Totipotent Architecture Sacred Art Museum Buonconvento

Studio Orta - 1203.jpg
Studio Orta - 1203
Studio Orta - 1203

Date: 2004
Ref: 1203
Materials: Steel, hand blown crystal, laser cut steel, crystal mirror
Dimensions: Two tables each measuring h 80 x 1240 x w 40 cm
Catalogued: Exhibition catalogue Association Arte All'Arte 2004
Exhibition history: 2013 TheGallery, Arts University Bournemouth, UK; 2004 University of Brighton Art Gallery, UK; 2003 Commissioned by Arte All'Arte, Sacred Art Museum Buonconvento, Tuscany, Italy
Courtesy: Lucy + Jorge Orta

In the Sacred Art Museum of the Tuscan town of Buonconvento, Lucy + Jorge Orta presented a series of architectural maquettes inspired by Tuscan renaissance architecture. The works were made in collaboration with local artisans and celebrate Colle di Val d’Elsa’s crystal-blowing tradition. 

"Totipotent Architecture is inspired by Orta’s research into the microstructure of human cells –in their earliest stages the embryonic cell transforms into a defined “architectural” structure– the artists refer to as “cells of habitation.” In the context of the Sacred Art Museum in Buonconvento, and in juxtaposition to Girolamo’s Annunciation painting, these imaginary architectural models express a “vision” or a birth of new architectural forms as organic extensions of the historic Tuscan buildings." James Putnam