Connector IV - Bunt City

Studio Orta - 0704.jpg

Date: 2001
Ref: 0704
Matériaux: Collage, silkscreen print
Dimensions: 100 x 50cm
Catalogued: p62 Lucy Orta, Phaidon Press UK 2003
Exhibition history: 2001 Contemporary Art Museum, University of South Florida, USA
Courtesy: Lucy + Jorge Orta. Collection of Contemporary Art Museum, University of South Florida, USA

"In the Connector workshops I hope to discover a remarkable idea from the most unexpected situation, hidden in an accumulation of creative doodles or discussions, an idea that astonishes and that can eventually metamorphose into a pertinent form. Connector - Bunt City blossomed out of the encounter with some very special children at Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa, Florida during my residency there in 2001. Being unsure of the children's ages and situation prior to meeting them, I was worried about how I was going to stimulate their creativity. As it so happened they got excited about the 'Protocol C-1300', which is the technical name I gave the zipper connection that establishes the vital link between the personal unit and the existing Connector infrastructure. Bunt City became the name for the childrens' ideal community, built on complex social exchange and hierarchical systems, posing a challenge to the utopian Plug In City. The childrens' fantasy imagination revealed a much deeper reading of their community. In the same way that Archigram’s projects acted as an alarm bell and a criticism of 60’s society, Bunt City is a metaphor for the desperate social poverty that the children are trapped in, and more generally, the gradual dislocation of poor urban communities from the mainstream, across the US." Lucy Orta in conversation with Jade Dellinger, 2001-2003.