Antarctica World Passport Delivery Bureau - COP21 Paris

• Main Authors: Orta, Lucy, Orta, Jorge
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Environmental Sciences; Geographical and Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified; Collectivism; Environmentalism; International Relations; Fine Art; Sculpture; Antarc*; Antarctica; Alaska
• Online Access: https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9512/; https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9512/1/1301_DSC_9744.jpg; https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9512/2/1201_DSC_9637.jpg; https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9512/3/1101_DSC_9634.jpg; https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9512/4/03DSC_9552-copy.jpg; https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9512/5/08DSC_9737-copy.jpg; https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9512/6/0100_9759-copy.jpg; https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/9512/7/0601_DSC_9731.jpg

The Antarctica World Passport project exemplifies the powerful participatory nature of Lucy Orta's work and couldn’t have been a more timelier project for the UN Climate Summit in Paris (COP21, Dec 2015). Faced with the increasing numbers of refugees displaced because of climate induced disasters and the predictions of yet more horrific conflicts due to the scarcity of resources, the COP21 was the perfect forum to activate citizen participation against global warming at global level. Unlike the borders, frontiers and bureaucracy of passport offices around the world, especially draconian under the current circumstances, the process of application for an Antarctica World Citizenship takes just a few minutes and no one is turned away. The bureau is constructed with reclaimed wood and found objects including suitcases, water buckets, toys, life jackets and row boats that bulge over the rudimentary architecture, to symbolise the belongings that have been left behind on the migrants' journeys. A passport officer stationed at the welcome desk collects data from visitors at the click of an iPad, via the online application porthole. The recipient simply has to agree to the passport obligations. The citizen traverses thorough a small wooden passageway and is greeted by a second passport officer, who stamps and signs the unique edition of the passport, authenticating both the artwork and the citizenship. The symbolic transferal of one’s individual national identity, to that of the collective world citizen, is part of the artwork’s overarching meaning. There are currently three passport editions totalling 55,000 examples, and the website counts tens of thousands of citizens across the globe, including the hardest hit catastrophe zones; the Interior Ministers of the Philippines, Alaska, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. All the passport citizens populate the Citizen Map, a simple visualisation portraying the collective strength of the project; it’s potential to unite and mobilise people around the world with common values. ...