Garbage Store
Art Installation
Almeria/Spain, 2023
The Andalusian landscapes are known for
their dreamlike quality, today disrupted by
resource-intensive constructions [here: golf
courses] or improvised waste sites in the
desert and on the beaches.
During my month-long residency, I explored the area that I named «Garbage Store» and collected unsorted/non-recycled waste. A key component of the collected materials is the fine line between what we consider man-made and natural, such as metals that we
view as artificial or waste once they are transformed and used.
My research focused not on the neatly organized pile of materials in the waste site but on the waste that has become almost invisible, appropriated by the desert over time. It becomes difficult to discern what has been made by human hands and what is natural. The desert hides, camouflages, and transforms these wastes until they become one. All these materials/wastes have undergone transformations, first by human hands and then by nature.
During my month-long residency, I explored the area that I named «Garbage Store» and collected unsorted/non-recycled waste. A key component of the collected materials is the fine line between what we consider man-made and natural, such as metals that we
view as artificial or waste once they are transformed and used.
My research focused not on the neatly organized pile of materials in the waste site but on the waste that has become almost invisible, appropriated by the desert over time. It becomes difficult to discern what has been made by human hands and what is natural. The desert hides, camouflages, and transforms these wastes until they become one. All these materials/wastes have undergone transformations, first by human hands and then by nature.
To make, undo, transform, erase, assemble
materials, witnesses of a forgotten [mining]
past with the wastes of a sadly visible
present.
The juxtaposition of these assemblages in a once-inhabited ruin creates a link between the past, present, and future, highlighting the cycle of human life and the impact of our actions on the environment. The ambiguity between the old and the new, the dead and the living, prompts reflection on how we perceive our environment and our own history.
Later, I installed these assemblages in the ruins once inhabited by a Spanish family nearby. Here, is a selection of images from the final installation.
The juxtaposition of these assemblages in a once-inhabited ruin creates a link between the past, present, and future, highlighting the cycle of human life and the impact of our actions on the environment. The ambiguity between the old and the new, the dead and the living, prompts reflection on how we perceive our environment and our own history.
Later, I installed these assemblages in the ruins once inhabited by a Spanish family nearby. Here, is a selection of images from the final installation.