Studio Orta - Spirits of the Huveaune | La fée du vieux moulin - Gyptis

Spirits of the Huveaune | La fée du vieux moulin - Gyptis

13 October 2012
Marseille, valley of the Huveaune, Public sculpture commission
France

"Five public sculptures – Spirits of the Huveaune – take the form of female characters along the valley of the river Huveaune, situated between the spring, deep in the Provence Alps and the estuary at the Mediterranean Sea port of Marseille. The sculptures, based on historical texts, legends and stories about the valley, recount the feminine presence associated with the river. The legendry, supernatural and the imaginary that perpetuate the history of the river Huveaune are the sources of inspiration." Lucy + Jorge Orta

The Huveaune coastal river in eastern Provence originates in the Massif de la Sainte Baume and flows all the way to the Mediterreanean Sea at Marseille. Although it has long facilitated myriad human activities from agriculture to industry, the Huveaune is now little known and often ill-treated. Eager to highlight the river's rich natural and cultural heritage and to strengthen the bonds among the neighborhoods and municipalities that share it, the Association Rives et Cultures has commissioned a work by artists Lucy + Jorge Orta under the auspices of Fondation de France’s Nouveaux commanditaire and Marseille-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture.

Titled Le Chemin des fées, the artists have devised a parcours of five sculptures that pay homage to the Huveaune's presence in four municipalities: la Fée de la source (Marie) – the Martellière, Saint-Zacharia; la Fée du pont (Ubelka) – Moulin Saint-Claude, Auriol; la Fée des berges (Manon) – Îlot des Berges Park, Aubagne; la Fée du vieux moulin (Gyptis) – Vieux Moulin Park, Marseille; and la Fée du lac (Ophélie) – Borély Park, Marseille.

These fairies, dreaming or alert, melancholic or resolved, invest these sites like genii loci and weave an unprecedented link between the past and the present. They invite visitors to discover the Huveaune through stories and to invent new ways to live alongside it. Referring to the universal water cycle, Le Chemin des fées aims to raise public awareness of environmental issues related to the river’s fate, thereby raising the question of water management in the future, here and elsewhere.

http://www.mp2013.fr/au-programme/nouveaux-commanditaires-2/lucy-et-jorge-orta-le-chemin-des-fees/

[FICHE]
Studio Orta - 9th Shanghai Biennale

9th Shanghai Biennale

02 October 2012 - 31 March 2013
Shanghai, Biennale
China

For the 9th Shanghai Biennale, Lucy + Jorge Orta are commissioned to make three large-scale interventions for the Museum of Contemporary Art: OrtaWater Purification Factory, Antarctica World Passport Delivery Village and Nexus Architecture.

OrtaWater Purification Factory is a fully functioning, mobile water purification system. The work will draw from Shanghai’s Huang Pu River and will pump water up 20 metres into the museum’s third floor. It will be purified in a bamboo ‘factory’ and then clean drinking water snaked around the museum for the visitors to taste, enjoy and take away in a specially designed OrtaWater bottle.

Due to the effects of global warming it is estimated that sea levels will raise 0.5 to 1.4 metres over the next 100 years. Antarctica World Passport Delivery Village is comprised of a collection of small huts made from reclaimed materials, erected on stilts and interconnected by a raised platform of bamboo. A Metisse Flag will indicate the delivery bureau, where a passport officer will hand out the third edition of the Antarctica World Passport. Printed in Chinese for the occasion of the Shanghai Biennale, tens of thousands of passports will be distributed to museum visitors. New members will be welcomed into the Antarctica world community based on the founding principles of the Antarctic Treaty.

Nexus Architecture is both an installation and a performance. These ephemeral interventions draw performers and passers-by alike into choreographed scenarios, later documented in photographs and on film. By climbing into specially conceived suits and zippering the Nexus, participants challenge the premise of interdependence, asserting chosen community as a means to personal liberation.

