Studio Orta - GSK Contemporary - Earth: Art of a Changing World

GSK Contemporary - Earth: Art of a Changing World

03 December 2009 - 31 January 2010
Royal Academy of Arts, Group Exhibition
UK

Recent debates have centred less on the possibility and more on the certainty and speed with which climate change will take place. As the debate has developed, so too has our approach to the future of our planet and citizens. Co-curated by Kathleen Soriano, Director of Exhibitions at the Royal Academy, David Buckland, Director of Cape Farewell and Edith Devaney, Royal Academy, this exhibition will reflect the impact of the climate change debate on the practice of a broad range of contemporary artists across a wide variety of media. Earth will interconnect ‘issue’ and ‘art’, and will present works that are beautiful, powerful and thought-provoking.

Lucy + Jorge Orta present Antarctic Village – No Borders, first installed in Antarctica in 2007 as a symbol of the plight of those struggling to cross borders and to gain the freedom of movement necessary to escape political and social conflict. For the artists, Antartica embodies the hope for a neutral peaceful land, free of conflict. Hand-stitched by a traditional tent-maker with sections of flags from countries around the world, this physical embodiment of the new ‘Global Village’ refers to the right to freedom of movement enshrined within the UN Declaration for Human Rights.