background and rationale
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Sustainable management of household waste is a pressing concern reflecting Istanbul’s large, dense and growing population. An individual’s household waste might consist of packaging and remains from foods, beverages, cleaning supplies and household appliances; paper from offices, receipts and flyers; plastic bottles and bags; cigarette butts and chewing gum; broken or unwanted electrical devices, upholstery, toys, gadgets, and clothes. In Istanbul, individuals’ patterns of recycling such items are highly inconsistent, largely unpopular, and also poorly supported. Infrastructure for managing waste, and for recycling in particular, is relatively new in Istanbul and though improvements have been made over the past two decades - for example, with efforts from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry on the control of packaging waste and ISTAC A.S. on solid waste disposal - there remains a severe lack of individual awareness and action toward their proper use on a domestic level. Consequently, factors such as recycling rates, street litter, waste-collector’s sanitation, and environmental pollution are negatively affected (Geksander, 2014).
In Istanbul, household waste management sits within a complex ecology; nevertheless it maintains a close relationship to the individual urban consumer – while the municipality and informal systems manage collection and sorting, it is the individual consumer who plays a dominant role in transforming products to waste and in their initial disposal. If negative environmental implications of waste in Istanbul are to be reduced, a direct and eco-critical address of the role of the individual consumers is essential. Rethinking one’s relationship to garbage is a crucial step in forming a comprehensive understanding of what we consume and how we consume, as well as the repercussions of these patterns. |
objectives
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Firstly, the exhibition looks to reveal the life-cycle and use-value of household waste products by repositioning items of garbage into an exhibition setting. Secondly, it intends to encourage awareness of littering through micro-activating gestures, prompting individuals to observe and capture the behaviour of themselves and others with garbage in their surrounding environments. The aim is thus to create a platform to view domestic and street garbage, captured in the moment before its disposal – a freeze- frame that allows one to visualize patterns of consumption significant to the urban consumer.
In addition, the museum of garbage seeks to extend critical enquiry of the position of curatorial and artistic practice towards behavioural change in relation to waste management, as a site and practice of possible ecological consciousness. It is a search for fundamentals that are a part of both art and garbage cycles - a hybrid between a visual arts project and community action. |
questions
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ONE. How can individual consumers, living in Istanbul, re-think their patterns of behaviour towards household waste and their role within the city’s domestic waste management system?
TWO. What is the role of artistic intervention in forming ecological consciousness in Istanbul, particularly within the gallery setting and with regards to household waste and street litter? |
curation
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Practice as Research (PaR) - defined as “the uses of practical creativity as reflexive enquiry into significant research concerns” - values knowledge production relevant for multiple disciplines and formats. Specifically, in fulfilling our objectives, the museum of garbage will investigate aspects of ‘aesthetics, location, affect/effect, documentation, and dissemination’ (Kershaw, 2009).
Within this framework, three principles guide the project’s execution: material intervention, ecological performativity, and transversal production. Material intervention suggests that material changes intervene into an existing process of production and consumption to physically demonstrate an alternative. Ecological performativity suggests that choices and actions of production and consumption of the exhibition and its creators/contributors, coincide with what the project aims to communicate. Transversal production suggests horizontal relations between all members of the project - initiators and contributors alike - valuing open conversation and collaboration. Moreover, the project’s constituents are seen as a part of interrelated and dynamic processes that have the potential to extend beyond the duration of the event. Owing to its interdisciplinary nature, the project draws an art audience to a visual and immersive experience of waste management and, at the same time, inspires ecological practices and behavioural change through art conventions and aesthetic innovation. |