Cloud | Meteoros II

Studio Orta - 6103
Studio Orta - 6103
Studio Orta - 6103
Studio Orta - 6103
Studio Orta - 6103
Studio Orta - 6103
Studio Orta - 6103

Date: 2015
Ref: 6102
Materials: Fibreglass with internal steel structure, epoxy finish
Dimensions: A modular installation comprised of five clouds. Three 280 x 90 x 180 cm (each); one 800 x 270 x 297 cm; one 600 x 230 x 280 cm
Exhibition history: 2024 Forum Meyrin, Switzerland; 2015 Renaissance Biennale, Lille-Flandres, France; 2013 Terrace Wires, St Pancras International London, UK
Courtesy: Lucy + Jorge Orta. Photography by Daisy Kim Lehmann

A suspended meeting place, the sky is the agora of our imagination.

The suspended sculpture 'Meteoros' resembles vast cumuli populated with travellers, a ‘magic carpet’ taking passengers on an imaginary journey in the skies. Meteoros is derived from ancient Greek, meaning raised from the ground, suspended, lofty or in the midst. Clouds have long been intercessors between reality and the imagination, between heaven and earth, lightness and gravity. They inhabit the skies of Renaissance fresco paintings, often depicted crowded with laymen and prophets, angels and deities. Throughout history, this celestial vault has been a site of conviviality, of learning and exchange. The work also carries a political message, through the imagary of the cloud it calls into question how mankind will share the vital resource of water on earth.

Two Meteoros Clouds were commissioned for London’s St Pancras International train station in 2013. For the Renaissance Biennale in Lille-Flandres 2015, three further clouds were added to the installation.