Studio Orta - Lucy + Jorge Orta | Amazonia

Lucy + Jorge Orta | Amazonia

06 October 2010 - 12 December 2010
Natural History Museum London, Solo Exhibition
UK

Lucy + Jorge Orta’s current exhibition Amazonia is based on the expedition the artists made to the Peruvian rainforest in July 2009. Commissioned by the Natural History Museum contemporary art program as part of the International Year of Biodiversity, the exhibition opening coincides with the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, October 2010.

The new works on exhibition include: Collection: Aepyornis, Gallimimus, Allosaurus, Pelaeomastodon intricate porcelain casts of dinosaur fossils from the museum’s palaeontology department and Bones three larger than life iridescent aluminum bone sculptures. Madre de Dios - Fluvial Intervention Unit a ‘Noah’s Arc’ pirogue crammed with hundreds of tiny animals reflected into infinity. Amazonia a memorising diptych video-audio projection which covers the walls of the Jerwood Gallery, and Perpetual Amazonia S12 48 21.6 W71 24 17.6 a series of stunning large format photographs referencing the diversity of flora around the world, marked with the UTM coordinates of a hectare of land in the Amazon that the artists are hoping to save into perpetuity.

During their expedition Lucy + Jorge Orta assisted eco-scientists with their species collection, sketching, photographing and filming the flora and fauna they encountered along their journey. Reflecting on some of the ecosystems they encountered, they found the rainforest to be a beautiful oasis of diversity, in a state of crisis. As with many of their projects, the artists hope that their artworks will conceptually stake out the terrain of our relationship to nature and its value to us - restoring our focus to the world around us, both its beauty and its imperilled state.

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Studio Orta - Wijheizij - Milk

Wijheizij - Milk

10 July 2010 - 19 September 2010
Permekemuseum and Baliehof dairy farm, Solo exhibition
Jabbeke, Belgium

The project wijheizij in partnership with the Belgian NGO Vredeseilanden sets up collaborations between farmers and artists to stress the important role that change, community and culture play in society. Throughout the summer these collaborations can be seen in different venues across Flanders with artists such as Lucy + Jorge Orta, Nathalie Hunter, Johan Creten, Koen Vanmechelen and Berlinde De Bruyckere. Within this context Lucy + Jorge Orta present in their collaboration with dairy farmers Luc and Krista Callemeyn, which portray their fascination for milk containers. Over the years the artists have observed how people all over the world deal with milk as an in principal essential daily nourishment. The new art works pay tribute to a seemingly insignificant but in fact rather essential utensil. Through this the artists symbolically also express what is at stake within the project wijheizij.
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Studio Orta - Eclaircies - Art et Changement Climatique

Eclaircies - Art et Changement Climatique

25 June 2010 - 22 August 2010
Le Quai, Angers, Group Exhibition + Performance
France

The exhibition Eclaircies brings together the most prominent French artists whose work sensitively highlights ways in which we can re-imagine our world, its environmental sustainability faced with the threat of climate change and offer different approaches of participation and engagement.

"A la manière des philosophes éclairant les gouvernements des lumières, les artistes aujourd’hui cherchent à apporter un éclairage sensible pour repenser notre monde."

Lucy + Jorge Orta present Urban Life Guard, first shown in 2005 at the Curve gallery, Barbican (2005. During the opening night, contemporary dance students from CNDC will imporvise a performance to create unexpected transformations.
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Studio Orta - Antartica

Antartica

11 June 2010 - 15 August 2010
Montbard, Group Exhibition
France

In the frame of the 7th edition of the International Festival of Visual Arts l'Eté des Arts en Auxois-Morvan, the artists present a fragment of Antarctic Village – No Borders, first installed on the Antarctic peninsular in 2007 and which toured to the Hangar Biccoca in Milan and Le Galleria Continua / Le Moulin in 2008.

