Lucy Orta
REFUGE WEAR
In 1992, Lucy Orta began making a series of drawings entitled Refuge Wear as a response to situations of human distress and unsuitable social environments. She then fabricated a series of these temporary shelters that transformed into items of clothing and transport bags and gave them the generic term Body Architecture. The first in the series was named Habitent: a portable habitat catering for minimum personal comfort and mobility for the inhabitant. Further Refuge Wear prototypes were fabricated as personal environments in response to social condition and could convert according to need, necessity or urgency. Refuge Wear became synonymous for clothes and shelter in extreme conditions; they provided vital mobility and waterproof shelter for the Kurd refugee population; temporary protection and shelter for natural disasters such as the Kobe earthquake; mobile sleeping bags for the homeless; and immediate practical aids such as water reserves, integrated medical supplies and burial bags in an attempt to ameliorate the horrific hygiene problems of the Rwanda crisis (1994/95).
CITY INTERVENTION
As Paul Virilio has so often pointed out, the industrialisation of vision in the modern world had led us to the over proliferation and dominance of images within our society. To be homeless in a media culture such as ours is therefore to be rendered invisible; to melt literally into the margins and framework of the city. "Out of sight, out of mind" is an English saying that holds some credence here, an aphorism that has a more pertinent meaning to those disenfranchised members of society who fall through this gap. The Refuge Wear city appearances that I staged from 1993 challenged that act of social disappearance, by rendering the invisible, visible once more. Squats, railway stations, housing estatesÉ became the arena for simultaneous "Interventions" that were recorded for French and British television. They were the first public appearance of Refuge Wear and this on going practice has become primordial to my research and contact with reality.
BODY ARCHITECTURE
By 1994, she had moved from individual isolation to the concern of the collective and started to construct "Collective Wear". While the appearance of Collective Wear was protective, hinting at physical and psychological refuge within a larger protective enclosure, somewhat high-tech and at times nearly science-fiction, the Domes and tent-like structures sought to promote the opposite of individual isolation. And as Paul Virilio commented; "The precarious nature of society is no longer that of the unemployed or the abandoned, but that of individuals socially alone. In the proximate vicinity our families are falling apart"É"Ones individual life depends on the warmth of the other. The warmth of one gives warmth to the other. The physical link weaves the social link." (Refuge Wear, editions Jean Michel Place1996)
NEXUS ARCHITECTURE
Nexus Architecture (Collective Wear ) is the most emblematic of Lucy Orta's ongoing projects. More symbolic than potentially "useful", it is made up of outfits that superficially resemble white, head-to-toe costumes worn by Greenpeace activists during anti-nuclear protests. Participants are linked together by detachable "umbilical" structures and the garment can be worn, hypothetically, by hundreds or thousands of people joined together in a row (over one hundred people have been linked together in Europe, South Africa, the U.S.A., Mexico, Bolivia and elsewhere). Nexus Architecture is worn in parades and marches "Interventions" that demonstrate solidarity, not to any particular cause, but poetically. Solidarity "in and for itself". Collective Wear is a manifestation of the philosophy behind the artist's entire practice because it simply recognises the interdependency of all people in society. The generic term being, "Nexus Architecture" (Nexus : a link or a tie, a linked series or group). The tubes of fabric that connect by zipper from one person's stomach to another's back represent, quite literally, the "Social Link".
COLECTIVE DWELLING
Lucy Orta, who began her own career on the street, making temporary/emergency shelters, later worked with members of a homeless shelter and discovered that most of these people were not ready to express themselves in public Ñ they, like Acconci, were not yet ready for the "street". Orta has always thought of clothing as an intimate expression of personality and identityÊ; from her discussions with these homeless people she learned that after many of the traumatic and alienating circumstances that they had lived through, their own senses of identity were fragile and their relationships to their bodies uncomfortable. Thus began a series of workshops Ñ actions Ñ focusing on identity, the body and ideas of home.
MODULAR ARCHITECTURE
Lucy Orta's Modular Architecture consists of temporary, portable dwellings made up of sections, panels or "units" that can be combined and recombined to make a number of different forms. A version of the structures created with children and students during the Dwelling Workshops, Orta's own constructions mix the solidarity principle of Collective Wear with the prototype function of Refuge Wear. For example : four men and women may travel separately during the day, each wrapped in a waterproof, insulated, hooded body-suit made of aluminium-coated polyamide, in which myriad pockets store water, food and medicine. At night, these four people meet in a designated area Ñ or by chance Ñ and, after removing their body-suits, they zip them all together to make a roomy, warm four-person tent. Hoods dangle at odd angles from the tent's peak, empty "legs" are pegged to the ground. The next day or during the night, after everyone has slept, they unzip the tent and climb into their bodysuits to continue their travelling. Later they meet again or meet with other people and the same tent, or another, is reconstructed.