[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Food Water Life | Tufts University Gallery

Food Water Life | Tufts University Gallery

06 September 2012 - 16 December 2012
Tufts University Art Gallery, Solo exhibition
USA

On September 6, 2012 University Art Gallery inaugurates the first comprehensive exhibition of the work of Lucy + Jorge Orta available to American museums. This exhibition will explore how the artists' unique visual language tackles the global issues affecting our lives. Three projects – Food Water Life - spanning close to two decades of collaborative work, will be presented: Hortirecyling (1997-2005), OrtaWater (2005-2007) and Antarctica (1990-2009).

Lucy + Jorge Orta’s artwork communicates widely to audiences beyond the field of contemporary art, demonstrating the importance of art as a creative agent for awareness and change. During the next three years, the artists will stage on-location workshops, ephemeral interventions, residencies and master classes that explore the crucial themes of the contemporary world: the community, autonomy, dwelling, migration, sustainable development and recycling.

This exhibition will tour to Zikha Gallery, Wesleyan University (January 22–March 3, 2013), Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University (January 25–May 25, 2014) and Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle (February 5–May 7, 2015) with other venues to be announced.

http://curatorsquared.com/lucyjorge-orta-collaboration/http://artgallery.tufts.edu/exhibitions/traveling.htm
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Antarctica World Passport | Delivery Bureau

Antarctica World Passport | Delivery Bureau

01 June 2012 - 09 September 2012
Festival of the World, Southbank Centre, Festival - New Commission
UK

As part of London's Festival of the World, thousands of visitors are arriving this summer at The Southbank Centre to join Lucy + Jorge Orta's Antarctica World Passport Delivery Bureau and to become global citizens.

The Antarctica World Passport Delivery Bureau, a huge labyrinth installation of reclaimed materials will issue 30,000 facsimile passport documents to the festival visitors aspiring to become a citizen of the new Antarctica world community. The applicants will join the tens of thousands of citizens who have already received an individual passport, an original artwork to be treasured and passed on the future generations as a testament to how art can change lives and what it means to be a citizen of the world.

The Antarctic Treaty signed in 1959 states that Antarctica is a common territory dedicated to cultural and scientific cooperation and all military activity is banned. Antarctica exemplifies a community that strives for peace and social progress. Originally commissioned by The End of the World Biennale, Usuahia Argentina, Lucy + Jorge Orta's Antarctica body of work developed from an expedition and installation conducted in Antarctica in 2007.

The Antarctica body of work has been touring the world. Of particular significance most recently are the two Festival of the World installations at the Southbank Centre—on the Festival Hall roof are raised 44 impressive flags that indicate the presence of the passport public engagement project inside the gallery. Antarctica is also the topic of two monograph publications and will be the subject of a installation in the Shanghai Biennale (Oct 2012) and a US tour from 2012-2015 as well as a major retrospective at Park de la Villette in Paris (2013-2014).
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Antarctica World Passport | Metisse Flag

Antarctica World Passport | Metisse Flag

01 June 2012 - 09 September 2012
Festival of the World, Southbank Centre, Festival - New Commission
UK

The Southbank Centre opens the Festival of the World for the Diamond Jubilee Weekend with the unveiling of an outdoor landscape that visitors can explore for the duration of the three-month long celebrations. Bringing together artists from around the globe who are demonstrating that when people work creatively together, individual lives and communities can change for the better. Highlights include two ambitious new works from Lucy + Jorge Orta's Antarctica series: Métisse Flag and Antarctica World Passport Delivery Bureau.

The artists’ Antarctica World Passport Delivery Bureau, a huge labyrinth installation of reclaimed materials inside the Southbank’s Spirit Level Gallery will issue 30,000 facsimile passport documents to the festival visitors aspiring to become a citizen of the new Antarctica world community. The applicants will join the tens of thousands of citizens who have already received an individual passport, an original artwork to be treasured and passed on the future generations as a testament to how art can change lives and what it means to be a citizen of the world.

Their second artwork, a monumental crown of flags will be raised above the roof of the Royal Festival Hall. The Métisse Flag, which was first created for their Antarctic expedition in 2007, will stand proudly over looking the river Thames as a symbol of the festival, allowing all peoples to coexist harmoniously as the nations’ emblems merge to create a larger common identity.

