Artwork
Portable Protest - Peace Intervention for Fallujah 25th June 2004
Lucy + Jorge Orta, 2004-2007
- Ref: 0316
- Materials: 50 Military combat suits, gold foil silkscreen print, leather, felt, wooden head pieces and original Lambda colour photographs of the intervention at the Victoria & Albert Museum
- Dimensions: Installation variable. Lambda photographs 120 x 90cm each
- Exhibition history: 2007 Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich; 2006 Centraal Museum Utrecht, Holland; 2005 Gwangju Biennale South Korea; 2004 Victoria and Albert Museum London, UK
- Courtesy: The Artists and Collection Luigi Franco, Turin
- Concept: Portable Protest is a response to the second Iraq invasion in 2004. Commissioned by the Victoria & Albert Museum’s late night performance evenings to be held on 25 June, just five days before the hand-over of sovereignty to the Iraqi government and the start of the withdrawal of US and allied forces. 50 volunteer performers took part in a passive protest for peace wearing gold-printed combat suits. For over two hours we silently meditated the future fate of Iraq and its citizens amid the tombs, sepulchres and war trophies from historical battles and combats. Portable Protest toured in the form of a static installation to the 2006 Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, a city famous for student protests against the dictatorial regime and now a symbol of the country’s pro-democracy resistance – a movement with special poignancy in light of the political situation that still divides the peninsula.
