Isles of Seven Cities

Île des sept cités

A phantom island is an island whose existence has been accepted for a certain period of time (sometimes centuries) and has been mentioned on maps, but which has subsequently been removed because it has been proven not to be real. There are many possible explanations for these geographical fictions: geopolitical and economic interests, cartographic copyrights, rumours, memes, hoaxes, legends, and more. These phantom islands have never physically existed, but they have had a real impact on the Western world, some even triggering conflicts or civil wars.

Six years ago, Stéphanie Roland (BE) began researching these islands during her travels and visits to geographical institutes. Over time, she has collected a great deal of material, and produced a series of experiments and works exploring this ghostly world, made up of images and videos that reflect the visual paradoxes of these entities.

Isles of Seven Cities contains the stories of Eon Island, Hy-Brasil Island, Aurora Island, Antilia, Isle of Demons, Island of California, and Podesta Island. The book is not a monograph, but rather an artist’s book – a hybrid edition that combines the visual and textual narratives of these seven phantom islands. Fictional and real archives meet in a non-linear, fragmented logic, as a meta-island emerges from the whole, questioning the complex perception of reality in a post-truth era.