The Antarctic Treaty signed in 1959 states that Antarctica is a common territory dedicated to cultural and scientific cooperation and all military activity is banned. Antarctica exemplifies a community that strives for peace and social progress.
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Amazonia | Carbon 12: Art & Changement Climatique

Amazonia | Carbon 12: Art & Changement Climatique

04 May 2012 - 16 September 2012
Espace Foundation EDF Paris, Group Show
France

CARBON 12, at the Espace Foundation EDF presents the ongoing cultural and scientific projects of Cape Farewell through the works of five artists who have taken part in Cape Farewell’s expeditions and who have closely collaborated with leading climate scientists. Their resulting artworks and scientific research on exhibition encompasses biodiversity, atmospherics and oceanography — earth, wind and sea.

Lucy + Jorge Orta took part in the 2009 Andes Expedition, Cape Farewell's first expedition outside the Arctic, an 18 day trek through shrinking glaciers, cloud forests, lower forests, areas of deforestation and the Amazon. The results of this expedition and the work they undertook with the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University was exhibited at the Natural History Museum in London in 2009.
Part of this exhibition Amazonia has been re-configured especially for CARBON 12 and a number of new works created in the series Perpetual Amazonia – the artists ‘cultural plot’ in the Peruvian Amazon.

Cape Farewell was created by the artist David Buckland in 2001 to instigate a cultural response to climate change. It is now an international not-for-profit programme based in the Science Museum's Dana Centre in London and the MaRS centre in Toronto. “The cultural shift required to build sustainable cultures will require the engagement of our best creative minds to address the causes of climate change and envisage, design and communicate resilient futures. The aim is to challenge, provoke and inspire audiences to think differently about our relationship with each other and the natural systems we inhabit.”
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - 70 x 7 The Meal act XXXIII

70 x 7 The Meal act XXXIII

28 March 2012 - 28 April 2012
Smiths Row, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Solo Exhibition
UK

To kick start the 40th birthday celebrations of Smiths Row, Lucy + Jorge Orta have been invited to re-imagine 70x7 The Meal in the historic gallery space. 70x7 The Meal, act XXXIII is a visual celebration of food, community and the natural world.

This site-specific installation takes the form of a long and beautiful dinner table set for 42 guests. Focusing on particular regional characteristics of food production and heritage skills, landscape and foraging, wildlife and the web of nature, Lucy + Jorge have crafted an installation that illustrates the poetic relationship between these different aspects of East Anglian culture.

Elements of the table setting have been hand crafted especially for the occasion – a limited edition silk jacquard table runner by Humphries Weaving in Suffolk, the porcelain dinner service by Royal Limoges in France and the bronze candelabra are cast from found olive branches. The motifs in their designs reference the bountiful yet fragile nature of our environment - the bee, the flower bud - and the poetry inscribed onto the artworks are derived from a number of literary and scientific sources on issues surrounding the preservation of our resources: “ Tug at any one thing in nature and the rest will move." (Petrucci)

[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Fabulae Romanae

Fabulae Romanae

22 March 2012 - 23 September 2012
MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, Installation
Italy

Fabulae Romanae curated by Maria Luisa Frisa, is an ambitious sculpture and video installation specifically created by Lucy + Jorge Orta for MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts and that will form part the Museum’s new display Tridimensionale.

Fabulae Romanae is symbolic excursus that traces the artists’ key themes: starting with Refuge Wear, “a nomadic form of shelter, a small portable habitat, which combines in a single conceptual solution the physical, social, and symbolic functions of architecture and clothing”, as described by Maria Luisa Frisa.

The new Dome Dwelling sculptures in the exhibition are framed by Fabulae Romanae - Spirits, an immense large screen video performance that was recently filmed in Rome. The mysterious Spirits, who interact with the city’s architecture, embody the ethereal sentinels entrusted with the task of restoring the vital breath of the city. The scenarios these metaphorical characters enact are beautifully articulated through a series of spoken verses composed for the film by the poet Mario Petrucci.

Fabulae Romanae is commissioned by Ermenegildo Zegna and is the first Special Project of the initiative ZegnArt, a multi-faceted and multi-year project dedicated to the field of contemporary visual arts. To close the exhibition Zegna will donate a sculpture to the MAXXI’s permanent collection.