LIFE NEXUS VILLAGE
The Life Nexus Village Fête is an evolving architectural and social configuration based on a network of connective domes and a series of orchestrated community workshops. Taking the form from the traditional village fête, this relational sculpture brings diverse sectors of a the community into dialogue. The installation is composed of a "Primary Structure" in the form of silkscreen printed aluminium coated Domes and node-like Foyers with Nexus extensions that interconnect. The Domes transform into temporary awnings for individual fête side shows with room for 2/3 persons and folding tables or plinths. The Foyer is the central architectural axis with a hexagonal geometry, a transitional space equiped with seating arrangements (Tapis Nomade) for community workshops. It serves as a meeting place, a forum for creative activity and a structural axis from which further Domes radiate.
70 X 7 THE MEAL
70 X 7 The Meal Act III, Kunstraum Innsbruck 2000 70 x 7 The Meal, is the third act in a series of actions that bring the community together via the ritual of a meal thus creating links and engaging the lives of the broader community. 70 x 7 is taken from the biblical signification meaning infinite. The idea is to transform the symbol into reality by organising a meal for an infinite number of people and the number 7 is a pretext to create a series of encounters; 7, 14, 21Sÿ The work 70 x 7 act III, consists of 490 dinner plates manufactured for the occasion by Royal Limoges Porcelain and a 70 metre table cloth. The Kunstraum then coordinated a series of meals for multiples of seven guests, using surplus fresh produce collected from the local organic farmers. To perpetuate the meal and initiate new dialogues a limited edition of 70 wooden cases were fabricated by an Innsbruck carpenter to hold 7 of the porcelain plates and a 3 metre hand silkscreen printed tablecloth.
CONNECTOR
The Connector is architectural infrastructure for a modular social space, an open network for individuals to attach and detach at will. As the Connectors enlarge by Sector, the village expands ready to welcome an unlimited amount of inhabitants throughout the world. This infrastructure forms the basis of a mobile village, an architecture that is permanently evolving based on independence and interdependence. The transformable Units represent the individual and his needs and the Axis allows the group to evolve, modulate and communicate with other groups. The architectural configurations either; pre-determined, intimate, collective or open, underline the notion of choice for the individual who is are at free will to integrate and leave the network.
VEHICONNECTORS
It’s a shock when you are reminded that just 14% of the world population are using 80% of the world resources. For the exhbition courageously curated by Roberto Pinto in Trieste during the G8 environment summit, I fabricated 2 Vehiconnectors. I chose Red Cross field ambulances because I’m particularly interested transforming the military stigma into civilian survival units, and I hope to fabricate a new type of “survival convoy”. We parked the ambulances just outside the official conference building of the G8 summit. Here, I was able to confront the system. On one facade; food surplus, mad cows and recycling; and on the other: a fragment of boat people, lack of drinking water and the Rwanda refugee plight.
ARBOR VITAE
The Refuge Wear and Nexus Architecture interventions I have carried out over the last eight years challenge the notion of community and exchange and have transformed the traditional form of public art from the passive disposition of objects, functional design, or conceptually appropriate thematic works, to social intervention. Bearing in mind my current research into community intervention and co-creation I invited the Talke community (Staffordshire) and local industries to help me build the Talke family tree. Arbor Vitae.
The Arbor vitae is a tier trellis structure built out of the memory and community identity. The foliage is composed of personal belongings donated by the each member of the community: photographs, household objects, items of clothing… mementoes that are important to each inhabitant. The tree sculpture manifests the history of the community as it evolves. The accumulation of objects, mementoes are transformed and hung from the metal frame structure. Each branch holds a black and white bone china heart, a limited edition of 100 donated Royal Doulton, UK. The heart has become a symbol of convergence for a series of creative collaborations that highlight different industries in decline and the power of the craftsmen in the community.
