Studio Orta - Solo Show | Untitled Miami

Solo Show | Untitled Miami

06 December 2017 - 10 December 2017
Jane Lombard Gallery - Booth A2
Miami Beach, USA

Studio Orta is happy to announce a solo exhibition by Lucy + Jorge Orta with Jane Lombard Gallery, for UNTITLED at Miami Beach 2017.

Presented in Miami, are different emblematic works by the artists including: OrtaWater, Antarctica and Totipotent Architecture, poetic and operational aesthetic strategies that address systemic functionality: climate change, diminishing resources and forced migration.

These works come together in the physical and conceptual realization of their latest series of large-scale assemblage paintings, Derrame. At the core of the abstract gesture define by these works is an accidental moment that produces distinctive pigments and organic forms; accident is treated as an uncontrolled phenomenon; an event that mirrors the destructive force of natural disasters bolstered by human disregard and the chaos of sociopolitical cataclysms. These underlying fluid compositions find originate in Jorge Orta’s Derrame paintings, begun while living in Rosario, Argentina (1972-1984) during la Guerra Sucia. The Spanish word ‘derrame’ is used in a variety of ways: a leak (escape, loss), cerebral attack (stroke), a spill (waste), and an outpouring (effusion). In this period of state terrorism and censorship, painting became a political act of revolt and an emotional act of frustration.

Gestural paintings, sculptures and performance layered with functionality, design and political engagement compose a new field of reflection, creating lines and symmetries that structure and attempt to control the underlying chaos –derrame– while opening up new horizons. The objects frame and focus the overflow, an irrepressible continuum that hopes to catalyze a cycle of renewal and possibility. 

Press release: Untitled Miami 2017

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Studio Orta - Frieze Projects | Antarctica

Frieze Projects | Antarctica

04 October 2017 - 08 October 2017
Frieze London, Regent’s Park
London, UK

We are happy to annouce the participation in Frieze Projects London with Antarctica World Passport Delivery Bureau, a brand new ‘convoy’ installation composed of customised ex-army trailers, curated by Raphael Gygax.

For a number of years, Lucy + Jorge Orta have been exploring the transformation of surplus military equipment, ‘weapons of war’, into ‘tools for peace’, to infuse them with new meaning. On the mobile passport office, commissioned specifically for Frieze Projects, we find references to the human body in the form of mini-bivouacs, various expedition objects and a bureau from which the passport officers will distribute the Antarctica World Passport. A limited edition of 5,000 passports will be available during Frieze Week from October 4-8. For each passport distributed, the Antarctica World Passport holder is invited to join the no-borders community, which now counts over 19,000 online citizens.

Following their expedition to the Antarctic in 2007, the Antarctica project was launched in 2008, during their survey exhibition at the Hangar Bicocca Milan, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi. Alongside the Antarctic Village, the artists lay down the foundations for the Antarctica World Passport community. 50,000 copies of the passport have been printed to date —the Frieze Projects passport will be the fourth edition.

For Lucy + Jorge Orta, Antarctica’s immaculate ice landscape is a metaphor, a filter for the kaleidoscope that make up our nations and identities, concentrating all the colours into the sum of light and the purity of a hope.

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Studio Orta - Raven Row | London

Raven Row | London

04 June 2017
Raven Row
London, UK

Re-staging of Modular Architecture at Raven Row London

First commissioned by La Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris (1996), Modular Architecture is comprised of four large textile-sculptures – the Dome, the Unit, the Igloo and the Cabin. The iridescent membranes of these elementary architectural structures are adorned with demi-bodies depicted by fragments of clothing: hoods, sleeves, trousers and gloves that can be manipulated and assembled in different configurations, investigating notions of personal and collective space. Over the course of the durational performance at Raven Row, performers exploring the Modular Unit will attempt to dissolve the boundaries between body and architecture.

