segnaliamo
Thursday 1 January 1970 -

The Garbage Patch State Embassy


12 April – 2 May 2014
opening 11 April, 18.00

MAXXI Piazza

The “plastic state” floating across the oceans is a year old and is opening an embassy at MAXXI.
Founded in Paris on 11 April 2013 by the artist Maria Cristina Finucci, the Garbage Patch State is celebrating its first national holiday with an installation in the museum piazza and the opening of its first Embassy..

The accumulation of plastic waste in the three oceans and now also in the Mediterranean has over the years led to the formation of five islands with a constantly increasing extension of 16 million km2. Islands composed entirely of plastic materials.

Visitors to MAXXI will be able to pass beneath a wave composed of millions of PET flakes from the process of recycling the bottles and discover what is lies beneath sea level while in the embassy – housed in the Education Department’s pavilion in the MAXXI piazza – they will be able to apply for citizenship symbolizing their adoption of behaviour respecting the planet and awareness of the fact that this situation represents a threat of extinction for marine fauna and the ecosystem.
The artists has also created a list of all the possible objects that risk ending up in the sea, thousands of files that will be posted inside the embassy to cover every square centimetre of wall space; visitors who wish to do so may virtually adopt a bottle, a ball, a food container, one of those objects that are destined to be thrown away and frequently end their days in the Garbage Patch State. Visitors may also download an App to play with the Garbage Patch State.

The MAXXI project has a fundamental didactic aim: children are invited to the embassy to play with passports and files created especially for them.
A small exhibition, realised with La Sapienza’s Master in Exhibit and Public Design and coordinated by the course director Cecilia Cecchini, testifies to the work undertaken by the artist in collaboration with the students through projects developed for the exterior of the Embassy.

Tuesday 29 April, 18.00
MAXXI B.A.S.E.
Transmediality and the construction of the real: communicating design the information age
An event organised by the Master in Exhibit and Public Design and dealing with the most advanced forms of design communication, during which the students’ transmedia work on the Garbage Patch State will be presented.