The series Antartica embodies the hope for a neutral peaceful land, free of conflict. The Dome Dwellings and Drop Parcahutes embelished with all nation flags are a physical embodiment of a new ‘Global Village’, referring to the right to freedom of movement enshrined within the UN Declaration for Human Rights. For the opening, the artists distributed the Antarctica World Passport to the inhabitants of Montbard adding to the online database: http://antarcticaworldpassport.mit.edu/citizens/news
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Studio Orta - MAXXI’s art and architecture collection - inauguration

MAXXI’s art and architecture collection - inauguration

30 May 2010 - 23 January 2011
MAXXI Rome, Group Exhibition
Italy

For the opening of the new art museum MAXXI in Rome designed by Zaha Hadid, 90 works from the museum's permanent collection will be exhibited along a single route winding inside and outside the museum in an open dialogue with the site-specific installations of ten international architectural studios.
Three works from the series Antarctic Village - No Borders by Lucy + Jorge Orta have been selected for this inaugural display and the visitor will be guided through an exploration of the complex concept of space understood in both the environmental senses, as a place of imagination and as a political and social dimension.
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Studio Orta - Lucy Orta

Lucy Orta

29 May 2010 - 25 July 2010
CCANW - Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, Solo Exhibition
UK

In the frame of the new 'Fashion, Textiles and the Environment' programme, CCANW presents a solo exhibition by Lucy Orta. Her work is often a critical response to sensitive areas of society, reflecting on themes such as community and social inclusion, dwellings and mobility, recycling and sustainable development.

Lucy often uses facilitated workshop processes, harnessing fashion’s power to create identity and symbolic content for ‘social sculpture’ worn in public spaces and used as interventions commenting directly on social and global issues. She draws inspiration from a variety of disciplines including fashion, architecture, design philosophy, social activism and traditional art practice. The exhibition brings together her sculptures, videos, objects and drawings.
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Studio Orta - Adelaide International 2010: Apart, we are together

Adelaide International 2010: Apart, we are together

25 February 2010 - 15 March 2010
JamFactory, centre for Contemporary Craft and Design, Solo Exhibition
Australia

In celebration of the Adelaide Festival’s 50th anniversary, the Visual Arts Program will inaugurate the Adelaide International 2010 with the exhibition: Apart, we are together, curated by Victoria Lynn.

The exhibition includes the work of eleven international artists and is supported by University of South Australia. Adelaide International 2010: Apart, we are together will consolidate the Adelaide Festival’s long history of engagement with contemporary art from around the world by addressing the theme of the heart. “The heart can take us in many directions, memory, secrets, longing, and emotional thresholds. It is with the heart that we forge aesthetics of courage and sustenance. What does it take to survive, to keep the heart going? What forms of resistance and resilience are at work”, says curator Victoria Lynn.

Lucy + Jorge Ortas' solo exhibition at the JamFactory will include sculptures and wall works from the series 70 x 7 The Meal and Nexus Architecture. The festival have commissioned the artists to create 10 enamelled aluminium sculptures, based on their longstanding work The Gift (Life Nexus) and the artists will create a new body of work Nexus Harnesses which includes photography work from the graduate students at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
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Studio Orta - A New Stance For Tomorrow: Part 3

A New Stance For Tomorrow: Part 3

30 January 2010 - 13 March 2010
Sketch, Group Show
UK

A New Stance for Tomorrow: Part 3 brings together artists’ films, videos and documentation that examine various notions of settlement and community. Spanning proposals from the 1970s to the present, the artists, designers and filmmakers included in this exhibition use various strategies to dissolve the boundaries between art, architecture and design while developing visions and explorations into positive propositions for the future.
As a part of the Antarctica project, Lucy + Jorge Orta present the video of their journey to the Antarctic in 2007 and the installation of their symbolic village - fifty Dome Dwellings created as a possibility of a free and all inclusive community.
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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.
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Studio Orta - 70 x 7 The Meal, act XXXI

70 x 7 The Meal, act XXXI

31 October 2009 - 09 November 2009
Sherwell Church Hall, North Hill, Plymouth, Event
UK

70 x 7 The Meal, act XXXl is a collaboration between Lucy + Jorge Orta and local artists Anne-Marie Culhane and Jo Salter.

The 31st act of the dining project is a celebration of wild and local food: growing it, eating it and sharing it and provides the opportunity for an invited audience to enjoy a special meal in friendly discussion around the theme of food and sustainability. Regional foods from the South-West area of England have been harvested and prepared by chefs from Fat Hen, a small rural family enterprise set up by forager and professional ecologist Caroline Davey.

Jamie Mclaren-Smith, environmental business manager from Groundwork South West, will be carrying out a carbon footprint calculation, taking in the total distances travelled by guests and food alike and the electricity and gas used on the night, therefore enabling him to work out a representative figure of the event’s approximate carbon footprint, comparing it to more commercial practices.

