Native Flags is a participatory eco-art project that requires its participants to help restore native habitats for plants and animals in urban areas, an evolution of Cortada’s ongoing Reclamation Project. The project was initiated on June 29th, 2008, when Cortada planted a green flag at the North Pole in an effort to “reclaim it for nature”, a performance which inspired the participatory aspects of the project. This action taken by the artist was in direct response to modern nations vying for control of artic resources that lay below the ice. By planting the flag at this specific location Cortada is making a literal declaration of war against climate change, as well as making a symbolic gesture of reclamation by nature. In an effort to take legitimate action against climate change, Cortada developed a participatory project based on this initial performance, instructing his participants to plant native trees in hopes of combating the melting of artic.
Through the planting of a native tree alongside an easily identifiable green project flag, Cortada invites his participants to state, “I hereby reclaim this land for nature”. The act planting the green flag effectively transforms their actions into a catalyst for conversation, while their statement of reclamation includes them as an integral part of a large-scale performance. This is where the project is most effective, as it not only aims to spark change in the urban environment, but to initiate conversation within the community specifically around this change. Cortada approaches this project similar to participatory performance art, at first guiding his participants in the performance, then leaving them to lead it on their own. This transference of the project’s autonomy unto various individuals allows for these individuals to take the project further than what Cortada originally prompts; a continuous eco-art performance.
Seen throughout Cortada’s work is a focus on developing signifiers within communities. In Native Flags, the green project flag that accompanies the performance behaves as a statement of reclamation, a point of departure for participants to initiate new action. In turn, the environmental impact of Native Flags is amphibolic, as it not only terraforms the urban landscape, an action against climate change through the initiation of a natural tree canopy, it also spurs conversation throughout various communities for other actions to be taken.