OPERA.tion LIFE NEXUS - an evolving opera
Jorge Orta began this mixed media work in 1996 and it will evolve and grow in length until 2006. Based on interdiciplinary collaborations, 3 generations of artists are invited create a module for the open-ended composition : music scores, dance sequences, sculpture, light and video projections… The federating theme is the heart = Life, the creative idiom from both an symbolic and Human perspective. Its complex mythology renders the symbol poetic. The Babylonians designated the heart the center of intelligence and memory. For the Egyptians it represented the terrestrial support for the soul. Hypocrite refer to the heart as the intelligence organ. Plato believed the heart was the center of feelings and passion. For Aristotle the heart transformed food into blood and was the emotional centre. Its universal nature helps to converge cultural, social, religious differences and from a scientific angle it exposes a new vision of a medical problem.
OPERA.tion is a locus for debate to address the sensitive subject of life saving organ donation ; thousands of people are on a waiting list for organ donations. As we enter the millenium, frenzied individualism has left society without hearts and heart !
The opera comes in a kit format and adapts to all venues. Crate sculptures facilitate the transport, preserve the archive of resulting collaborations : objects, music scores, video and photographic works, CD Roms, silkscreen prints, visual poetry, paintings, Body Architectures…, are stored in the wooden crates, which in turn are labeled and stamped with the origin of the multiple actions throughout the world.
List of performances
Opéra.tion Life Nexus, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln, September 2001
Music composition - Markus & Simon Stockhausen with Barre Bouman & Thomas Oesterdiekhoff (D) 35’ composition
Choreographer – Annamirl van der Pluijm (B) with 50 dancers
Opéra.tion Life Nexus, Zocolo Square Mexico city, March 2001
Music composition - Pierre Henry (Fr) 40’ composition
Light installations - Jorge Orta
Opéra.tion Life Nexus, Larueforaine circus Paris, October 2000
Music composition - C.O. Caspar (D)• Kasper Toeplitz (Fr)• Marina Rosenfeld (USA) 20’ compositions
Chorographic instances - Paco Dècina + Compagnie (Fr, It) • Blanca Li (Fr, Esp), François Chat (Fr)
Sculpture and installation - Lucy + Jorge Orta (Fr, GB, Arg)
Lucy Orta | Jorge Orta | Life Nexus | Escuela 21 | Éditions
nous rejoindre
In 1992, Lucy Orta began making a series of drawings entitled Refuge Wear as a response to situations of human distress and unsuitable social environments. She then fabricated a series of these temporary shelters that transformed into items of clothing and transport bags and gave them the generic term Body Architecture. The first in the series was named Habitent: a portable habitat catering for minimum personal comfort and mobility for the inhabitant. Further Refuge Wear prototypes were fabricated as personal environments in response to social condition and could convert according to need, necessity or urgency. Refuge Wear became synonymous for clothes and shelter in extreme conditions; they provided vital mobility and waterproof shelter for the Kurd refugee population; temporary protection and shelter for natural disasters such as the Kobe earthquake; mobile sleeping bags for the homeless; and immediate practical aids such as water reserves, integrated medical supplies and burial bags in an attempt to ameliorate the horrific hygiene problems of the Rwanda crisis (1994/95).
CITY INTERVENTION
As Paul Virilio has so often pointed out, the industrialisation of vision in the modern world had led us to the over proliferation and dominance of images within our society. To be homeless in a media culture such as ours is therefore to be rendered invisible; to melt literally into the margins and framework of the city. "Out of sight, out of mind" is an English saying that holds some credence here, an aphorism that has a more pertinent meaning to those disenfranchised members of society who fall through this gap. The Refuge Wear city appearances that I staged from 1993 challenged that act of social disappearance, by rendering the invisible, visible once more. Squats, railway stations, housing estatesÉ became the arena for simultaneous "Interventions" that were recorded for French and British television. They were the first public appearance of Refuge Wear and this on going practice has become primordial to my research and contact with reality.
