COLLECT-CONNECT Treasure Trash Walk

Five days walk from Groningen to Pieterburen and back taking place from the 16th to the 20th of June. This participatory project aims to bring people together on an action in the Groningen province. While walking we will collect the trash that we find on our way, reflecting on the heritage left by humanity on earth. A journey that connects places and people. A journey that collects stories and garbage.

COLLECT-CONNECT Treasure Trash Walk

Silk printed poster of the event. Gift for the walkers who joined the walk

Synopsys

This research takes the form of a journey enclosed in a diary that will be extended into a physical action in the territory. A participatory walk will “connect” places where people are actively working to solve the problem of plastic pollution.

COLLECT CONNECT Treasure/Trash/Walk is a five days walk between Groningen and Pieterburen starting on the 16th of June. This participatory project aims to bring people together on an action in the Groningen province. While walking we will collect the trash that we find on our way, reflecting on the heritage left by humanity on earth. A journey that connects places and people. A journey that collects stories and garbage.

During my time in the Frank Mohr Institut I started to take an interest in environmental pollution, landscape and plastic waste. Urban walking and garbage collections have been serving me as “investigational tools”. Walking is also a symbolic element that I used to reconnect with my personal story and the idea of Nomadic Art. I find that art today, as a reflection of contemporary society, is a process less and less linked to a sedentary approach and more and more connected to movement. If I had to define my research with only four words I would use: Walking, Collecting, Waste and Memory.

Dagblad van het Noorden article in english

Program for the five days walk from Groningen to Pieterburen

The starting point of this collective journey is at the Fruitcafe ‘de Helpende Hand’ in De Wijert, a neighbourhood in the south of Groningen. We will walk through the city and we will arrive at the Wijkbedrijf in Selwerd. Walking, we will “connect” the Wijkbedrijf to the Dorpswinkel in Sauwerd and then to Winsum. The next day we will walk till the cultural centre “De Holm” in Den Andel ending at the Zeehondencentrum in Pieterburen. The third day we will reach the Wadden Sea at the Noordpolderzijl, collecting from the shore what is leftover from that disaster of a year ago, when the cargo ship MSC Zoe spilled tons of material into the sea. We will then walk to Eenrum and Winsum. The fourth day is the way back from Winsum to Groningen following the Pieterpad Route. The fifth and last we will travel using electric boats to remove floating garbage from the canals of the City centre. Our endpoint will be the Wall House where Gea Schenk will invite us to see an exhibition “The art of waste”.

MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

PROJECT FOR A FIVE DAYS WALK BACKPACK

3D model for the backpack designed to contain and transport artworks and found objects. In the picture above: the drawer contains the silk printed poster of the event.

Inspirations and historical references: Cromeri and Casséla. The peddlers from Trentino used the Cassela to transport and show their art prints to sell in the street.

Backpack with drawer: the plastic collected during the “trash walks” has been transformed in a container to transport and spread the art prints. In the picture above: the drawer contains the thesis.