by Maria Manganaro
The brief exhibition of small trash objects curated by Acqua Randagia provides the Omero Museum with the opportunity to return to the topic of waste recycling also from a scientific perspective.
But let’s start from the beginning. Ancona’s tactile museum was born and grew, nourished by remarkable references. Its creator nourishes it with relationships, acquisitions, and donations that have a recognizable place in the history of art.
It’s not a simple coincidence that Michelangelo Pistoletto donated Recycled Italy to the Museum in 2013, a site-specific work created a few months earlier for the Venice International Architecture Biennale with the waste of the installation of the thirteenth edition of the biennale, in search of new perspectives for a regenerated creativity.
The eight-meter-long wooden silhouette of Italy, covered by construction garbage that you can see and touch, is now part of the Omero Museum as desired by the Master of Pop Art and Arte Povera. In 2023, Pistoletto celebrated his 90th birthday in New York with the restaging of his 1979 artwork Welcome to New York, where the crown of the Statue of Liberty becomes a fountain from which a stream of colorful rags flows, representing multiculturalism, the search for a better future and the welcoming spirit of a country that, unfortunately, is now undergoing political transition.
On the last weekend of January, the exhibition of waste objects “Before, After, Again,” conceived by influencer Elisabetta Pennacchioni, was positioned right next to L’Italia Riciclata, “hosted in the aura of Pistoletto, star of conceptual art, who enrichs the symbol of infinity with a third space (or Paradise) between nature and artifice, from where man attempts to create his own place of salvation in the era of the most intense technological development.”
Suggestions and insights from art, society and science spark a lively public discussion on waste recycling with two highly communicative researchers, Stefania Gorbi of the Polytechnic University of Marche and Martina Capriotti of the University of Camerino.
Although Italy is quite virtuous in terms of waste sorting, we know that there are many countries around the world and that not all the garbage is recyclable. We also know that hydrocarbon emissions are among the major causes of environmental pollution. So far, the data is both accurate and generic. Things get complicated when imperfect communication of the results of specific scientific research turns into misinformation, creating alarmism that can lead to fatalism or various forms of radicalism.
For about fifteen years, plastic has become part of our worst nightmares, to the point of making us resign ourselves to the fact that eating marine organisms will, sooner or later, lead to the presence of microplastics in our tissues and even in our brains. Well, no, at least for now, this isn’t the case. “Because plastics, however micro, are particles that, like fish, we humans also expel in our feces,” Martina Capriotti reassures us, “unlike what happens with hydrocarbon molecules. On this topic, just a few days ago, the British newspaper The Guardian had to deny the rumors that had terrified citizens around the world.”
This doesn’t change the fact that the growing production of various types of plastic remains “a serious problem, given that when recycled it loses quality and that a single-use half-liter bottle lasts at least 500 years in the sea or in the environment. Like a diamond, it’s forever,” concludes Stefania Gorbi. This doesn’t mean we can’t continue to experiment with new solutions to the waste problem and some of these could even be effective for certain types of waste, such as “pyrogasification, which in Turin converts biomass into electricity and heat, with virtually zero impact.”
While science continues its research, individual choices and behaviors remain important. Stefania Gorbi told that, among her many experiences at sea with various environmental organizations, during the weeks spent on a boat with Greenpeace, she never saw single-use plastics used or waste produced. This means that all it takes is being careful with what you buy to avoid excess packaging and more.
This is the point where Elisabetta Pennacchioni can be usefull, with her Instagram profiles boasting tens of thousands of followers. The Ancona influencer, on and with @Acqua.Randagia, encourages small gestures and reflections on environmental sustainability “without proposing didactic solutions or moral instructions.”
The exposition of garbage on two adjacent tables at the Omero Museum begins with a specific question: “What else could I do with this object?”, suggesting that every object in our daily lives has a story we rarely choose to listen to. Before becoming garbage, it was a project, a desire, a necessary gesture to meet our needs. After use, the object often becomes invisible, very often unwanted and in many cases expelled from the realm of responsibility.
“Before, after, again” was created to break this repression and transform the common object into a material biography, capable of narrating not only the material, but the behaviors that generate it. Thus, the focus shifts from matter as symbol to matter as experience, to question what precedes and follows the act of consumption.
“The object evolves, sometimes through a regulatory change or a minimal, repeatable gesture, sometimes through upcycling practices that transform garbage into narrative material.”
On her Instagram profiles and in the pages of her two books, Elisabetta Pennacchioni has been discussing sustainability and daily responsibility for years, without neglecting the topic of what we eat every day and plant-based cuisine (@il goloso mangiar sano), which she discusses with her sister Federica (also a food blogger) as a concrete and feasible practice.
In short, everyone can do their part. This is what the European Climate Pact says, the European Commission initiative within the Green Deal that, starting in 2022 invites citizens, communities, and organizations to actively participate in building a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.
The same Pact, mentioned by Elisabetta Pennacchioni, promotes widespread action to engage individuals, schools, NGOs, businesses, and local authorities in practical actions aimed at reducing net emissions by 55% by 2030. The legislation proposed by the Commission uses a valuable platform to connect to an increasingly extensive network, as well as to share the best practices and solutions needed to concretely change consumption and production patterns in view of a viable ecological transition.
It’s not difficult to contribute as protagonists or stay informed about the project’s progress.