Ethics of Dust

The Houses of Parliament are about to get a dusting by artist and conservator, Jorge Otero-Pailos.

If you are looking for something exciting to do this summer and happen to be in London may we suggest you visit Jorge Otero-Pailos installation, Ethics of Dust, at the House of Parliament. From the 29th of June, a sheet of latex measuring 50 metres long and 6 metres high will be suspended near the east internal wall of the Houses of Parliament so that visitors can walk between the latex and the wall of the Westminster Palace.

First, the latex will be applied to the wall, where it will stay for three days on the wall, after which it be removed in small sheets to be reassembled. Once the latex has been suspended, visitors “will be walking between layers of history”.

The Houses of Parliament installation recalls the great artwork of Jean Claude and Christo, “Wrapped Reichstag” in which the Berlin Parliament was wrapped with aluminium-colored fabric in 1995.

The two artworks however aim to achieve different goals. Whilst the Wrapped Reichstag was politically motivated and symbolised the new Germany (the Berlin Wall happened to be knocked down 5 years earlier) aspiring to unification, Ethics of Dust aims to preserve the pollution, dirt and dust collected from the wall of the Houses of Parliament.

As such, the large sheet of latex will capture the physical history of the building and will document the passage of time. Indeed, it is thought that the last time that this wall was cleaned was in 1832, and thus dust and pollution from the industrial revolution will be collected in the latex, as well as the fragments of the Second World War. The 200 years pollution and dust collected symbolises “modernity”, to quote Otero-Pailos. “We really do not know about pollution or how to preserve it, without it a major part of our history would be lost.” (Jorge Otero-Pailos in The Ethics of Dust: A Conversation with Jorge Otero-Pailos” by Richard McCoy, Dec 15, 2009)

Otero-Pailos work was inspired by John Ruskin's Ethis of Dust and he has peen producing the serices since 2008. His series comprises

The installation at the Doge’s Palace of Venice in 2009, where he wrapped in latex the Venice Palace for the 53rd Venice Biennial;

The experiments with latex that he started in the aluminum factory that hosted the European Biennial of Contemporary Art (Manifesta 7), in Bolzano, Italy during 2008;

The Column of Trajan at V&A, for which he received a commission;

The installation at the Houses of Parliament which he is preparing to unveil this summer.

As mentioned above, Otero-Pailos is a conservator. The role of conservation and conservator is changing, and conservators are investigating the concept of conservation as art itself and are reworking the way art it is realised.

“To conserve, or to protect, is very different from to appropriate. It is a way of leaving things, not taking things,” says the artist. Marcel Duchamp is an example of an artist who appropriated objects with the “ready-made”.

Further, as conservator Jorge Otero-Pailos is familiar with the idea that works of art are destined to disappear.

The Ethics Of Dust will be open from 29 June-1 September 2016. Free admission – advance tickets can be booked at artangel.org.uk/ethics-of-dust

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