Studio Orta

If you happen to be in the Austrian capital for Vienna Art Week, this is your chance to view a fragment of the Antarctic Village in Creating Common Good at the Kunst Haus Wien, from November 17, 2015 to January 10, 2016.

Curated by Robert Punkenhofer and Ursula Maria Probst, the exhibition explores the notion of “common good” – sharing of natural resources, public space and services – lending further urgency to the call for a new public awareness of the notion of commons. Tackling a range of topics from alternative microsystems, gentrification processes and the migration crisis; to criticism of budgetary cuts in education and culture, artists including, Atelier Van Lieshout, Joseph Beuys, Ramesch Daha, Leon Golub, Tamara Grcic, Teresa Margolles, Martha Rosler and Lucy + Jorge Orta, question the creation and use of resources, they suggest alternatives to the established order, and hold themselves to the ethical task of shaping society.

Lucy + Jorge Orta’s Antarctic Village - Dome Dwelling, originally installed across the Antarctic continent in 2007, calls into question issues relating to the environment, politics, autonomy, habitat, mobility and relationships among peoples. Each tent-dwelling, hand stitched with flags from countries around the world, along with extensions of clothes and gloves, is silkscreen printed with a new Article (13.3) for the UN Declaration for Human Rights. Since the wake of the unprecedented migration crisis, and the increasing displacement of communities due to global warming, the Antarctica project is a powerful reminder of the necessity to redefine common good.