The Beauty of Garbage
Natalie Saiph Massone
In February 2005, a group of young professionals decided to join together and found "Partner Communication," an advertising company. Within a few months, the group has become the most important agency in Genoa. "But this was not enough," AnnaMaria Butera, a manager in the company told me. To challenge the cultural isolation she saw in Genoa, Partner Communication skipped advertising and went straight to the art world. They started GROUP 9, an exhibition on the city streets "to show we live in under a contemporary point of view, conveying a mix of messages."
The topic? Garbage. "We needed a strong subject to focus our attention on. Everyone has contempt for garbage, Butera says. "People don’t usually stop to look at trash, as they don’t stop to look at many details of the city they walk through everyday." GROUP 9 wants to show the beauty in a garbage can. "There is a small part of our time and everyday life in each trash can. And garbage is tied to many social problems, from recycling to the disposal of the garbage itself." And garbage is about poverty: "Of course there are the people who look inside the trash containers in search of something still good for them to use or to eat. And some actually sleep close by or inside such containers." The idea for making exhibits about trash came to the artist of the group, Noemi Piccardo, who said she wanted to "shake this town in someway." So she started taking portraits of trash cans.
The Garbage Project was born: bold, computer-warped photographs of trash cans, glass and paper containers that seem to take on their own surreal life. The photos are accompanied by acrylic paintings of the very same image. The exhibition also includes installations in the corners of the gallery: a sparkling green trash can, small pink and yellow trash bags. They look at you and seem to say: "Hello!" Noemi’s goal is to bring people closer to the problems tied to the garbage with a positive and amusing approach that would leave a smile on the face of the visitor. The exhibition will take place from next 5th November till 3rd December at Partner Communication event room The local garbage collectors, AMIU, are enthusiastic about the exhibition, and may even print the images on its trash cans.
