't see any of the surfaces of these tables, as they are covered by all sorts of commodities.
I was immediately taken by this sight, and knew that I wanted to do something with these seemingly innocuous boards.
I found out that the tables belonged to a guy called Rick, and all the stalls in the market were rented from this guy.
Not only this market, but most of the others in town as well.
So, off I went to the old table graveyard under some railway arches, and there lay a mountain of these old boards.
Generations of people had used these tables in the markets, sometimes over the course of a hundred years or more.
Their bare surfaces revealed some fascinating marks and scars, such as the names and numbers etched into them over the years.
I came to think it would be a great idea to do my map project on one of these wooden boards.  
 

Mapping is like a diary.
A map visualises our experience of a site, tracing and recording our past, marking everyday events in the emotional and physical landscape.   
As a map documents the location and movement of people, so this board revealed traces and reflected the lives of people who had come and gone over the years.
 

For me, the presence of borders increasingly represents the restriction of movement, and therefore of freedom itself, for many people in this world.
 

Every step you decide to take in life makes you who you are. Even if  you are not politically inclined, you do have the potential to affect political situations in everyday life.  
 

We are all able to transcend worldly boundaries or constraints, in spite of ourselves. 

(October 2003  Makiko Kita)

MAP PROJECT :  

No Borders & World in a Suitcase / Freedom of movement

Swiss Cottage Central Library, London 2003 

The Working Men's College, London - Lowes Dickinson Award 2003

Menier Chocolate Factory, London 2004