It is in the message, and this time it is not in a bottle. Here, the message is the bottle that we throw away in our dustbins, whether or not we recycle it or reuse it ourselves.
FeoFlip, an artist and painter from Tenerife (originally from Lanzarote, Canary Islands) came to us again, but this time in Antwerp! For almost three months, he walked around here creating Trash Art.
He left his mark, because he did not only work with Treepack, but also with several other organisations such as Piazza: a hub for young creatives.
14 young people and the artist built a dung beetle from waste they collected in their streets and along the river Scheldt. Plastic, metal, rope, you find it all thanks to litter and 'modern civilisation'. Not only this dung beetle saw the light of day, several other installations of the artist can now be seen in Stormkop, Antwerp. More about this project on the Tizarte page.
During this work, we met Thomas from River Cleanup. This man is the driving force behind this organisation, and is very keen to clean our rivers. For the past year, he has been busy setting up River Cleanup projects all over Europe. During River Cleanup Day - which for obvious reasons falls on the same day as World Cleanup Day - the participants fished more than 6 tonnes of waste out of the Scheldt. Imagine if all those other cities had joined in that day too...
As a tribute, or better yet, a symbol of this epic journey of zero trash, FeoFlip literally went into the river and dragged out all the plastic objects he could find to make this huge piece. An old pier, virtually washed away by the tides, remains near the shoreline. It acted as the perfect structure for the message the artist wanted to convey:
"If dinosaurs ruled the earth in the past, waste will do so in the future. Plastics, the non-biodegradable waste, will return from the seabed to rule the earth and humanity."
Beautiful, isn't it? Or does it make you think? We hope so.
For your information: if you happen to be in the area and want to visit this piece, make sure you keep an eye on the river tides. At certain times, you can only see the head of the trashosaurus.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- It is difficult to estimate, but about 200 kg of plastic and waste were used in the creation process.
- 3 litres of paint and 2 spray cans
- 5 days of hard work: removing plastic from the soggy river bed is no laughing matter.
- Fun fact: 45 minutes with a handsaw to shorten the first pole - otherwise the trashosaurus would look more like a giraffe.
