42°16’53’’N 3°14’06’’E (2020)
8 C-Prints, 20x25 cm each
In 42°16‘53‘‘N 3°14‘06‘‘E, the focus is on geographical censorship and the use of sensitive information.
Google Maps is one of the most widely used tools in the world and is supposed to show the entire world in its smallest details. However, there are places that are instead obscured. They often correspond to military installations or nuclear power plants and nuclear research areas.
In this specific case, the area is a military zone in Penì, Spain, most famous for the possible (according to some ufologists and fanatics) sighting of aliens and UFOs by the armed forces in 1971. This event is still considered “classified matter” (always according to some ufologists and fanatics) by the Spanish Ministry of Defence.
Eight images, captured at eight different times using Google Maps, show how the censorship of a place develops. Some places that are obscured for several years suddenly appear in a perfectly visible image only once and then disappear, hidden again, the following year. This opens up a series of unanswered questions.
By what criteria is it decided what to obscure and what not to?Why are such sensitive places only blurred in some images, while in other images they are completely covered by a patch of colour? The eight images serve as evidence of an investigation, hung on the wall and ready to be analysed.