Labyrinth of plastic waste. Madrid 2017

Last June, we were invited by Madrid City Council to participate in the 4th Centennial Celebration of Plaza Mayor within the “Four Seasons” city art program.

In such unique setting, we thought we should create a piece that had something to do with this setting, getting its inhabitants involved. This was somehow complicated as this is a popular tourist attraction which is not frequently visited by us, Madrileños, and where we don’t want to live either.

We decided to build a PlasticWaste Labyrinth, similar to the one we had installed in Poland back in 2014 though this time we were going to make it much bigger, more claustrophobic, and built with the bottles that had been consumed in the square during a month.

The idea was to graphically visualize the amount of plastic we generate in our daily lives which we don’t often recycle accordingly. As a consequence, all this plastic is dumped in nature and ends up floating in the ocean, forming huge plastic islands that are destroying the marine ecosystem and will not ever decompose.

Bearing all this in mind, we thought it was paramount that the piece didn’t look friendly. Quite on the contrary, our intention was to make the public feel certain discomfort when entering it.

In order to achieve this, we build a structure with an intricate path and narrow passages which force visitors to keep turning, thus producing a feeling of disorientation and a certain unease after a few seconds as it was impossible to guess how far the exit was. There were no reference points in its interior and the heat and the smell of plastic enhanced a definitely oppressive experience.

Measurements: The maze corridors were 170 meters long (558 feet long) with 3 meter tall walls (10 feet tall) which took 3 minutes to pace, and an area of 300 m2 (3230 ft2) that sprawled around King Philip III statue.

To raise the walls, we used around 15,000 bottles to which we added lights and put in bags that we hung from the structure, thus achieving walls that were totally compact and bright.

Many people went through the maze which was open day and night for 4 days. The over 40ºC (104º F) temperature helped us in our mission of creating an asphyxiating setting which stood in stark contrast to the magic of the glazes and the bright colorful reflections of the light filtered through the bottles.

To collect the plastic material, we summoned the neighbors whom we invited to donate all the plastic bottles they consumed to us in the days prior to the construction of the piece. In order to collect them, we placed two containers in the square and we also contacted the Asociación de Comerciantes de la Plaza Mayor (Merchants Association of Plaza Mayor) and they offered to keep all the bottles that were consumed at their establishments.

In spite of this, we estimated that all these bottles were not going to be enough so we asked for help at hospitals, universities, official institutions, catering companies, packing companies, and other businesses. They generously kept all the bottles consumed at their premises in a month. This way, we got the 15,000 we needed.

We must say that we found impossible to get plastic bottles from the city’s official recycling services. Unfortunately, here we don’t recycle PET separately and is mixed with all kinds of containers which renders the task of selecting only bottles impossible. In addition, the bodies that regulate and control this sort of material do not make things easy, the exception not being programmed in the plastic collection chain. What we were actually able to see was that the trash collection business brings huge profit to many businesses that manage it and trade it.

We hope things change soon and that municipal services begin to consider the possibility of collecting these materials more selectively since there are many innovative ways to use them. With the defective outdated system currently in place, this seems mission impossible.

We want to thank all the people who helped us in this complicated creative process. The team from the IV Centenario, Cris, Delia, Martina, Curro, Remedios, for thinking about us and making this piece possible. Burna and Montaña, for managing and coordinating all the material. Our friends who helped us prepare the material and the company that built the structure as well as the people who worked from dawn to dusk so everything would look perfect.

Special thanks to the neighbors, the companies and the institutions that helped us get the bottles. This would not have been possible without their disinterested assistance.

Thanks to Lola Martínez for her wonderful photos.

Time of installation: and installation:7 days.
Damages: none.
Exhibition time: 4 days.

https://www.luzinterruptus.com/?p=4516