The performance is choreographed by Nandi Bhebhe and artist Phoebe Davies, with Zinzi Minott, Daniel Brathwaite-Shirley, Sarah Kent, Hamish MacPherson and Darcy Wallace. 

Modular Architecture is a special-event programmed in the context of the group exhibition 56 Artillery Lane from 21 April - 11 June 2017, which also includes three iconic Refuge Wear works from Lucy + Jorge Orta’s archive.

For further information: Raven Row.

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Studio Orta - Raft of the Medusa | Hull

Raft of the Medusa | Hull

29 March 2017 - 17 June 2017
Humber Street Gallery Hull, United Kingdom
Solo Exhibition

As part of Hull UK City of Culture 2017, the exhibition Somewhere Becoming Sea at Humber Street Gallery from 5 April to 17 June 2017, takes a closer look at the ever-changing boundaries between land and sea, exploring Hull’s long-standing prominence as a gateway to the North Sea and beyond. It reflects how expanses of water that divide countries are also channels that connect them. At a time when climate change threatens to blur boundaries further and bring far-reaching economic impact, the exhibition captures the sea’s elemental power and asks: is everywhere now Somewhere Becoming Sea?

In this context, Lucy + Jorge Orta are pleased to present a new installation of the Raft of the Medusa, which takes its historical reference point from the romantic depiction of the shipwreck Le Radeau de la Méduse by Théodore Géricault (1818-1819, Musée du Louvre, Paris). For the artists, the make-shift raft constructed by the crew of the Medusa from wood salvaged from their sinking vessel recounts more than the treacherous voyage of the doomed sailors on board. It is a powerful symbol of the fateful journeys of slaves and migrants throughout history and even more so today, as we play witness to the perilous journeys of the thousands of refugees navigating the oceans in search of a safe haven.

Building on the filmed-performances staged at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2013, and Les Moulins in 2015, Raft of the Medusa at the Humber Street Gallery will become the site of a set of performative sequences that explore the gestures of fragility, helplessness and hope, and which concludes the cycle for the artists’ forthcoming film.

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Studio Orta - SOLO SHOW | GALERIE VALERIE BACH | BRUSSELS

SOLO SHOW | GALERIE VALERIE BACH | BRUSSELS

17 March 2017 - 29 April 2017
Galerie Valérie Bach, Brussels, Belgium

Lucy + Jorge Orta are pleased to present their second solo show at the Galerie Valérie Bach, Brussels.

In this exhibition, two series of works are brought together for the first time, uniting three-dimensional works with paintings in order to shed light on their creative process.

The first section of the exhibition is based on cell —cell of life, cell of habitation— at the core of their thinking. Inspired by cell biology and the process of differentiation, the Totipotent Architecture series is composed of hand-blown glass volumes, which like embryo cells, expand to create new spaces of habitation within the steel architectural silhouettes. The artists go a step further in their exploration of the cellular infinity with the vitrines Cells diptych, creating a new macroscopic life in intricate Murano blown-glass.

The second part of the exhibition, based on Jorge's pictorial work in the 1970s, when painting was one of his ways of escaping the overwhelming Argentina dictatorship. The exhibited works in the Derrame series, explore the idea of the accident as both a violent moment but also as a random, uncontrolled phenomenon. A three-dimensional aspect of this accidental expression appears in their brand-new series Assemblages where found objects superimposed on the pictorial surface seem placed there­ by the necessity of ordering the immaterial in a chorus between abstraction and reality.

 

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Studio Orta - 70 x 7 The Meal | Singapore

70 x 7 The Meal | Singapore

20 January 2017
NTU Center for Contemporary Art, Singapore

Studio Orta is pleased to announce 70 x 7 The Meal, act XL a dinner for 200 guests taking place in Gillman Barracks in Singapore, on the evening of January 20, 2017.

Under the helm of Cities for People, Ideas Fest organised by the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, act 40 of Lucy + Jorge Orta’s ongoing participative artwork 70 x 7 The Meal, draws from the ancestral ritual of dining together, to create a platform for local communities to engage in discussions that explore and connect food initiatives in the local community.

