PLASTIC, an installation and a turtle against plastic waste

“The sea tells us lots of stories. This is the one of the plastic which floats over or dissolves inside it. A story of death and pollution that this time we want to cage. Actors are also the over one hundred kids that helped to clean the beaches. Actor is also a turtle that ate a plastic cap mistaking it for a jelly fish and which was no more able to swim. Today it is well and that cap is caged inside the letter S”.

This is PLASTIC, an artistic installation supported by the “Egadi Islands” Marine Protected Area (the biggest in Europe) and the Municipality of Favignana, I realized in summer. An art and nature project, a work that wants to aware public opinion about the current dramatic state of the Mediterranean Sea, invaded by plastic.

I tried to find the most appropriate word and means to communicate the message of respecting the sea and the damage caused by human impact. To realize the art project I decided to use plastic waste, collected on the beaches of the Egadi Islands by over 100 children.

Then i put it on iron letters, which make PLASTIC writing. During summer 2017 the opera was exhibited all around the three islands of the archipelago.

In the letter S there is only one object, a detergent cap that was expelled by a marine turtle that swallowed it, exchanging it for food. The turtle, named Cassiopea , was recovered and cared at the first aid marine turtle center of the marine protected area (the biggest protected area in Europe), and then released. She has become the emblem of the Plastic art project.

Thanks to Cassiopea and his good end of the story, Plastic is an art project that has life inside. I think this is the first step to educate people and to make good actions for our world.