TICK TOCK THE CLIMATE CLOCK PART EIGHT

I don't know about you, but for me it's been a tough news week, so let’s catch a break on the climate front and focus on something inspiring, beautiful, and fun.  Feel like returning to Cerda, home of the Sagra del Carciofo?   Good!  But this time, let’s talk about plastic and the sarte (seamstresses) in the photo above.

The festival on April 25th wasn’t just about artichokes and the Targa Florio.  There was also a little corner of Cerda devoted to ecology, specifically the plastic disaster.  It’s everywhere in Italy, perhaps nowhere more so than in Sicily.  You order an espresso at a bar and it comes with a glass of water on the side, but it’s not a glass; it’s a small, ridged, white plastic cup.  You ask for water at a restaurant and it comes in a blue plastic bottle.  You need a bag for your oranges at the grocery store?  Good luck finding one in paper; they’re all plastic (fortunately, many are now biodegradable).  You order an Aperol Spritz at an outdoor cafe; it’s served with a lavender plastic straw.  Pick up some street food in Palermo?  It’s served on a white plastic plate.  Pass by a construction site, and it’s cordoned off with orange plastic fencing.   

Plastic is unavoidable and ubiquitous here.  It gets blown into the trees; it gathers at the curbs; and it clogs up the storm sewer drains.  And as if that weren't bad enough, it can sit in a landfill, (unless it's ingested by an animal--another grave problem), for as long as 1,000 years.  It’s an especially difficult issue for an island that relies on fishing and tourism, has limited options for refuse disposal, and is only just learning how to recycle.  These sarte of Cerda are very aware of the pollution problems presented by plastic.  Taking advantage of the festival's audience, they decided to sew us what they know.

Cerda Street Carpet of Plastic

Their ecological artwork was a multicolored “carpet” laid out on an ascending side street.  At first, I thought it was an infiorata.  I’d read about these but had never seen one. “Infiorata" means "decorated with flowers," a tradition of painting with flower petals that dates back to the early 17th c., when the head-florist at the Vatican and his son treated flower petals as if they were the tesserae of a mosaic to decorate the basilica on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome.  Infiorate still take place in Italy today, usually in May and June, including in Spello in Umbria, Noto in Sicily, and Genzano in Lazio.  They’re intricate, labor intensive, ephemeral, and stunning.

Spello

Noto

Genzano

But this was not an infiorata.  On closer examination, we realized that this carpet was not made of flower petals.  It was made of plastic:  wine corks, bottle caps, garbage sacks, cups, plates, bubble wrap, CDs, flowers, construction fencing, water bottles, grocery bags, and polystyrene.

Along the sidewalk adjacent to the carpet on the right side was a bicycle decorated with plastic and an old straw hat that had seen better days,

 a group of blue bottle palm trees, 

and a Train of Creativity.

But most remarkable of all was what was happening on the sidewalk adjacent to the left side of the carpet.  Here the sarte strutted their sartorial stuff:  dresses fashioned out of plastic bottle caps, bread bags from the bakery, CDs, construction fencing, and old newspapers, PLUS a wedding dress made out of white plastic plates and cut, fanned-out, plastic cups.   

We wondered what Plastic Protagonists had woven this magic carpet and tailored this haute couture.  As if sensing our question, the three sarte from Cerda and the artist who conceived of the project appeared out of nowhere, eager to explain.  The six of us then engaged in a lively back and forth in the middle of the street, speaking all at once and laughing together as always happens with Italians--especially Sicilians.  We expressed our overflowing enthusiasm for their artistic ingenuity and ecological sensitivity, and they were visibly touched by how much we enjoyed their work.  Big smiles all around!

It was an unexpected, wonderful, and frankly exciting experience to find that we had something so meaningful in common with these four women whose lives are very different from ours:  a common concern that plastic is damaging our environment, our fellow creatures, and each other.  This causa in commune bridged two human landscapes with different cultures, languages, experiences, and professions.  It linked a sincere appreciation on our part for what these women had done, to a sincere appreciation on their part for our receptivity.  It was a joyful, shared moment that will stick with me for a long time--but not as long as that damn lavender plastic straw I didn’t ask for!

Keep it real!

Marilyn