Symphony for Absent Wildlife

Studio Orta - 7021
Studio Orta - 7021
Studio Orta - 7021
Studio Orta - 7021
Studio Orta - 7021
Studio Orta - 7021
Studio Orta - 7021
Studio Orta - 7021

Date: 2015
Materials: Symphony for Absent Wildlife performance, wall drawings, three-dimensional audio immersion
Dimensions: Site specific
Catalogued: Fabulae Naturae. Milan, Marsilio 2015
Exhibition history: 2015, ZegnArt, Ermenegildo Zegna global headquarters, Milan, Italy
Courtesy: Lucy + Jorge Orta and ZegnArt. Photography Paul Bevan

'Fabuale Naturae' is the title of a multi-sensory experience immagined by  Lucy + Jorge Orta, as a special commission by ZegnArt, for the Milan Expo 2015. The artists transformed the architecture of the Ermengildo Zegna global headquarters, designed by Antonio Citterio, into a forest setting with a kaleidoscope of  wall drawing  wrapped around the building. Within this botanical setting was a new staging of the performance Symphony for Absent Wildlife. To intensify the feeling of stepping into a fairy tale world inhabited by fictional creatures of the forest, each performer wears a felt tailcoat and sculptured mask of a woodland creature. The three-dimensional sound-scape of the orchestra is conceived as a dichotomy between a ‘false’ flute orchestra acting out a dawn chorus and a ‘true’ orchestra consisting of hand-made wooden bird whistles.