Lucy Orta (born 1966 in Sutton Coldfield, Great Britain) is an English contemporary visual artist living and working between London and Paris where she has resided since 1991. After graduating with an honours degree in fashion-knitwear design, Orta began practising as a visual artist in 1991. Her sculptural work investigates the boundaries between the body and architecture, exploring their common social factors such as communication and identity. Orta's most emblematic works include: Refuge Wear and Body Architecture (1992–1998), portable architecture, lightweight and autonomous structures representing issues of survival. Nexus Architecture (1994–2002) are participative interventions in which a variable number of people wear suits connected to each other, shaping modular and collective str