HUESCA, SPAIN – The first notions that usually
come to mind when considering garbage, waste and deterioration are generally
negative, when not outright nauseating. We are aware of the physical and
chemical processes of the matter around us, beginning with the cycles of nature
itself, including industrial processes, technical constructions and manufactured
consumer items, and ending with the very materiality of the human being as a
living organism. This crisscrossing of elements and activities-which,
after all, is what makes the human being civilized and cultural, negotiating and
struggling to domesticate and exploit the landscape and the ecosystem, the
planet, in short-generates endless reactions, overpopulation and overproduction,
upsets and imbalances, and therefore waste, before which we often do not know
how to react or that, metaphorically, but also in the practical reality, we end
up sweeping under the rug and looking the other way.