The word plastic - derived from the Greek plastikos, flexible - defines any material capable of being remoulded with heat or pressure to create objects.
Synthetic plastics were invented at the beginning of the 20th century. Today there are hundreds of plastics or polymers, such as polyester, PVC, nylon, polyurethane, Teflon and silicone. What was a great technological invention has also become one of the greatest contemporary environmental problems.
Its production, consumption and excessive disposal contaminate nature at extreme levels and at great speed. Nowadays, this petroleum-based material is easily found anywhere on the planet.
A recent study showed the existence of microplastics in the global food chain, present in the oceans and in the air we breathe.
The exhibition "Natureza Plástica", by artist Eduardo Srur, was entirely conceived with plastic bags. The same material that society discards was reused in reproductions of famous paintings. Srur developed an original technique, inspired by the Northeastern handicrafts of coloured sand bottles, and dedicated himself to manipulating and controlling the fragments like a painter, his language of training.
"Would these geniuses of Art history, if they were alive today, paint with paints and brushes, or would they use plastic as a source of creation?" questions Srur. "Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh and Monet didn't know plastic. Not as we know it today, polluting the seas, dirtying the beach, scattered in the streets and on the banks of rivers, bothering our gaze on the landscape."
Therepresentation of masterpieces of Art history that remain in humanity for hundreds of years provokes a reflection: the plastic that is currently discarded in nature will also remain for decades being part of people's everyday life. The artist's first virtual gallery is commissioned by EDP, a company that operates in all segments of the Brazilian electricity sector, and which is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals and the principles of the Global Compact.
