Works of art such as The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, The Scream by Edvard Munch and the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci are well known around the world. Even if it is not always obvious to the viewer at first glance, these pictures always contain much more information than just the desire to document a person, a landscape or a situation. Whether a roaring sea and a tranquil mountain, a mystical smile and calm posture, or an agonised face below an orange sky, the artists always choose their pictorial elements with clear intention.
Art to raise awareness
So does Eduardo Srur. He was born in São Paulo in 1974, where he lives and works today. With a population of over 12 million, his home town is the largest city in Brazil. It is also the economic and financial centre and the largest industrial area in the country. However, the great attractions of this sprawling city for businesses and people presents São Paulo with numerous environmental problems. The two rivers, Rio Tietê and Rio Pinheiros, are heavily polluted and garbage is piling up in the streets.
This problem shapes the artistic work of Eduardo Srur. In order to raise public awareness of pressing environmental issues, he has been using public space for his works since the early 2000s. Srur sees his art as conceptual criticism. It is intended to awaken awareness and point the way to a new aesthetic and a new understanding of the visual arts. His work has generated a lot of interest, as evidenced by the numerous exhibitions he has held in various European cities. His recognitions are also impressive, including many awards and invitations to global events such as TED and Sustainable Brands.
Masterpieces made from plastic waste
His latest series is entitled “Natureza Plàstica”. With plastic bags collected on the streets of São Paulo, Srur reproduces world-famous works by Munch, da Vinci, Hokusai and other masters. When asked what his motivation is, he often says, “The masterpieces that I use as models are mostly over two hundred years old and will probably outlast humanity. Just like the plastic that we thoughtlessly throw into nature.”
Eduardo Srur doesn’t need a brush or paint for his creations. He collects plastic bags of different colours from the rivers, streets and parks of his home town. He tears them into strips and fixes them onto a pre-drilled wooden board. Without glue, paint or other auxiliary materials, he drapes the fragments onto the frame with tweezers and presses them into three-dimensional reproductions of the most famous works in art history.
From the idea to exhibition
Eduardo Srur went public for the first time with this new combination of art and environmental commitment as part of an ad campaign for an international beer brand. Some of his works were exhibited in an open-air gallery on Paulista Avenue, one of the most prominent streets in the Brazilian metropolis. Indeed, public space is the appropriate arena for his challenging works of art.
The series “Natureza Plàstica” will be exhibited in São Paulo in the second half of 2021.