Leading up to the meal, the artists staged a collaborative workshop with Foodscape Collective Singapore to delve into and examine the concerns about food sustainability in the local and global contexts. Interactive discussions sessions with local chefs, bakers, farmers, gardeners, policy makers, activists and artists generated a range of playful and provocative topics on food production, distribution; identity & culture; and giving & sharing, to exchange with the guests attending the meal.

On arrival at the NTU CCA, guests will be assigned a navigation map that leads to 25 ‘islands of knowledge’, in a unique setting designed by the artists to prompt and perpetuate further art-food-sustainability discussions. The menu, prepared by Chef Misso Russell Keith from Open Farm Community, will continue the 70 x 7 ethos of locally sourcing sustainable produce. 

 

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Studio Orta - Food | Peterborough

Food | Peterborough

10 September 2016 - 04 December 2016
City Gallery and Museum, Peterborough, England
Solo Exhibition

The husband-and-wife artist team Lucy + Jorge Orta—who in the past 25 years have explored social and ecological issues—focus on consumer food waste and global food distribution in a major show at the City Gallery and Museum in Peterborough. The exhibition examines the couple’s initiatives linked to the “politics of food”, encompassing the rituals associated with eating together. The Art Newspaper

Two new sculptures form the centre pieces to the show. Bread inspired by 70 x 7 The Meal, which took place in Peterborough Cathedral Square in 2015 and during which hundreds of loaves of bread were baked by local residents and then cast into aluminium. Carried aloft by the traditional wheelbarrows, the humble objects cross cultures and centuries reminding us of the ancestral cycles of sowing, reaping and milling, the hand-sculpting of wood and dough to create unique manifestations of our basic human needs.
Drawing from the artists’ expedition to the Peruvian Amazon in 2009, the installation Seeds is composed of 31 unique larger-than-life Murano glass seed pods framed by a collection of intricate watercolour drawings that make up a metaphorical Seed Bank. The intricate beauty and diversity of our natural world is prevalent in the artists’ act of 'preserving' varieties that may be threatened with extinction.

The exhibition also draws together archival work from All in One Basket (1996) and HortiRecycling Enterprise (1999), alongside the entire collection of limited edition Royal Limoges porcelain from the 70 x 7 The Meal series presented on the bespoke silk-jacquard table runners, woven by local Suffolk weavers.

An extensive program of engagement activities around the politics of food, accompanies the exhibition and can be booked through Metal Peterborough.

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Studio Orta - Spirits | Emscherkunst Triennial | Germany

Spirits | Emscherkunst Triennial | Germany

04 June 2016 - 18 September 2016
Emscher Valley, Ruhr, Germany
Group exhibition

For the third edition of the Emscherkunst Triennial (June 4 - September 18, 2016), Lucy + Jorge Orta launch a major new commission: Spirits of the Emscher Valley. The Triennial spans a 50-Km trail along the river Emscher, criss-crossing natural parklands and post-industrial landscapes, dialoguing with the changing environment in the Ruhr area. 

For the occasion, Lucy + Jorge Orta have installed three "Spirits" at strategic locations to reveal meaningful interpretations regarding the history of the former coal and steel industries. Since 2012, the artists’ "Spirits" interweave between the medium of performance and figurative sculpture, working as metaphors of the locations in which they are performed or installed, and aim to capture the "soul" of the place. The participative approach – at the heart of the artists work – is essential in the process of the sculptural "personification". For Emscherkunst, Lucy + Jorge Orta worked together closely with residents from the Ruhr area, people who have special connections to the locations, prompting story-telling about their communities.

Installed on the shore of the Phoenix lake at Dortmund-Hörde, Totem with Magpie evokes a new generation who will grow up within this industrial metamorphosis while Bird woman is symbolically linking the East and West side of Phoenix formerly joined by a viaduct. At Kokerei Hansa in Dortmund-Huckarde, a coke plant which closed in the '9Os, the Observer, like an oracle, testifies to the transformation of the landscape: Nature is invading and taking possession of the relics of past.

