“The Plastic Pyramid Begins Here: A Visit to Vedène”
Updated: Sep 19
Visiting the waste recovery facility in Vedène was a shock. A silent shock, without apparent violence — but heavy with truth.
What we call “sorting,” “recovery,” “waste management” are not abstract words. Behind them, there are machines, walls, flows… and hands.
Because before being a technical matter, it is a human one.
On the sorting belts, I saw the traces of our daily lives pass by: still-sticky bottles, bags, leftovers of all kinds. I saw the huge compressed bales, ready to leave for new transformations. I also saw what is rarely shown: mistakes, dangers, explosions. A forgotten aerosol of “Crème Deluxe” in a bin can cause violent damage. A poorly discarded syringe can injure. A simple careless gesture can endanger those who sort what we want to forget.
And then there was that sentence I heard:“At least they have a job.”
A sentence that hits hard. A sentence that says everything: our blindness, our contradictions, our comfort built on the invisible.
This visit opened my eyes. It reinforces my conviction that the Plastic Pyramid — the artwork I am currently creating — must not beautify the material, but reveal it.Show it as it is: heavy, persistent, accumulated.
This blog will not be an educational space. It will be a journal of perception — a place where I share what I see and what I feel, in the field and in the studio. A thread stretched between industry, art, and our collective responsibility.
In Vedène, I saw the underside of our habits. And I want to continue showing it.
STOP.
A simple word, but here it resonates differently:
stop the forgetting, stop the indifference, stop the illusion that our waste disappears."
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