Fridays for Future have become global appointments not just for schoolkids joining the protest of young Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, but for all of us as they prompt us to ponder about the state of the planet and take immediate action.
While a few fashion houses are exploring the possibility of producing more sustainable collections, some artists are focusing on projects that invite people to collaborate together and create art with zero impact on the planet.
For example, last year Scottish artist Katie Paterson toured the UK for over thirty-two weeks from March to October with a participatory project entitled "First There is a Mountain" that analysed a series of themes linked with nature and the present conditions of our planet, while highlighting the importance of circular economy.
Paterson stopped at 25 high-profile coastal arts venues, from the Cornish coast to the Outer Hebrides, with kits of her "buckets and spades" sets.
The latter consisted in buckets shaped like scale models of five of Earth's mountains - Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Shasta (North America), Mount Fuji (Asia), Stromboli (Europe) and Uluru (Oceania) - nested together in a set.
The mountains were created after a long research and using data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The buckets were made using the thermoforming technique and employing compostable bio-plastic derived from corn starch.
The public were invited on their local beaches for a mass sand mountain building event open to people of all ages. Participants enjoyed forming networks of micro-geologies and connecting their own beaches with mountains located in other countries. At the end of the event, the mountains of sand were submerged by the sea and destroyed by the tides, a final phase that invited people to consider themes such as time, transience and ephemerality.
The buckets and spade sets were made from bio-compostable plastic, so, if they had ever gone lost at sea during the tour, they wouldn't have left any chemical trace (as opposed to ordinary plastic buckets take ages to decompose).
As stated above the tour closed last year, but there is a final stage that is taking place now: the sets have been indeed shredded and composted by the project partner - National Trust at Cliveden.
Once the remains of these small mountains will be ready (around March 2020), they will be scattered back into the soil in a circular gesture that allows the items to be reabsorbed into the natural environment.
The purpose and aim of such a project was to invite people to slow down, collaborate together in an activity in contact with nature, and think more about the space we occupy and the way we are damaging it.
Letting the mountains get destroyed on the beach was also a final act of reckoning with the forces of nature and think about the constant erosion of coasts, a process that will keep on increasing with further climate change. Last but not least, by using a simple material - sand - and a bucket shaped like a mountain, Paterson turned concepts that may be intangible into a tangible and pratical activity that allowed to keep geography in one's hand.
The project was also accompanied by twenty-five new pieces of writing by poets, geologists, earth scientists, ecologists, technologists, and art writers, one for each beach location.
Hopefully Paterson, whose previous projects included broadcasting the sounds of a melting glacier live and mapping all the dead stars, will continue her intriguing research-based explorations that invite viewers to interact, play and respect planet Earth and the entire universe.
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