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Studio Orta - Symphony for Absent Wildlife | Leicester

Symphony for Absent Wildlife | Leicester

30 January 2016 - 24 April 2016
Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, UK
Solo Exhibition

The new Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester inaugurates with a solo exhibition of the work of Lucy + Jorge Orta, from January 30 to April 24, 2016. The work on show draws a number of intersecting links between the scarcity of resources, species loss, climate change and migration.

The centre piece to the exhibition is Symphony for Absent Wildlife, first commissioned by the Nuit Blanche Calgary in Canada, has been newly adapted to the gallery setting, to create an immersive audio installation experience. The audience encounters an orchestra of masked creatures sculpted from felt blankets, blowing tiny hand-sculpted bird whistles they grasp within their fragile ceramic hands. The musician’s bird song builds up to a dawn chorus with an abrupt censure, leaving the audience with a sentiment of loss.

Unfolding in further galleries are sculpture from the series Life Line, Life Guard and Amazonia that weave a visual narrative, tackling issues of survival, and although many of the works were conceived over ten years ago, they are even more timely in view of recent events.
Objects, vitrines and drawings derived from the artists 2009 expedition to the Peruvian Amazon, recount an oasis of diversity in a state of crisis. At the same time, they restore our focus to the world around us, the beauty of the millions of species both locally and globally that depend on the Amazon for their survival, and to the natural cycles of life and death.

Please join us for the opening in Leicester on January 29, from 6 to 9pm. 

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Studio Orta - Inaugural show | Jane Lombard Gallery NY

Inaugural show | Jane Lombard Gallery NY

14 January 2016 - 20 February 2016
Jane Lombard Gallery, New York, USA
Solo exhibition

Lucy + Jorge Orta are really pleased to announce their first solo exhibition in New York City at the international reputed Jane Lombard Gallery. From January 14 to February 20, the artists will present Antarctica, with the most representative artworks from this series.  

Along side the signature Dome Dwelling from the ephemeral Antarctic Village installed in Antarctic in 2007 are, Life Line and Drop Parachute as well as numerous watercolour drawings inspired by the artists’ extraordinary expedition.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is Antarctic World Passport Delivery Bureau, a mobile installation recently at the Grand Palais in Paris during the COP21 UN Climate Summit. Visitors to the Antarctica World Passport Delivery Bureau, an architectural assemblage made from reclaimed materials, receive a uniquely numbered Antarctica World Passport and in exchange, pledge to support the project’s principles: to take action against the disastrous effects of global warming and strive for peace.

Since 2008, 55,000 passports have been printed, and visitors to Lucy + Jorge Orta’s exhibition at the Jane Lombard Gallery will be invited to register for their personalized passport edition, and to join this growing community of world citizens. www.antarcticaworldpassport.com

Please join us for the opening in NYC on January 14, from 6 to 8pm.

 

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Studio Orta - COP21 - Antarctica in the Grand Palais | Paris

COP21 - Antarctica in the Grand Palais | Paris

04 December 2015 - 10 December 2015
Grand Palais, Paris, France
Public Art Work

Uniting world citizens: join the Antarctica World Passport community.

Lucy + Jorge Orta are pleased to announce their participation in the COP21 UN Climate Summit, with the public work Antarctica World Passport Delivery Bureau, which will be installed inside Paris’s iconic Grand Palais, as part of the ArtCOP21 Climate Festival of the Arts.

The Antarctica World Passport project highlights the urgent need to consider the human dignity of people suffering as a consequence of climate change. Tens of thousands of citizens around the world have already pledged their support and signed up for an Antarctica World Passport. During COP21, from 4 to 10 December 2015, thousands more passports will be delivered to visitors attending the Solutions21 exhibition in Paris. Antarctica World Passports will be issued to any individual who wishes to become a member of a world community without borders in exchange for an agreement to protect the environment, respect mankind, and fight for peace.

