Studio Orta

A suspended meeting place, the sky is the agora of our imagination.

Lucy + Jorge Orta will inaugurate their world-famous artwork Cloud | Meteoros in the city of Lille, Friday September 25 at 7pm. Suspended within the Lille Flandres railway station, the monumental installation will welcome visitors to the new edition of Lille 3000 | Renaissance.

From September 26, 2015 to January 17, 2016, five ethereal clouds will float above the 80,000 people who travel to the city each day. The two clouds initially commissioned for London’s St Pancras International inaugural Terrace Wires, will be joined by three new clouds created specifically for the exhibition Renaissance. The new sculptures feature a winged cherub cast from a local teenager, selected by the Lille 3000 committee.

Meteoros is derived from the ancient Greek, meaning ‘in the midst’. Clouds have long been intercessors between reality and the imagination, between heaven and earth, lightness and gravity. They inhabit the skies of Renaissance fresco paintings, often depicted crowded with laymen and prophets, angels and deities. Throughout history, this celestial vault has been a site of conviviality, of learning and exchange. Like their series 70 x 7 the Meal, which invites people to share a meal in public space, Cloud | Meteoros is a public artwork suspended momentarily, like a breath of fresh air.

For press enquiries contact elsa.urtizverea@lille3000.com