Studio Orta

Lucy + Jorge Orta began experimenting sculptural methods to recycle water bottles after visiting the Zabbaleen community, Cairo’s informal garbage collectors who make their living recycling the city’s waste (2009). “Clouds” references not only the physical resemblance to clouds but also the natural water cycle, which is increasingly affected by climate change and pollution. The artists’ research draws a correlation between the lack of water in the world and its privatization and reflects on this paradox in relation to parallel economies and communities that survive on plastic waste, such as the Zabbaleen. “Clouds” also remind us of the islands of plastic that are polluting oceans and destroying marine life. At the same time the cloud is a mega-thermodynamic machine, recycling and distributing water on our planet.