e-flux Criticism
ORTA Collective’s immersive installation, the “LAI-PI-CHU-PLEE-LAPA Centre for the New Genius,” transformed the Kazakhstan Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale into a participatory “spectacular experiment,” featuring minimalist materials like aluminum foil, wrapping paper, and audience-worn props that invited visitors to perform and discover their own “genius” in resonance with Sergey Kalmykov’s eccentric interplanetary theory of creative potential By embracing logistical constraints—prompted by disrupted deliveries due to the war in Ukraine—and sourcing materials locally, ORTA turned fragility into innovation, reframing the pavilion as a DIY spaceship-like social laboratory where performance, ritual, and collective agency redefined notions of genius and institutional representation.
Image Credits: ORTA Collective. Kazakhstan Pavillion.
Image Credits: ORTA Collective. Kazakhstan Pavillion.