Not junk art, but junk that becomes art. We could summarize Washed up, the latest work of the Mexican artist and photographer Alejandro Duran, who artistically immortalizing the tons of garbage that every day is deposited in one of the most beautiful places on our planet tries to make us reflect critically on our way of life. and consume.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
Not junk art, but junk that becomes art. We could sum it up like this Washed up, latest work by the Mexican artist and photographer Alejandro Duran, who artistically immortalizing tons of garbage that every day settle in one of the most beautiful places on our planet tries to make us reflect critically on our way of living and consuming.
The place in question is called Sian Ka'an and it is the most great protected natural reserve of Mexico: a magical corner that, in addition to teeming with biodiversity, hosts more than twenty archaeological sites and precious finds of pre-Columbian civilizations and was therefore named Heritage ofUNESCO.
Unfortunately, due to the currents that daily lap the Mexican coasts, the beaches of Sian Ka'an accumulate tons of waste day after day from all over the world. With his project Duran chose to put aside the initial disgust for this havoc and to use one's art to convey a reflection on consumerism, a phenomenon of which we are all - some more, some less - protagonists.
Since February 2010, the Mexican photographer, who now lives and works in New York, has been working on the creation of real sculptures made with the garbage collected on the beaches of the reserve: bottles, shoes, containers and objects of all kinds divided by shape or color and distributed as one could imagine nature would do if it were earth, sand, water and so on.
They are born like this strange landscapes imaginatively sculpted by the wind, worked by the waves, in apparent harmony with the surrounding environment yet illuminated by an artificial light, which highlights the contrast between what is harmoniously created by Mother Nature and what is instead introduced with alarming carelessness by man.
Press objects found on the beach and portraits with an artistic touch by Duran, who in the course of his project identified the origin of most of them: they bear the signature of 42 nations and across 6 continents.
They talk about us and our relationship with the environment in which we live, which we treat as an object, but what an object it is not. Maybe Washed up will help us remember it and mend that cracked relationship, starting with us.
SZ
To admire all the splendid photos of Duran click here
