"Fantastic Plastic" Automatic translate

The Moscow Design Museum is opening its second exhibition project, Fantastic Plastic, in the New Tretyakov Gallery. More than 40 foreign and Russian designers take part in it. The exhibition features objects created from recycled and recycled plastic.

The exposition includes completed projects and experimental proposals for the use of plastic that has served its life. Despite the diversity in scale, technique and functions, they have one thing in common: the authors treat recycled plastic as an ideal material, easy to use and providing unlimited possibilities for the realization of ideas.

Designers have been working with plastic for almost 70 years. This material first became widely used in the mid-1950s. Almost everything was made from plastic - from containers for storing food to furniture. It was used by leading masters - Dieter Rams, Werner Panton, Cesare "Joe" Colombo, the Castiglioni brothers and many others.

In the 1950s and 1960s, only advantages were seen in the use of plastic. The post-war world needed a bright and joyful object environment, the creation of which would not require large expenses. Plastic turned out to be exactly the material that could satisfy this need. Democratic plastic also replaced wood and ivory.

A second wave of interest in polymers, vastly improved and much more diverse, emerged in the 1990s. Such designers as Philippe Starck, Karim Rashid, Ron Arad turned to plastic. In their works, the attitude towards the material has changed: its main advantages are not practicality and democracy, but technological versatility and aesthetic variability - the ability to imitate wood and stone, to produce matte and transparent objects.

Today, plastic is once again at the peak of popularity, but in a different quality: in the last 20 years, more and more designers and studios have appeared that specialize exclusively in recycled plastic. There are two main reasons for this: the almost unlimited possibilities offered by the new material, and the increased attention of the design community to environmental issues.

Plastic is a unique compound used in almost all areas of human activity. They are lightweight, durable, versatile, and inexpensive. Their use allows you to save natural resources and reduce the amount of energy consumed, which is especially important given the growing population of the planet and its needs. Plastic has a 100% recycling potential - both single and multiple.

It is important to understand that the main harm to the environment is caused not by the use of plastic, but by its improper disposal. According to statistics, since the 1950s, mankind has produced more than 6 billion tons of synthetic materials, of which only about 9% has been recycled. Disposable tableware, packaging, bottles and plastic products that simply end up in their lifetime end up in the environment. This is plastic pollution that can be dealt with, including through design.

The task of the curators of the Fantastic Plastic exhibition is to use examples from foreign and Russian practice to tell about the possibilities that the processing and reuse of this material gives.

Finnish designer Linda Bergroth repeated part of the Waste-Free Bistro project, a temporary restaurant she created in 2018 for the Wanted Design fair in New York, especially for the exhibition. The bistro building is made of material made entirely from recycled Tetra Pak milk cartons. The variegated tray set is made of solid Durat composite material: it is 30% recycled plastic and is completely recyclable itself. The bistro was based on a zero-waste food production philosophy, using locally sourced organic ingredients as ingredients and delivered unpackaged by suppliers.

The Muima brand is a joint project of the Dutch designers Renaud de Klerk and Marein Duvecot and the Kenyan company Muima Industries. In 2016, they started producing products from plastic waste. The company pays decent wages to suppliers of raw materials, plastic collectors. The Kenyan factory employs 11 families and owns all the profits. The exhibition will feature toy cars made from recycled plastic waste - the brand’s most popular products, now sold in many designer stores in Europe and the United States.

In 2019, London-based designer Brodie Neil created one of his most famous objects, the Capsule: a modern hourglass filled with ocean microplastics. This piece is more an invitation to dialogue with the artist than a functional object. Neal seeks to remind the viewer of how little time we have to save the planet. If we don’t take care of it, our beaches and coasts will soon be covered with microplastics, which will replace normal sand.

The diploma project of the Russian designer and eco-activist Galina Larina was a plastic melting machine made by herself. It uses plastic bags collected in public places as raw materials. They are used for fusing into raincoats, hats, umbrellas, backpacks and even furniture. The designer’s first collection was shown at the Khlebozavod creative space in Moscow, after which it became part of the Wearable Expressions exhibition in California. Products created within the framework of the project were also exhibited in Los Angeles (USA), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Eindhoven (Netherlands).

Another Russian participant is artist Ekaterina Lukyanova. She developed a line of jewelry made from recycled plastic bottles. The new material is wearable, transparent, flexible, easy to use. It allows you to create spectacular necklaces, bracelets and brooches. Each piece is unique and matches any style of clothing, from casual to evening wear.

According to the curators, the objects presented at the exhibition - from jewelry to art installations - can change the attitude of society towards plastic and its reuse. Many project participants believe that recycled plastic will be the main material of the 21st century.

Part of the project will be an educational program with the participation of European and Russian designers, experts in the field of ecology and petrochemistry. On October 15 at 19:00 it will be opened with a lecture “Design and Ecology” by Olga Druzhinina, exhibition curator, design historian, deputy director for science of the Moscow Design Museum.

An audio guide and a catalog are being prepared for the exhibition.

Organizer

The Moscow Design Museum is the only museum in Russia dedicated to design. The museum’s projects are successfully held at the main exhibition grounds of the country, including the Central Exhibition Hall "Manezh" and the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. Pushkin, and abroad. In 2016, the project of the Moscow Design Museum represented the Russian exposition at the First London Design Biennale and received the Grand Prix for it. The museum conducts an active educational and exhibition activity, attracting leading European and Russian designers and design historians.

The general sponsor of the project was PJSC SIBUR Holding with a social investment program Formula of Good Deeds.

SIBUR

The Formula of Good Deeds social investment program was launched on February 1, 2016 in all key cities of SIBUR’s operations and is implemented in six areas that cover the most important social spheres: urban development, education and science, sports and a healthy lifestyle, environmental protection, culture and volunteering. Detailed information about the program is available on the website: www.formula-hd.ru.