Artwork
HortiRecycling
Lucy + Jorge Orta, 1997-2005
- Ref: 0641
- Materials: Steel structure, 4 recycled fruit crates, 4 laminated Lambda photographs, 14 labeled and signed jams, various cooking utensils, wheels
- Dimensions: 67 x 90 x 22cm
- Catalogued: Lucy + Jorge Orta: Food Water Life, Princeton Architectural Press, NY, p.59
- Exhibition history: 2005 Barbican Art Gallery, The Curve
- Courtesy: The Artists
- Concept: The Food series unfolds over a number of years in 'acts'. For All in One Basket act I (1997), Lucy + Jorge Orta hosted an open-air buffet in one of the busiest central shopping district of Les Halles, Paris, made with discarded fruit salvaged from Parisian fruit and vegetable markets. All in One Basket points a finger at local consumer waste and the inequalities of global food distribution. Using the fruit and vegetable market as an example of a growing urban phenomenon, we were able to generate debate around the broader subject. With more than three hundred kilograms of ripe produce that we had gleaned from the local markets, the famous Parisian pātissier Stohrer, prepared and cooked a variety of sweet dishes.
Samples of jams, jellies, and puddings were available to taste for free, and visitors could buy souvenir editions of bottled and labeled preserves. During the course of the day, thousands of people stopped by, including members of the art community, shoppers, children, tramps, students, and immigrants. In the adjacent gallery of Saint Eustache, an installation of artifacts constructed from wooden fruit crates, and displayed the homemade preserves in mini-jars with photographs of mounds of discarded market produce.