Antarctica World Passport is part of a much larger research project by Lucy + Jorge Orta, which resulted from their expedition to Antarctica in 2007. Antarctica’s immaculate and peaceful ice landscape has become a powerful symbol of global warming. Geographic transformations and displacement of communities induced by climate change, especially along costal zones or in desert regions are redefining our local and global borders. Climate Change crosses all borders and is affecting every region of the world, without distinction. Faced with this global phenomenon our reaction can also be united without borders. Please join us at the Grand Palais, or online www.antarcticaworldpassport.com

As part of the Conference of Creative Parties, on 6 December at 5pm, ArtCOP21 and COAL invite you to join them at the Gaité lyrique in Paris, for a face-to-face with Lucy + Jorge Orta, moderated by journalist Lydia Ben Yitzhak.

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Studio Orta - Antarctica | Vienna Art Week

Antarctica | Vienna Art Week

17 November 2015 - 10 January 2016
Kunst Haus, Group Exhibition
Wien, Austria

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.

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Studio Orta - OrtaWater | Karlsruhe

OrtaWater | Karlsruhe

31 October 2015 - 28 February 2016
ZKM , Group Exhibition
Germany

Lucy + Jorge Orta are really pleased to announce their participation to Global:Exo-Evolution, a group exhibition co-curated by Peter Weibel, Sabiha Keyif, Philipp Ziegler and Giulia Bini, at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, from October 31, 2015 to February 28, 2016.

Exo-Evolution focuses on the entanglement of art and science, and the artistic use of new technologies that offer a vision of the future. A new reality, shaped by 3-D printers cyborgs, chimeras, gene pools, wearable technologies, synthetic life forms, bionic suits, silicon retinas, artificial tissue, genetic manipulation and quantum physics; is set along along-side solutions such as separating oxygen from CO2 to combat pollution.

Within this context, Lucy + Jorge Orta present Zillie Fluvial Intervention Unit, an immense floating 'water-bar' that displays hundreds of commercial water bottles from around the world. This work raises questions surrounding the privatization and corporate control that affects universal access to water. The fluvial unit is part of the series OrtaWater, which explores through a combination of sculptural experimentation and scientific collaboration, the scarcity of this natural resource, its pollution, the purification processes and methods of re-distribution.

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Studio Orta - Meteoros - Premiers in France

Meteoros - Premiers in France

26 September 2015 - 17 January 2016
Gare Lille Flandres, Public Art work
France

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

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Studio Orta - Food Water Life | Last Stop Canada!

Food Water Life | Last Stop Canada!

29 August 2015 - 06 December 2015
Museum London, Ontario, Solo exhibition
Canada

After touring the USA, the Museum London, Ontario welcomes the triptych Food Water Life from August 29 to December 6, 2015. This final stop of the exhibition presents three major bodies of work that span close to two decades of collaborative work by Lucy + Jorge Orta. Through sculptures, drawings, installations, and video the artists explore major concerns that define the twenty-first century: biodiversity, environmental sustainability, climate change, and the social economy.

As heirs to the practice of social sculpture, formulated by the German artist and activist Joseph Beuys in the 1960s, the Orta’s works are relics of their own function—captivating assemblages such as the Processing Units and the Purification Factory are, respectively, a platform for the preparation of food and a mechanism to purify water. Other sculptures created as the result of the 2007 expedition to Antarctica, form part of a global effort to amend the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The featured works are metaphors-in-action, imaginative constructions that perform the tasks of which they are emblematic.

Food Water Life was initiated by the Tufts University Art Gallery in 2012, and is curated by curatorsquared. The exhibition toured to the Richard E. Peeler Art Center; Ben Maltz Gallery; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art; Zilkha Gallery.