The event is organised by Groundwork South West in collaboration with Plymouth Arts Centre and Plymouth College of Art where a solo exhibition of Lucy Orta's work is open until the 8th November 2009.
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Studio Orta - Antarctic Village - Metisse Flag

Antarctic Village - Metisse Flag

02 October 2009 - 02 January 2010
FRAC Lorraine, Installation
France

The Antarctic Village Metisse Flag signals the entrance to the latest exhibition Esthétiques des Poles - Le Testament des Glaces at the FRAC Loraine in Metz. An opportunity to view more fragments of Lucy + Jorge Ortas' Antarctica works, originally installed across the penisular in 2007.
Engaging works from artists Dove Allouche, Evariste Richer, Darren Almond, Dominique Auerbacher, Jean-Jacques Dumont, Joachim Koester, Julien Loustau, Bertrand Lozay, David Renaud, Guido van der Werve, Marijke van Warmerdam explore the aesthetics of the poles where romanticism and ecological considerations dominate and oscillate between two alternatives: a sense of profound confusion before the changing world and a yearning for adventurous exoticism. Whether they take on the form of a personal diary, a travelogue, or a documentary; whether they represent a physical, symbolical or scientific exploration, the artworks comprise a network of images, sounds, and words which combine initiatory journeys and social utopias, and in which being becomes once again human. http://www.fraclorraine.org
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Studio Orta - Lucy Orta

Lucy Orta

16 September 2009 - 08 November 2009
Plymouth Arts Centre and 
Plymouth College of Art, Solo Exhibition
UK

Plymouth Arts Centre and Plymouth College of Art are collaborating on an exhibition and series of events with the international artist Lucy Orta. Focusing on the elements of craft and design, the gallery spaces will be dedicated to experiencing this seminal artist’s work.Lucy Orta’s work examines the social bonds within communities and the relationships between individuals and their environments. The exhibition brings together sculptures, videos, objects, drawings and photographs created by Orta over the last ten years for a diverse range of collaborative projects, performances, installations and social interventions held in cities around the world. 


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Studio Orta - A Way Beyond Fashion

A Way Beyond Fashion

16 September 2009 - 24 October 2009
apexart, Group Exhibition
USA

Art and fashion’s influence on the definition of society, identity and culture as well as the relationship between fashion design, cultural engagement and performative action constitute the thematic core of the exhibition. A Way Beyond Fashionshowcases designers who explore questions of individuality as well as artists who work with identity, socio-cultural and interventionist issues and whose works analyze the dynamics of a globalized fashion world. Fashion as the interface between the individual and society, between art, architecture, technology and design. Fashion acts as a social skin through which the natural confines and limits of the body can be surpassed. Transience and variety, the confrontation with the individuality and also the anonymity of a media-driven fashion industry gives artists and designers an opportunity to articulate innovative concepts. In contrast to the everyday relationship the consumer has with fashion, A Way Beyond Fashiondeals with the questions of our society which are rooted in complex issues of identity as well as ecological and technical developments.
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Studio Orta - AntArctica

AntArctica

12 September 2009 - 08 November 2009
Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum, Group Exhibition
Norway

AntArctica is Haugar’s contribution to Kulturminnevernåret (Safeguard of Cultural Heritage Year), and focuses upon a number of Norwegian and international artists whose work relates to the serious effects of climate change. The work in the exhibition explores ideas of dystopia as well as the natural sciences - there is work that is clearly critical of today’s society, documentary, poetic and multi-facetted work.
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Studio Orta - (Un)Inhabitable? Art of Extreme Environments - Festival @rt Outsiders 2009

(Un)Inhabitable? Art of Extreme Environments - Festival @rt Outsiders 2009

09 September 2009 - 11 October 2009
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, Group Exhibition
France

The 2009 edition of the @rt Outsiders Festival —celebrating this year its tenth anniversary—focuses on extreme environments.These are environments that were, until recently, uninhabited by human beings and that contemporary science and technology turn into "inhabitable" places (Antarctica, underwater world, outer space, deserts); but also those that are becoming "uninhabitable" due to the impacts of our way of life (pollution, technological accidents, economical pressures and global warming).

"(Un)Inhabitable? – Art of Extreme Environments" presents works that explore the meaning of living in extreme environments, in the imaginary realm as well as in the physical one, in the political, social and environmental fields as well as in the poetic ones.

