Super Sorted Garbage Bins 2023 Project｜Tokyo Biennale 2023

Area

S

Suidobashi･Jinbocho

H

Higashi-nihonbashi･Bakurocho Area

Outline

This project began with the idea that if you push the separation of everyday garbage to the extreme, it becomes a kind of archive and form of information. When the idea was conceived in 1995, there were only two types of garbage bins, burnable and non-burnable. Today, however, the separation and collection of plastics has become a major social issue. The reality lying behind this was that we ourselves knew little about plastics.

Activities

We are engaged in two major activities. The first aims to realize our initial idea of a “Super Sorted Garbage Bin in the form of a convenience store,” where it is the actual visitors who separate the plastics. The other activity, “Love = Plastic Workshop,” involves learning about plastic by collecting plastics used in daily life, archiving them, and then turning the sorted items into monuments. At the same time, through the participation of artists with respective auditory, olfactory, visual, and spatial senses of awareness, we will explore new ways of understanding plastic.

We will invite companies involved in the cycle of manufacturing, packaging, fabricating, distributing, and collecting plastic as waste material, to join us as partners to consider plastic-related issues from a bird’s eye perspective.
We are undertaking activities together with students and PTA members of Tokyo Metropolitan Kogei High School, an endeavor that began following a lecture at the school.
In August, we realized a workshop to collect plastics and witness their accumulation over a six-week period.
Through four artists, Tsuyoshi Anzai, Maki Ueda, Saburo Ubukata, and Bruce Osborn, we will share different senses and ways of thinking about plastic.
During the exhibition, we will document the state of plastic use in the year 2023, an archive that will eventually be turned into an art monument.

Statement

The concept of nature has evolved from “wild nature” (primitive nature) to “tamed nature” (nature tamed by humans) and then to completely “artificial nature” such as cities. It is the ecosystem within this artificial nature that is currently causing problems. In the first place, there was no concept of garbage in “wild nature,” and everything circulated without the creation of waste. It is humans who created the boundary between garbage and non-garbage. In other words, garbage exists only in “artificial nature,” and this is a problem caused by humans.

Until now, garbage that nature could not accept in its original state has been returned to nature as ashes through burning. When plastics and other man-made materials are burned, however, carbon dioxide and toxic gases are released. These problems have emerged because of technology that has achieved the human desire for a more convenient and rational lifestyle. The cost of this technology is not only the cost of the product, but also the cost of the environmental impact. A fundamental solution to this problem will require a change in human consciousness.

It is plastics, in particular, that are currently being portrayed as the villain here. Plastic was the dream material brought into the world in the 20th century, but in the 21st century it has turned into a nightmare. Nevertheless, we have known very little about plastics since its invention, making it difficult to determine whether plastics are good or bad. Does scientific knowledge, or even just looking at statistical data, give us a clear answer?

Based on such awareness of the issue, this ongoing project aims first to collect plastics that have thus far been called garbage, verify their quantity, study the characteristics of the materials, archive the plastics collected, and then weld them together into an art monument that serves as a document for the year 2023.

September 2023, Masaki Fujihata

Schedule

June 23	Masaki Fujihata Special Lecture
July 9	Kick-off event (remote + real)
July-August	Set up communication space between members.
August 19, 20	Workshop at Tokyo Metropolitan Kogei High School
Late September	Exhibit artworks and install them at the Tokyo Biennale 2023 venue Workshops will continue throughout the exhibition. Talk+Discussion ①28 October, 17:00-19:00 ②2 November, 17:00-19:00 ③3 November, 17:00-19:00 Details

Website and Social Media




 Website
 Facebook

Artists・Members

Executive Office：Masaki Fujihata, Koji Nagamine, Yoshikazu Inui
Artists：Masaki Fujihata, Tsuyoshi Anzai, Maki Ueda, Saburo Ubukata, Bruce Osborn
Cooperation Member：Tokyo Metropolitan Kogei High School, Students and Parent -Teacher Association
Partner Companies：Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd., Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd., Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., Toppan Inc., FamilyMart Co., Ltd., Lawson, Inc.

LINKAGES

Super Sorted Garbage Bins 2023 Project