BODY ARCHITECTURE
By 1994, she had moved from individual isolation to the concern of the collective and started to construct "Collective Wear". While the appearance of Collective Wear was protective, hinting at physical and psychological refuge within a larger protective enclosure, somewhat high-tech and at times nearly science-fiction, the Domes and tent-like structures sought to promote the opposite of individual isolation. And as Paul Virilio commented; "The precarious nature of society is no longer that of the unemployed or the abandoned, but that of individuals socially alone. In the proximate vicinity our families are falling apart"É"Ones individual life depends on the warmth of the other. The warmth of one gives warmth to the other. The physical link weaves the social link." (Refuge Wear, editions Jean Michel Place1996)
NEXUS ARCHITECTURE
Nexus Architecture (Collective Wear ) is the most emblematic of Lucy Orta's ongoing projects. More symbolic than potentially "useful", it is made up of outfits that superficially resemble white, head-to-toe costumes worn by Greenpeace activists during anti-nuclear protests. Participants are linked together by detachable "umbilical" structures and the garment can be worn, hypothetically, by hundreds or thousands of people joined together in a row (over one hundred people have been linked together in Europe, South Africa, the U.S.A., Mexico, Bolivia and elsewhere). Nexus Architecture is worn in parades and marches "Interventions" that demonstrate solidarity, not to any particular cause, but poetically. Solidarity "in and for itself". Collective Wear is a manifestation of the philosophy behind the artist's entire practice because it simply recognises the interdependency of all people in society. The generic term being, "Nexus Architecture" (Nexus : a link or a tie, a linked series or group). The tubes of fabric that connect by zipper from one person's stomach to another's back represent, quite literally, the "Social Link".
COLECTIVE DWELLING
Lucy Orta, who began her own career on the street, making temporary/emergency shelters, later worked with members of a homeless shelter and discovered that most of these people were not ready to express themselves in public Ñ they, like Acconci, were not yet ready for the "street". Orta has always thought of clothing as an intimate expression of personality and identityÊ; from her discussions with these homeless people she learned that after many of the traumatic and alienating circumstances that they had lived through, their own senses of identity were fragile and their relationships to their bodies uncomfortable. Thus began a series of workshops Ñ actions Ñ focusing on identity, the body and ideas of home.
MODULAR ARCHITECTURE
Lucy Orta's Modular Architecture consists of temporary, portable dwellings made up of sections, panels or "units" that can be combined and recombined to make a number of different forms. A version of the structures created with children and students during the Dwelling Workshops, Orta's own constructions mix the solidarity principle of Collective Wear with the prototype function of Refuge Wear. For example : four men and women may travel separately during the day, each wrapped in a waterproof, insulated, hooded body-suit made of aluminium-coated polyamide, in which myriad pockets store water, food and medicine. At night, these four people meet in a designated area Ñ or by chance Ñ and, after removing their body-suits, they zip them all together to make a roomy, warm four-person tent. Hoods dangle at odd angles from the tent's peak, empty "legs" are pegged to the ground. The next day or during the night, after everyone has slept, they unzip the tent and climb into their bodysuits to continue their travelling. Later they meet again or meet with other people and the same tent, or another, is reconstructed.
LIFE NEXUS VILLAGE
The Life Nexus Village Fête is an evolving architectural and social configuration based on a network of connective domes and a series of orchestrated community workshops. Taking the form from the traditional village fête, this relational sculpture brings diverse sectors of a the community into dialogue. The installation is composed of a "Primary Structure" in the form of silkscreen printed aluminium coated Domes and node-like Foyers with Nexus extensions that interconnect. The Domes transform into temporary awnings for individual fête side shows with room for 2/3 persons and folding tables or plinths. The Foyer is the central architectural axis with a hexagonal geometry, a transitional space equiped with seating arrangements (Tapis Nomade) for community workshops. It serves as a meeting place, a forum for creative activity and a structural axis from which further Domes radiate.
70 X 7 THE MEAL
70 X 7 The Meal Act III, Kunstraum Innsbruck 2000 70 x 7 The Meal, is the third act in a series of actions that bring the community together via the ritual of a meal thus creating links and engaging the lives of the broader community. 70 x 7 is taken from the biblical signification meaning infinite. The idea is to transform the symbol into reality by organising a meal for an infinite number of people and the number 7 is a pretext to create a series of encounters; 7, 14, 21Sÿ The work 70 x 7 act III, consists of 490 dinner plates manufactured for the occasion by Royal Limoges Porcelain and a 70 metre table cloth. The Kunstraum then coordinated a series of meals for multiples of seven guests, using surplus fresh produce collected from the local organic farmers. To perpetuate the meal and initiate new dialogues a limited edition of 70 wooden cases were fabricated by an Innsbruck carpenter to hold 7 of the porcelain plates and a 3 metre hand silkscreen printed tablecloth.