Fabulae Romanae has the support of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion and has been made possible with the assistance of alumni from the College: Chloé Gayet, Mio Jin, Lara Torres, Oliver Ruuger and Sum Yu Li.

http://www.zegnart.com/lucy-jorge-orta-fabulae-romanae
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Six Yards Guaranteed Dutch Design

Six Yards Guaranteed Dutch Design

29 January 2012 - 06 May 2012
MMKA museum voor moderne kunst arnhem, Group Exhibition
Netherlands

As early as 1846, the Vlisco company, based in Helmond, served the West African market with Dutch Wax textiles. From 29 January through 6 May, 2012, the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem will present Six Yards Guaranteed Dutch Design, an exhibition about how Vlisco’s Dutch textiles became a part of various West African cultures and found their way into international fashion, the visual arts, and photography.

The exhibition Six Yards is a tribute to Vlisco textiles: over a hundred years old, born in Indonesia, designed in the Netherlands, loved in Africa, and desired in the West.
These colourful fabrics make their way to fashion shows in Paris, the markets in Ghana, and galleries in London and New York.

The exhibition, curated by the Suze May Sho artists’ collective, explores the history of the textiles and their stories, touches on Dutch (post-)colonial history, takes a look at the differences and similarities between Western and non-Western cultures, and sheds light on how visual artists as well as top designers around the world have been inspired by Vlisco’s textiles.

Artists, photographers, and fashion designers include Yinka Shonibare, Kara Walker, Ellen Gallagher, Wangechi Mutu, Fatimah Tuggar, Viviane Sassen, Lucy Orta, Hans Eijkelboom, Seydou Keïta, Andrea Spotorno, Meschac Gaba, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Collectie Arnhem, Harvey Bouterse, Acne, Marga Weimans, Dries van Noten, PetrouMan, Querijn Maurits Ver Huell en Vlisco designers.
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Les Nouveaux Explorateurs

Les Nouveaux Explorateurs

29 November 2011 - 29 January 2012
Crypte Sainte-Eugénie, Biarritz, Group Exhibition
France

Cette exposition présente des artistes contemporains qui ont choisi de mettre l’exploration au centre de leurs démarches.

Les nouveaux artistes explorateurs, éprouvent les différentes cultures, appréhendent des territoires nouveaux, cherchent de nouvelles façons de voir, d’habiter la planète, tout cela est source d’expérimentations et de sensibilité. Il s’agit souvent de sortir du contexte occidental et d’aller se confronter physiquement à des situations non conventionnelles, hors de toute dimension pittoresque ou touristique.

Il est question de géographie. Aller loin, arpenter concrètement le territoire pour s’en imprégner. Et retranscrire par des dessins, par des cartes, des maquettes, des films ou des pierres cette réalité que constitue la surface de notre planète. Il est aussi question de comportement. Quelle est notre place!? Quelle est notre influence!? Quelles sont les traces que nous laissons!? Comment considère-t-on des contrées lointaines comme l’Antarctique ou l’Afghanistan!? Au-delà de la simple appréhension physique du territoire, ce sont aussi ces relations à l’environnement et aux autres qui sont évoquées et bousculées dans l’exposition Les Nouveaux Explorateurs.

Explorer le monde nous confronte à l’impact de nos civilisations. L’aventure est loin d’être anecdotique.
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Clouds | Nuages - Lucy + Jorge Orta

Clouds | Nuages - Lucy + Jorge Orta

17 September 2011 - 10 December 2011
La Maréchalerie – centre d’art contemporain | Ensa-v, Solo Exhibition
France

The new body of work Clouds | Nuages is co-commissioned by Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles énsa-v and La Maréchalerie for an exhibition in the contemporary arts centre and the Galerie des Moulages of the Louvre museum in Versailles.

Clouds | Nuages draws from the artists previous research on issues effecting our environment, in particular the theme of water. Leading from their project OrtaWater, the artworks pose questions about the scarcity of this natural resource, the exploitation, purification and the distribution networks. The recycling communities in Cairo inspire the artists as well as the lifespan of the water bottle that gradually disintegrates to create the enormous floating islands in our Oceans. In Versailles, these environmental threats radiate with an unexpected lightness and hedonism. Waste materials undergo metamorphosis. Technological processes, exuberant metallic colours and Baroque shapes confront us with a bright and optimistic world.