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Studio Orta - Biennale de Venezia | Glasstress Gotika

Biennale de Venezia | Glasstress Gotika

09 May 2015 - 22 November 2015
Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, International Art Exhibition
Italy

Following their participation in Glasstress 2013, Lucy + Jorge Orta are delighted to announce their participation in Glasstress 2015 Gotika, a collateral exhibition that will take place at the Palazzo Franchetti, Academia for the 56th Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

The exhibition, lead by the State Hermitage Museum and Berengo Studio, explores how medieval ideas and communication methods have imperceptibly crept into our modern conscience despite our technological advances and how the Gothic concept influences contemporary art. Glasstress 2015 Gotika will combine historical works from the Hermitage collection and newly commissioned art works in glass, all with a Gothic theme.

Commissioned for the exhibition, Lucy + Jorge Orta’s sculpture Arboreal, is an imposing bronze cast from a fallen tree-trunk from which, four exquisite glass seed pods are blossoming. The contrast between the dark patina of the bronze and the ethereal quality of the delicate hand-blown Murano glass, speak of the resilience of nature to overcome the most barren environments.

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Studio Orta - Milan Expo inaugural event | Fabulae Naturae

Milan Expo inaugural event | Fabulae Naturae

02 May 2015
Ermenegildo Zegna global headquarters, Milan, Performance event
Italy

On May 2nd, ZegnArt celebrated the opening of Expo Milan 2015. For the occasion, Lucy + Jorge Orta were commissioned to create a series of monumental wall murals for the Ermenegildo Zegna global headquarters, forming a stunning backdrop to the performance Symphony of Absent Wildlife and Act XXXVII of their artist dinners, 70 x 7 The Meal. The exhibition Fabulae Naturae curated by Maria Luisa Frisa, will be open to the public on May 10th, 24th and 31st.

The artists transformed the remarkable architecture designed by Antonio Citterio into a forest of immense floral murals reminiscent of the Oasi Zegna. The larger-than-life murals were inspired by the artists’ research undertaken in the Heberlein Fund, a vast printed textile collection conserved by the Zegna Archive. At the centerpiece of the setting is a life-size tree floor drawing, whose branches lead visitors to thefood stations, where the famous chef Davide Oldani served a menu of sustainable delicacies. Choosing timely convivial moments to discuss sustainable issues, Lucy + Jorge Orta have created a limited edition of Royal Limoges porcelain, to provoke debates between guests, and to support the restoration of the Punta Mesco area in Italy. For each artwork sold a row of vines will be planted, bearing the name of each «owner».

For Fabulae Naturae, Lucy + Jorge Orta create a true ode to wildlife. Along side the immense kaleidoscope of murals, the artists staged Symphony for Absent Wildlife, a visual and audio installation, to intensify the feeling of stepping into a fairy tale world, inhabited by fictional creatures of the forest. The three-dimensional sound-scape is conceived as a dichotomy between a ‘false’ orchestra of flutists acting in a symphony for nature and a ‘true’ orchestra consisting of bird whistles. Each musician wears a tailcoat and mask, in the form of a woodland creature tailored from reclaimed felt blankets.

Fabulae Naturae is a new episode of the art and food performances that Lucy + Jorge Orta have presented in cities around the world since 1997, in which they connect art, nutrition and ethical themes. Watch the video clip.

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Studio Orta - LATEST FOOD WATER LIFE - USA TOUR

LATEST FOOD WATER LIFE - USA TOUR

05 February 2015 - 07 May 2015
Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, Solo Exhibition
USA

After the resounding success of the exhibition Food Water Life at the Parc de la Villette in Paris during summer 2014, the Richard E.Peeler Art Center at DePauw University inaugurates Lucy + Jorge Orta’s US touring exhibition Food Water Life on February 5th 2015. The exhibition presents three bodies of work that span close to two decades of collaborative work. Through sculptures, drawings, installations, and video the artists explore major concerns that define the twenty-first century: biodiversity, environmental sustainability, climate change, and social economy.

