Ibrahim Miranda

Ibrahim Miranda is an artist who revitalizes maps with his innovative series called "Mapaglifos", where he infuses meaning and poetry into the maps that have marked his existence. The term "glyph" refers to a written, painted, or engraved sign, and Miranda applies this concept to maps, creating a new type of art he calls Mapaglifos. The gentle animals that emerge by tracing lines between the streets of cities such as Paris, Tel Aviv, and Washington are the protagonists of his works, akin to the drawings found in the Nazca desert, which can only be fully appreciated from above.

These maps deal not only with aesthetics but also discuss urban planning. They are a commentary on how the rational and scientific can be transformed by an artistic intervention that introduces flexibility and imagination, making the rigid urban map a source of utopian inspiration. The result is an urban bestiary, where small areas of cities transform into moose, horses, elephants, pigs, or seahorses, suggesting a new way of seeing and living in urban spaces.

Miranda compares his practice to discovering hidden forms in random stains, similar to what Leonardo Da Vinci did. This process not only changes how we view maps but also highlights how urban areas can be restrictive yet rich with unexplored possibilities. In his series of Mapaglifos, Ibrahim Miranda not only maps cities but also his own journeys and the complex tapestry of spaces that form his insular identity.

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Text: Blombô research and curation, with the support of artificial intelligence for content writing and structuring.