La Maréchalerie - centre d’art contemporain | énsa-v
5, avenue de Sceaux, 78 000 Versailles, France
http://lamarechalerie.versailles.archi.fr

[FICHE]
Studio Orta - 70 x 7 The Meal act XXVI, ArtAids Foundation

70 x 7 The Meal act XXVI, ArtAids Foundation

08 September 2011
Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona, Event
Spain

70 x 7 The Meal act XXVI is the 26th act in Lucy + Jorge Orta’s ongoing banquets in support of the ArtAids, to raise public consciousness and to encourage involvement in artistic projects aimed at preventing and fighting Aids.

The artists were inspired by the work of Padre Rafael Garcia H. (1909-1990) who initiated a series of benefit banquets to set in motion a major urban social development program entitled El minuto de Dios. The artist’s base their banquets on the symbol seven, which represents infinity in numerous ancestral cultures and in particular the biblical signification ad infinitum.

On the 8th September 2011, a dinner for 77 guests will be staged at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, a fragment of which is exhibited in the exhibition You Are Not Alone.
The table on exhibition is set with 7 beautiful limited edition Royal Limoges porcelain plates each with different motifs: the artichoke is the artists' symbol of the heart; the spectrum contains contextual colours that represent specific places or events that have moved them and the graphic measurements propose different symbolic levels to gauge social behaviour.
The printed table linens, also limited editions, are hand-embroidered by Fine Cell Work, a charity that rehabilitates prisoners by giving them the opportunity to earn and save money and rebuild their lives through craft and achievement.
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Antarctica

Antarctica

03 September 2011 - 29 October 2011
galerieofmarseille, Solo Exhibition
France

For their first solo exhibition at galerieofmarseille, the artists present a series of work from the Antarctica project.
Antarctica embodies the hope for a neutral peaceful land, free of conflict. Dome Dwelling, Drop parachute, Window on the World, as well as preparatory drawings are some of the emblematic artworks referring to the right of freedom of movement exhibited alongside the Antarctica World Passport - Delivery Bureau.

The Antarctica World Passport proposes an amendment to Article 13 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 13 :3 “Every human being has the right to move freely and cross frontiers to their chosen territory. Individuals should not be deemed of an inferior status to that of capital, trade, telecommunication and pollution, all of which have no boundaries".

Passports are distributed during the exhibition to new citizens wishing to join the online community developed by MIT at http://antarcticaworldpassport.mit.edu/citizens/news
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - You are not alone

You are not alone

01 July 2011 - 18 September 2011
Fundació Joan Miró, Group Exhibition
Spain

The Fundació Joan Miró and the ArtAids Foundation present You Are Not Alone, an exhibition curated by Hilde Teerlinck together with Irene Aristizábal.
In You Are Not Alone fourteen contemporary artists from around the world are invited to respond with their individual artistic visions to the causes, consequences and current context of Aids, and to suggest ways of fighting it.

Lucy + Jorge Orta present 70 x 7 The Meal act XXVI, a table set with 7 beautiful limited edition Royal Limoges porcelain plates each with different motifs: the artichoke is the artists' symbol of the heart; the spectrum contains contextual colours that represent specific places or events that have moved them and the graphic measurements propose different symbolic levels to gauge social behaviour.
The printed table linens, also limited editions, are hand-embroidered by Fine Cell Work, a charity that rehabilitates prisoners by giving them the opportunity to earn and save money and rebuild their lives through craft and achievement.

As part of the ongoing 70 x 7 The Meal project, on the 8th September 2011 Lucy + Jorge Orta will host a dinner for 77 guests at the Fundació Joan Miró. Through the daily ritual of dining, the artist aim at raising public consciousness and at encouraging involvement in artistic projects with the intention to prevent and fight Aids.
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - 70 x7 The Meal Act XXXII

70 x7 The Meal Act XXXII

20 June 2011
MAXXI Museo della Art del XXI Secolo, Rome, Event
Italy

Lucy + Jorge Orta’s 70 x 7 The Meal, takes its starting point with a multiplication game designed to stimulate conviviality and communication. The work sets up encounters between multiples of seven guests at a potentially endless series of meals. The 70 x 7 The Meal series is an excellent example of a new form of interactive work in which the artist develops a proactive practice in order to encourage direct experiential engagement and communication between the artwork and different audiences.

