The installation “Aerial Cartographies: Territories in Dissolution”, by artist Dilayla Romeo, will be presented at the 2026 edition of the Maputo Fast Forward (MFF) Biennale. The work reflects on cartography as a human construction and as a way of imagining, organising and defining the world from a particular position.

The project critically revisits how the African continent has historically been represented through cartographic processes produced from a distance and influenced by political and colonial interests. According to the artist’s proposal, maps presented as objective and neutral representations have contributed to transforming complex territories into fragmented, legible and governable surfaces.

From a diasporic position between Mozambique and Spain, Romeo shifts this perspective towards European territory, particularly Spain, in an inversion of the cartographic gesture. The intention is to highlight that territorial representations are constructed, situated and conditioned by the perspective of those who produce them.

The works employ techniques such as batik, using wax, flour and rice paste, as well as cyanotype, processes that introduce variation, filtering and instability into the images. Through these methods, borders and geographical structures appear to dissolve, questioning the idea of maps and territories as fixed and definitive realities.

In dialogue with the theme of MFF 2026, “Artificial Realities: The Infinite Mirror”, the installation also proposes a reflection on the image as a device for producing reality, contrasting contemporary forms of representation, such as satellites, data systems and algorithmic infrastructures, with other ways of imagining territory.