Antarctica World Passport signing: Wednesday, October 7th, from 5pm.
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Studio Orta - Cape Farewell Expedition

Cape Farewell Expedition

23 June 2009 - 10 July 2009
Peruvian Andes, Expedition
Peru

Lucy + Jorge Orta have been invited by Cape Farewell to participate in the first expedition to the Peruvian Andes from 23 June to 10 July 2009 with a group of international artists and scientists. The research conducted by Lucy + Jorge will be central to their solo exhibition Amazonia at the Natural History Museum London in autumn 2010.Artists Adriane Colburn, Daro Montag, Lucy and Jorge Orta, Novelist Yann Martel, Photographer Ana Ceclia Gonzales Vigil, Designer Marije De Haas, Sound Artist Brenndan McGuire, Animator Anthony Santoro, Camera man Matt Wainwright and climate science communicator Rhian Salmon will explore the impacts of climate change in the Andean Mountains with Scientists Prof Yadvinder Malhi, Dr Joshua Fisher, and Kathryn Clark from Oxford University, to respond to and inspire a sustainable cultural vision to the potentially devastating climate reality .Since 2003, Cape Farewell has led seven expeditions to the High Arctic, the ambition of their first expedition to the Andes is to invite artists to witness the impact of climate change in another major climate tipping point; rainforests. The team will visit multiple science stations and partake in varied climate research to gain a full understanding of the breadth of research being undertaken in the Andes and the implications of human activity on this fragile environment.
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Studio Orta - Off the Beaten Path

Off the Beaten Path

20 June 2009 - 09 August 2009
The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Group Exhibition
Norway

In “Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women, and Art,” 17 well-respected artists from 14 countries create new stories through their artwork addressing gender-based violence from a global perspective.“Throughout the world, women and girls are victims of countless and senseless acts of violence. The range of gender-based violence is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb,” explains Randy Jayne Rosenberg, executive director of the non-profit group Art Works for Change (AWFC) and the show’s curator. “The stories that underlie these artworks return us imaginatively to the event of violation and allow it to affect us.”“Off the Beaten Path” utilizes artworks to promote awareness and behavioural choices; inspire the belief that communities can change a culture of violence; empower girls and women with respect to domestic violence, exploitation and discrimination; and address systems for social change. The project combines art with storytelling.
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Studio Orta - HEAVEN 2nd Athens Biennale 2009

HEAVEN 2nd Athens Biennale 2009

15 June 2009 - 04 October 2009
Flisvos Building & P. Faliro Beach, Athens, Group Exhibition
Greece

“Live” curated by Dimitris Papaioannou & Ζafos Xagoraris. Temporary installations form successive theatrical scenes, screens and floating stages, while the spectators and the spectacle interchange, as residents and users of the aquatic limit are invited to attend actively in the configuration of communal spaces. New uses of the spaces are triggered, under the surface of the sea, in the street or in the roofs of neighboring buildings, without impeding the ones already existing.
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Studio Orta - Pot Luck: Food and Art

Pot Luck: Food and Art

22 May 2009 - 26 July 2009
The New Art Gallery Walsall, Group Exhibition
UK

The New Art Gallery Walsall is proud to be the launch venue for a major new touring exhibition 'Pot Luck: Food and Art', produced by Art Circuit'Pot Luck' brings together works by 17 acclaimed international contemporary artists including Damien Hirst, Mona Hatoum, Antony Gormley, Lucy + Jorge Orta and Subodh Gupta, who demonstrate how the use of food in art continues to be re-discovered. With each artist bringing a ‘dish’ to the table, the exhibition will combine personal tastes with the current flavour of our social and political climate. From antiquity to today, food has been a recurring subject matter in the history of art; from early depictions in mythological scenes to those found in religious art of all cultures. Food represents ideas of desire, pleasure, greed, excess, life and death; it is the very substance that sustains life and also takes it away.
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Studio Orta - Dress Code

Dress Code

08 May 2009 - 25 July 2009
Iselp - Brussels, Group Exhibition
Belgium

Clothing, the second skin which personifies the person wearing it, becomes, in certain contexts, the symbol of a socio-cultural identity. In the history of clothing, it has appeared from the beginning as a set of garments that covered the human body to protect it and adorn it. Throughout the history of art, artists have represented clothes essentially in a flat way in various pictorial or ornamental forms. Today, however, clothing has emerged from this two-dimensional representation to establish itself on the artistic stage in its own right. Contemporary artists use clothing as a material, a medium, a symbol and above all as a substitute for the “body” subject. In this way, they invite us to reconsider the so-called established material facts, our way of appearing in order to be. Through this exhibition, we are interested in the codes implied by these pieces of sculptured fabric and the way in which contemporary artists re-use clothes to express a social criticism. Far removed from the world of haute couture, clothes demonstrate here the extent to which the class divide relies on the dress code.
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