For 70 x7 The Meal Act XXXII at MAXXI museum in Rome, Lucy + Jorge Orta have been invited by Umberto Veronesi Foundation for its annual charity gala dinner to reflect on the healthy diet which is not only the companion of well-being, but also the new frontier of medicine in the field of prevention.

The artists have designed especially for this convivial occasion two series of limited edition Royal Limoges porcelain plates inspired by vegetables and fruits, at the base of our well-being.
By bringing people together around a table to reflect on and discuss one of the most urgent needs of our society, Lucy + Jorge Orta create a public awareness and contribute to the scientific research. The funds raised at the gala dinner will be used to support young doctors and researchers.
Once more, as the artists use to say, art can be a catalyst for a social transformation.

Umberto Veronesi Foundation was established in 2003 to support the scientific research, through the assignment of research Grant for doctors and researchers, and also to sustain some high profile projects.
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Lucy + Jorge Orta: Food Water Life

Lucy + Jorge Orta: Food Water Life

02 June 2011 - 03 June 2011
Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa Venice, Book Launch - Princeton Architectural Press, NY
Italy

Artists Lucy and Jorge Orta relish their roles as creative agents for social awareness andchange. Since founding Studio Orta in 1993, the Paris-based husband-and-wife team hasproduced an extensive body of work that addresses universal concerns of community, shelter,migration, and sustainable development.
Beyond merely tackling these issues artistically, theirwork suggests solutions by modeling fresh approaches to social dilemmas. From reclaimingdiscarded food for town-wide dinner celebrations to staging an international exhibition inAntarctica, their often-playful projects incorporate elements of fashion, art, and architecture,which they combine with performances, multimedia events, and public debates.

Lucy+Jorge Orta: Food Water Life features hundreds of photographs of recent works and includes texts bycurators Zoë Ryan, Ellen Lupton, Judith Hoos Fox, and Ginger Gregg Duggan and an interviewby critic Hou Hanru that provides insights into the artists’ processes and motivations. ISBN 978-1-56898-991-4
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Amazonia

Amazonia

12 March 2011 - 29 April 2011
Motive Gallery Amsterdam, Group Exhibition
Holland

For their most recent body of work Amazonia, Lucy + Jorge Orta were deeply inspired by their expedition to the Peruvian Amazon during the summer of 2009. The sculpture and photography on display at Motive Gallery are an edited version of the exhibition Amazonia, which was commissioned by the Natural History Museum London as part of the International Year of Biodiversity 2010.

Recording through photography, video and sound the artists found this beautiful oasis of diversity, in a state of crisis. The rainforest proved to become an emotional and conceptual starting point to restore our focus to the world around us, both its beauty and its imperiled state. Amazonia is a state of mind through which the artists strive to revive our deep enjoyment of nature as such and to convey its value to our daily lives and to our survival.
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Somewhere Else - Ailleurs

Somewhere Else - Ailleurs

11 February 2011 - 07 May 2011
Espace culturel Louis Vuitton, Group Exhibition
France

The Espace culturel Louis Vuitton is offering a new variation on the theme of travel and choosing to reveal the Somewhere Else of eighteen “expeditionist” artists.

The nature of the expedition to which these artists devote themselves may vary widely. In this movement, in this encounter with new environments and cultures — sometimes distant, sometimes near, but always “other” — the artist finds the opportunity for a singular creation that is primarily characterised by its offset nature.