CONNECTOR
The Connector is architectural infrastructure for a modular social space, an open network for individuals to attach and detach at will. As the Connectors enlarge by Sector, the village expands ready to welcome an unlimited amount of inhabitants throughout the world. This infrastructure forms the basis of a mobile village, an architecture that is permanently evolving based on independence and interdependence. The transformable Units represent the individual and his needs and the Axis allows the group to evolve, modulate and communicate with other groups. The architectural configurations either; pre-determined, intimate, collective or open, underline the notion of choice for the individual who is are at free will to integrate and leave the network.
VEHICONNECTORS
It’s a shock when you are reminded that just 14% of the world population are using 80% of the world resources. For the exhbition courageously curated by Roberto Pinto in Trieste during the G8 environment summit, I fabricated 2 Vehiconnectors. I chose Red Cross field ambulances because I’m particularly interested transforming the military stigma into civilian survival units, and I hope to fabricate a new type of “survival convoy”. We parked the ambulances just outside the official conference building of the G8 summit. Here, I was able to confront the system. On one facade; food surplus, mad cows and recycling; and on the other: a fragment of boat people, lack of drinking water and the Rwanda refugee plight.
ARBOR VITAE
The Refuge Wear and Nexus Architecture interventions I have carried out over the last eight years challenge the notion of community and exchange and have transformed the traditional form of public art from the passive disposition of objects, functional design, or conceptually appropriate thematic works, to social intervention. Bearing in mind my current research into community intervention and co-creation I invited the Talke community (Staffordshire) and local industries to help me build the Talke family tree. Arbor Vitae.
The Arbor vitae is a tier trellis structure built out of the memory and community identity. The foliage is composed of personal belongings donated by the each member of the community: photographs, household objects, items of clothing… mementoes that are important to each inhabitant. The tree sculpture manifests the history of the community as it evolves. The accumulation of objects, mementoes are transformed and hung from the metal frame structure. Each branch holds a black and white bone china heart, a limited edition of 100 donated Royal Doulton, UK. The heart has become a symbol of convergence for a series of creative collaborations that highlight different industries in decline and the power of the craftsmen in the community.
OPERA.tion LIFE NEXUS - an evolving opera
Jorge Orta began this mixed media work in 1996 and it will evolve and grow in length until 2006. Based on interdiciplinary collaborations, 3 generations of artists are invited create a module for the open-ended composition : music scores, dance sequences, sculpture, light and video projections… The federating theme is the heart = Life, the creative idiom from both an symbolic and Human perspective. Its complex mythology renders the symbol poetic. The Babylonians designated the heart the center of intelligence and memory. For the Egyptians it represented the terrestrial support for the soul. Hypocrite refer to the heart as the intelligence organ. Plato believed the heart was the center of feelings and passion. For Aristotle the heart transformed food into blood and was the emotional centre. Its universal nature helps to converge cultural, social, religious differences and from a scientific angle it exposes a new vision of a medical problem.
OPERA.tion is a locus for debate to address the sensitive subject of life saving organ donation ; thousands of people are on a waiting list for organ donations. As we enter the millenium, frenzied individualism has left society without hearts and heart !
The opera comes in a kit format and adapts to all venues. Crate sculptures facilitate the transport, preserve the archive of resulting collaborations : objects, music scores, video and photographic works, CD Roms, silkscreen prints, visual poetry, paintings, Body Architectures…, are stored in the wooden crates, which in turn are labeled and stamped with the origin of the multiple actions throughout the world.
List of performances
Opéra.tion Life Nexus, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln, September 2001
Music composition - Markus & Simon Stockhausen with Barre Bouman & Thomas Oesterdiekhoff (D) 35’ composition
Choreographer – Annamirl van der Pluijm (B) with 50 dancers
Opéra.tion Life Nexus, Zocolo Square Mexico city, March 2001
Music composition - Pierre Henry (Fr) 40’ composition
Light installations - Jorge Orta
Opéra.tion Life Nexus, Larueforaine circus Paris, October 2000
Music composition - C.O. Caspar (D)• Kasper Toeplitz (Fr)• Marina Rosenfeld (USA) 20’ compositions
Chorographic instances - Paco Dècina + Compagnie (Fr, It) • Blanca Li (Fr, Esp), François Chat (Fr)
Sculpture and installation - Lucy + Jorge Orta (Fr, GB, Arg)
Lucy Orta | Jorge Orta | Life Nexus | Escuela 21 | Éditions
nous rejoindre
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