Press Release
Inauguration of a socially engaged art project which explores the human – technology nexus called Harvesting Plastic by Shri. Sovandeb Chattopadhyay , Hon. (MIC) Minister of Power & Non Conventional Energy (Govt of WB).
Oakridge Foundation , Rotary Club of Kolkata Midwest & Culture Monks along with our partners including Masterpeace, The Beach Warriors, Alliance francaise du Bengale and Travel World are launching a socially engaged art project called Harvesting Plastic, to find ways for a sustainable Kolkata, with a primary focus on the environment – particularly the menace of ubiquitous single – use plastic.
This project will be inaugurated by Shri. Sovandeb Chattopadhyay , Hon. Minister (MIC) of Power & Non Conventional Energy (Govt of WB) on September 7, 2019 at 12 pm. The inauguration program will take place at Sasha Store on Free School Street, Kolkata.
As part of the Harvesting Plastic initiative we will be working with a large group of citizen volunteers and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to make Kolkata plastic free, by continuously raising awareness about the environmental damage caused by single use plastic and also conducting regular plastic waste clean up activities. The first such clean up activity will start on the auspicious day of Mahalaya on Sep 28, 2019 on the banks of the river Hoogly, which will be overseen by Chinu Kwatra of The beach Warrior, who has cleared over 2200 tonnes of garbage from seven beaches of Mumbai in 100 weeks.
The inaugural program will feature live painting session by highly acclaimed artists on the theme of the evolving relationship between humans & technology. The participating artists are Sujarit Sircar, Saifuddin Ahmed, Amit Halder, Suprakash Nath, Subhendu Sircar, Sameer Roy, Abhijit Sengupta ; a video art screening featuring videos on the theme of environment from all over the world curated by international curator – Wilfried Agricola de Cologne from Germany and a performance by Pradip Chattopadhyay, Raja Chakravorty and Janardan Ghosh.
The proceeds from the sale of the paintings will be donated to a children cancer hospital.
Harvesting Plastic is an initiative to bring the citizens, businesses and government together, to address various economic, social and environmental issues , facing the city of Kolkata and its communities.
The mission of this initiative is work towards a sustainable Kolkata – in terms of finding a balance between the human needs and the environment.
Many Thanks
Sudipta Dawn
For Oakridge Foundation & Culture Monks
+91 8697919308
Harvesting Plastic
Oakridge Foundation, Masterpeace, The Beach Warriors, Rotary Club of Kolkata Midwest, The Alliance française du Bengale, Travel World, & Culture Monks in association with Sasha Shop is delighted to invite your participation and presence at a special program which launches our project called ¨Harvesting Plastic¨ which examines the nexus between human and technology and particularly looks at the situation of elastic in our lives and find ways to make Kolkata free of single use plastic waste and usage.
Venue : Sasha World, 27 Mirza Ghalib St, Kolkata 700016
Date : September 7, 2019 (Saturday) from 12 pm – 7 pm
RSVP : +91 8697919308
All are welcome to participate – maybe through poetry reading, singing, etc.
We are particularly looking at songs, poems, stories about harvesting, the autumn festivals, about our relationship with technology, the ills of single plastic usage and of course of love and longing.
About Harvesting
- The activity of collecting large quantities of information, especially automatically
- The activity of taking cells or other body parts from someone for medical use
- The activity of picking and collecting crops, or of collecting plants, animals, or fish to eat
(Camridge On line Dictionary)
Harvesting or reaping is a critical act in human existence. It is the time we take stock of our actual products which have emerged from a process . It is the outcome of our approaches and work. It is also the time for great hope, happiness & celebrations.
We celebrate the year long vicissitude with its share of hope, despair, longing and learnings , where the positive forces fructifies. But we celebrate both – the positive forces and the essential presence of the negative. It´s a time for art to express this tryst, this journey – it´s verisimilitude while raising the human spirit to an aesthetic high, to provide sustenance for the year ahead.
About Plastic & Plastic Waste
Technology has impacted our lives in an irreversible manner. It has been the force behind the course which humanity has charted in the last few centuries.
The term ‘’plastic’’ is derived from the Greek word ”plastikos”, meaning fit for moulding. “Plastic, polymeric material that has the capability of being molded or shaped, usually by the application of heat and pressure and has several uses.
Plastic products and polythene bags have transformed the way the architecture and design of human activity has evolved.
The world is short has become very plastic.
” We produce roughly 300 million tons of plastic each year and half of it is disposable! World-wide only 10-13% of plastic items are recycled. The nature of petroleum based disposable plastic makes it difficult to recycle and they have to add new virgin materials and chemicals to it to do so. Additionally there are a limited number of items that recycled plastic can be used.
Petroleum based plastic is not biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds it’s way into the ocean. Although plastic will not biodegrade (decompose into natural substance like soil,) it will degrade (break down) into tiny particles after many years. In the process of breaking down, it releases toxic chemicals (additives that were used to shape and harden the plastic) which make their way into our food and water supply.
These toxic chemicals are now being found in our bloodstream and the latest research has found them to disrupt the Endocrine system which can cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, impaired immunity and many other ailments.
Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These items are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda and water bottles and most food packaging.¨
About Harvesting Plastic
Harvesting Plastic is a new quest – an urgent response to the non sustainable and mindless use of technology including single use plastic, to the detriment of this earthś environment and human existence.
As an evolution of the etymology of the word ´harvesting´, it can now include the process of being responsible about the production, consumption and post consumptive handling of technological products including plastic and specifically single use plastic.
So we create a new ritual – a festival where we celebrate our relationship with technology and are ready to to responsible about its outcome in a manner where once again the positive energies will tip the balance in itś favour and bring prosperity, happiness and good health for the entire human race and this planet.
This is a project aimed at examining the usage of technology including plastic in our lives and the environment crisis caused by our indiscriminate and mindless use of technology including plastic waste & finding ways to replace or reduce the use of plastic and also cleaning up dry plastic waste.
Here we will start a process of picking & suitably disposing,single use plastic waste in various parts of Kolkata and initiate a civilian led movement to stop the use of single use plastic in Kolkata.
We will be using art intervention, social activism, voluntarism including monthly cleanups to achieve our purposes.
Partners
Culture Monks 
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