Antarctica World Passport Office

Studio Orta - 5079.02
Studio Orta - 5079.02
Studio Orta - 5079

Date: 2020 - 2012
Ref: 5079
Materials: Bureau construction in reclaimed materials, chair, desk, vintage military canteens, various objects, Antarctica flag, Antarctica World Passports, passport stamps, ink pads
Dimensions: 100 x 330 x 280h cm
Exhibition history: 2021 Diversity United: Berlin, Moscow; 2019 Biennale Verne Volume, France; 2018 Musée de la Chasse et Nature, Paris, France; Forum Météo, Hôtel de Ville Paris, France; 2017 CCK, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 2014 Pa
Courtesy: Lucy + Jorge Orta

Antarctica World Passport forms part of the Lucy + Jorge Orta's research project 'Antarctica', which explores topics relating to the environment, politics, autonomy, habitat, mobility and relationships among peoples. For the artists, Antarctica represents Utopia: a continent whose extreme climate imposes mutual aid and solidarity, to research and collaborate together. The immaculate ice landscape is a filter for the kaleidoscope that make up our nations and multi-ethnic identities, concentrating the colours, races and creeds into the sum of light, and the purity of Hope.

The Antarctica World Passport project was first presented at the artists' survey exhibition at the Pirelli Hangar Bicocca in Milan (2008). The passport bureau structures exist in different formats constructed with reclaimed wood and found objects including boats, water recipients, suitcases, toys, that tower and bulge over rudimentary structures synonymous with the shanty town and border crossings that artists have traversed in some of remotest corners of the planet. The distribution of passports editions are activated for each location.

This passport office has been adapted from a work originally commissioned for the exhibition 'Unlimited Bodies' (2012) at Palais d'Iéna, headquarters of the Conseil économique, social et environnemental, third constitutional Assembly of the French Republic.