Lucy Orta doesn’t just stand by and watch the world change. She creates the change she wants to see giving those who see her work a glimpse into a world with a better future.
Antarctic Village – No Borders is an installation by Lucy Orta and her partner Jorge Orta, in which tents are hand-stitched by a traditional tent-maker using sections of flags from countries around the world. For the artists, Antarctica represents a neutral land and a land free of conflict. The artwork embodies the global village, a place where people are allowed to move freely, unaffected by the political and social strife of society.
Orta is a contemporary visual artist realising her work through sculpture, public art, video and photography. Although trained as a fashion designer she began to focus on work that she called “architectures with souls” – art that evokes the need for change, poetically heralding reality and advocating alternative lifestyles.
This incredibly evocative artwork, first installed in Antarctica in 2007 is now on exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London until 31 January 2010. Since the war in Iraq and the conflict between Palestine and Israel, the dome-dwelling artwork has come to represent the plight faced by many struggling to gain freedom by escaping social and political conflict within their countries.
