Jorge Orta (artist)

He was the first Argentine artist to explore video and image projection technology, staging a series of controversial public installations in Rosario: Transcurso Vital (1981), Testigos Blancos (1982), Madera y Trapo (1983), and Fusion de sangre Latinoamericana (1984).

Orta was a lecturer in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario and a member of CONICET, the Argentinean national council for scientific research, until 1984, when he received a scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign and European affairs to pursue a D.E.A.

Exploring light as a new medium, he painted and illuminated mythical sites of architecture of cultural and historical significance across the world: Mount Aso (Japan), Cappadocia (Turkey), Zócalo (Mexico City), and Verdon Gorge (France).

The most exceptional Light Work took place in 1992 during a three-week expedition along the Andes mountain range and culminated at the Inca vestiges of Machu Picchu and Sacsayhuamán to partake in the Inti Raymi in front of 200,000 Peruvian Indians.

Lucy + Jorge Orta are currently restoring a complex of artist studios and residencies on former industrial buildings sites situated along the Grand Morin river in Marne La Vallée as a living extension of their practice: “The staging of a social bond ”(Pierre Restany, Process of Transformation.