luzinterruptus: plastic garbage guarding the museum

‘plastic garbage guarding the museum’ by luzinterruptus all photos by gustavo sanabria

‘plastic garbage guarding the museum’ is the latest street intervention by spanish art collective luzinterruptus displayed as part of the ‘oh, plastiksacki’ exhibition at the gewerbemuseum of winthertur, a show curated by ida-marie corell and susanna kumschick revolving around the common plastic bag.

in constructing the large-scale installation, luzinterruptus invited city inhabitants of the swiss town to bring disposable shopping sacs to the museum in exchange for tickets to visit the institution’s various exhibitions. this initiative helped them collect more than 5,000 bags to create the colorful and illuminated work whereby they filled the bags with air – resulting in balloon forms – placed thousands within two large dumpster bins, each outfitted with a light, to form a mountain of rainbow hued plastic. each situated on either side of the museum’s front door, the project is meant to bring forth discussion about consumption and the reality of plastic bags, that when not used or disposed of correctly can be very damaging to the environment. displayed over the course of four months, the work was also a documentation of the plastic bags’ evolution, sitting outside to face the elements demonstrating in a visual manner the reality of this common day object.

‘plastic garbage guarding the museum’ container

installation view of the colorful mountain of plastic bags

detail

containers guarding the museum

‘plastic garbage guarding the museum’ 

bag details

bag detail

inauguration of the project

the installation after four months

forming the installation

setting-up