Lucy + Jorge Orta present a selection of artworks: Drop Parachute, Dome Dwellings and drawings from the series Antarctica, resulting from their incredible journey to the continent, where they installed the ephemeral artwork Antarctic Village - No Borders. The in-situ installation of dwellings took place during the Austral summer 2007 and was aided by the team of scientists stationed at the Marambio Antarctic Base situated on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Antarctic Village and the many artworks resulting from their artistic research draw attention to plight of those struggling to transverse borders and to gain the freedom of movement necessary to escape political and social conflict.
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - GSK Contemporary - Aware: Art Fashion Identity

GSK Contemporary - Aware: Art Fashion Identity

02 December 2010 - 30 January 2011
Royal Academy of the Arts London, Group Exhibition
UK

Aware: Art Fashion Identity co-curated by Lucy Orta with the independent curator Gabi Scardi examines how artists and designers use clothing as a mechanism to communicate and reveal elements of our identity.

The exhibition contains work by 30 emerging as well as established international contemporary practitioners including Marina Abramović, Acconci Studio, Azra Akšamija, Maja Bajevic, Handan Börüteçene, Hussein Chalayan, Alicia Framis, Meschac Gaba, Marie-Ange Guilleminot, Andreas Gursky, Mella Jaarsma, Kimsooja, Claudia Losi, Susie MacMurray, Marcello Maloberti, La Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Yoko Ono, Maria Papadimitriou, Grayson Perry, Dai Rees, Katerina šedá, Cindy Sherman, Yinka Shonibare, Helen Storey, Rosemarie Trockel, Sharif Waked, Gillian Wearing RA, Yohji Yamamoto and Andrea Zittel.

New work by Yinka Shonibare and Hussein Chalayan, commissioned especially for Aware by London College of Fashion and the Royal Academy of Arts, is on display. Hussein Chalayan presents a new dress inspired by the 300 year old Japanese tradition of Bunraku puppet theatre while Yinka Shonibare has worked with bespoke tailor Chris Stevens to create 19th-century children’s dress assembled to form a impressive wall mural.

Aware is divided into four sections. Storytelling acknowledges the role of clothing in the representation of personal and cultural history. Grayson Perry’s Artist’s Robe, 2004, an elaborate, appliquéd coat made of a patchwork of luxurious fabrics, comments on the figure and status of the artist in the world today.

Building covers the concept of clothing being used as a form of protection and the notion of carrying one’s own shelter, referencing the nomadic, portable nature of modern life. On display is Shelter Me 1, 2005 by Mella Jaarsma who in her work parallels garment and architectural constructions. Jaarsma defines shelter as the minimal construction needed for protection, not yet the shape of a house, but directly related to the proportions of the human body.

Belonging and Confronting examines ideas of nationality as well as displacement and political and social confrontation, recognizing the tensions associated with the assimilation of new cultures and traditions. In Palestinian artist Sharif Waked’s video installation, Chic Point, 2003, the contradictory interpretations of revealing flesh as a fashion prerogative or as a humiliation juxtapose two worlds, one of high fashion and the other of semi-imprisonment.

The importance of Performance in the presentation of fashion and clothing, and in highlighting the roles that we play in our daily life, is explored in the final section. It features film footage of Yoko Ono’s performance of Cut Piece at Carnegie Recital Hall, New York in 1965, for which the artist invited the public to cut strips from her clothing. While the scraps of fabric fall to the floor, the unveiling of the female body suggests the total destruction of the barriers imposed by convention.

A full colour publication by Damiani accompanies the exhibition.http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/gsk-contemporary-season-2010/exhibition/
[FICHE]
Studio Orta - Lucy + Jorge Orta | Light Works

Lucy + Jorge Orta | Light Works

26 November 2010 - 25 February 2011
Black Dog Space, Solo Exhibition and Book Launch
UK

The exhibition, which coincides with the launch of the beautifully illustrated monograph publication Light Works by Black Dog Publishing, traces the emergence of Jorge Orta’s practice in Argentina from 1972 to 1983.

On view will be a selection of previously un-exhibited work from the Orta’s extensive archive including early video performance, tactile poetry, mail art, graphic scores and as well as handmade editions designed to communicate beyond the very limited sphere of contemporary art practice during the military regime. A unique opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the commitment and ethical dimension of the artists work over the last thirty years.

Black Dog Space is an independent exhibition space housed at 10a Acton street, London WC1X 9NG, presenting a programme of exhibitions organised in conjunction with international artists who have been published in-house.
[FICHE]