As heirs to the practice of social sculpture, formulated by the German artist and activist Joseph Beuys in the 1960s, the Ortas’ works are relics of their own function—captivating assemblages such as the Processing Units and the Purification Factory are, respectively, a platform for the preparation of food and a mechanism to purify water. Other sculpture created for a 2007 expedition to Antarctica, form part of a global effort to amend the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The featured works are metaphors-in-action, imaginative constructions that perform the tasks of which they are emblematic.

Food Water Life was initiated by the Tufts University Art Gallery in September 2012, and is curated by curatorsquared.
The final leg of the tour will conclude at London Museum in Ontario, Canada from August 29 – December 6, 2015.

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Studio Orta - LENS ON LIFE | ART MEETS SCIENCE IN LONDON

LENS ON LIFE | ART MEETS SCIENCE IN LONDON

20 January 2015 - 27 February 2015
Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, London, Group exhibition
United Kingdom

Following the exhibition Lens on life which took place in July 2014 at Federica Schiavo Gallery in Rome, Lucy + Jorge Orta’s Cells Diptych is displayed at Lethaby Gallery Central Saint Martins in London from January 20 to February 27, 2015. Marina Wallace, Professor at the University of the Arts London and curator of this exhibition, initiated a series of conversations between artists and scientists. Lens On Life is a project strongly rooted within the field of art and science. Each collaboration intends to portray through contemporary art, a unique interpretation of mitosis, one of the fundamental mechanisms of human life.

Since 2013 Lucy + Jorge Orta have been in discussion with Professor Tony Hyman, eminent mitosis scientist at the Max Plank institute of research in Dresden. Cells Diptych is the result of their encounter with the genetic transformation of the immensely complex structures within human cells. Through dreamy watercolour drawings and colourful, intricate Murano glass sculptures, the artists poetically explore cellular communication, transformation and division.

An important part of the exhibition is the documentary video Meetings of Minds, recording the fascinating process of the collaboration between the artists and scientists.

The exhibition will conclude its European tour at Heidelberg University Museum, from 16th March to 28th April 2015.

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Studio Orta - FOOD WATER LIFE | West Coast, USA

FOOD WATER LIFE | West Coast, USA

25 October 2014 - 06 December 2014
Ben Maltz Gallery – Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, Solo exhibition, lectures and public conversation
USA

The Ben Maltz Gallery in Los Angeles presents Food Water Life Lucy + Jorge Orta's first major exhibition on the West Coast (August 16–December 6, 2014). The artists will be in the Los Angeles gallery to sign their book, which accompanies the exhibition, on Saturday October 25, 3-6pm.

The exhibition presents three bodies of work that span close to two decades of their collaborative work. Through sculptures, drawings, video and installations the artists explore major concerns that define the twenty-first century: biodiversity, environmental sustainability and climate change.

As heirs to the practice of social sculpture, formulated by the German artist and activist Joseph Beuys in the 1960s, the Orta’s works are relics of their own function—captivating assemblages such as the Mexican Kitchen, and the Fluvial Intervention Units are respectively, a platform for the preparation of food and mechanisms to purify water. Other sculptures, including the diptych video projection Antarctica were created for a 2007 expedition to the Antarctic that forms part of an effort to amend the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The featured works are metaphors-in-action, constructions that perform the tasks of which they are emblematic.

This exhibition, curated by curatorsquared and organized by Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA, tours to the Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, USA (February 5–May 7, 2015) and the London Museum, Ontario, Canada (August 29–December 6, 2015)

Key dates to meet the artists and the curators.

Tuesday October 21, 11:15am Public lecture Otis College of Art & Design, 9045 Lincoln Boulevard, LA 90045
Thursday October 23, 10am Public lecture Otis Graduate Studios, 10455 Jefferson Blvd, Culver City 90230. Map

In conversation with curators Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox, followed by a book signing and reception
Saturday October 25, 3-6pm Ben Malz Gallery, 10455 Jefferson Blvd, Culver City 90230. Map

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