Macaia Association, the winners in the XNUMXth edition of the Awards Gala for a Clean Environment, through the artistic group Plastic Art Performance collective, launches a new project - "There is no away".
In recent years, Romania's biggest problem is, in the opinion of European experts, the danger of overcrowded landfills and, implicitly, the lack of modern waste platforms. Romania ranks 6th in the list of the biggest producers of waste in Europe, almost 10,5 tons for each citizen. In Bucharest, specialists consider the situation to be critical, something constantly signaled by the representatives of the Environmental Guard, through the public presentation of data on air quality in the Capital.
The project proposed by the Plastic Art Performance Collective cuts from these challenges and investigates, in a creative way, ecological and sustainability phenomena and issues. By using a new type of intervention and social engagement, namely, ecoperformance in public space, and through visual documentation sessions of waste sites stored in different neighboring spaces, we aim to raise an alarm signal related to the ecological context of Bucharest. From July to November, the project will activate the residents of Bucharest, Ilfov, as well as Petroșani and Timișoara.
"There is no away" is a participatory activation project through art, which proposes a subjective foray into the relationship with the waste produced, respectively with one's own garbage, through a series of photo-eco-performative experiments, as well as a public dialogue that questions sustainable practices, at the individual level, as well as in the common social sphere. The project also provides for the collection of important information and resources regarding the importance of combating the obsolescence of goods and extending their life in the context of the overcrowding of landfills around Bucharest. Through the community activation component, the project will act in the public space - through events that engage active and interest groups, through workshops, but also in the online environment, to attract and involve the community in the country, which faces the problem of pollution as a result of the low rate of selective garbage collection and recycling.
The project team consists of: Alina Tofan (project manager/ eco podcast maker/ ecoperformer), GCV (visual artist / photo and video art), Gabriela Ioana Cherciu (PR/ communication strategist), Alexandra Cojocaru (artist photographer), Larisa Ioana Tofan (sculptor), Ștefan Blănică (sound designer, sound editor), Ioana Buraga and Vlad Grigore (team responsible for graphics and visual identity), Roxana Bucată (environmental journalism workshop coordinator), Cristina Petrescu-Ghenea (online community moderator), Alexandra Brînzac (ecotherapist/climate resilience ecotherapy workshops coordinator), Sebastian Dobrescu (eco-community workshops coordinator).
From July 2020 to the present, the Plastic ArtPerformance Collective puts at the center of the discussion and creative explorations concepts and practices from the sphere of ecoperformance for the first time in the Romanian cultural and artistic space. The collective curates, conceives and produces audio, video, photo creations, community activations that have as a substrate concerns, motivations and arguments of an ecological nature - the foundation that infuses the nature and format of the creations. Project co-financed by AFCN.