Art as ecological care

Plastic waste and invisible biodiversity, illegal dumps and evolving plant life. The natural heritage and everything that threatens it can become the subject of artistic activities to regenerate any wounded place on the planet, along with its inhabitants. Environmental artist GCV shares what can happen when everything works and everyone takes part.

«There is rubbish at the bottom of the sea, on mountain slopes, on islands in the middle of oceans and even inside my blood cells. I have become… waste! When did I ever decide to adopt this identity?». With these words, GCV opens not just an exhibition, but a gash.

In the body, in the environment, in the crisis. Her performances, involving microscopes, seeds sprouting on live skin, plastic fused into the flesh of the Earth, are born of urgency: to heal wounded places, together with those who inhabit them.

But it is not just provocative art. In GCV’s projects, environmental activism is woven into a method. After years of experimenting among rural communities, suffering territories and illegal landfills, she has identified three key elements that make any participatory art intervention effective.

The ABC of effective projects

The first is listening, according to GCV. But not just any kind—it is about «in-depth preliminary documentation to gain a detailed understanding of the interconnections between geography, demographics and economy across different social and cultural layers», which are themselves linked to specific ecological issues. This process is essential, can take months and requires the establishment of genuine, lasting and equal relationships. As her background in ethno-anthropology teaches her, observation is the foundation and demands «a great deal of time and even many field visits, in order to develop a strong relationship between artists, facilitators and members of the community», always remembering that «access is a constant negotiation, where the people have the final say».

Time, patience and commitment are important not only in the early stages, but throughout the entire process.

«The activity implemented», GCV notes, «must not be a temporary patch on old wounds and ongoing social inequalities, but a constant and continued effort on the part of those in power».

The second element is the presence of art. The real challenge lies in finding, each time, suitable approaches to address the climate crisis and “adaptation”¹. This quest «is always deeply intertwined with the community’s resources, its levels of health, education, safety and the basic services available». In order to find a successful path, artists are increasingly needed on the team and interdisciplinarity is, according to GCV, a crucial pillar if a project is to have real meaning for those involved locally. The third concerns origins:

«Whatever solution is developed must always arise from a stimulus provided by the community itself, it must grow from the local environment and be shared by the majority», she explains.

«Implanting someone else’s ideas, however well intentioned, is like expecting tomatoes to grow from cucumber seeds».

When art takes root in reality

GCV describes herself as a «lifelong upcycler»: since childhood, she has transformed discarded, lost or forgotten objects she found around her. «There were always old cardboard boxes ready to be reshaped into tiny houses with furniture», she recalls. «And I have always been a huge fan of transmutation². Even a small act such as giving new life to something considered dead made change feel accessible, not just an abstract, dreamy concept». A glance at her projects is enough to understand that GCV is far from being an artist (or a person) who lives on sterile theory and principles.

In 2023, through the project HyperAbject³, created with her partner Alexkiro⁴ as part of the There is NO away!⁵, project, she photographed plastic waste found in illegal dumps around Bucharest. These images, shown through a digital microscope in a final immersive event, transformed the scars, skin and wrinkles of visitors into waste, leading to a powerful emotional identification. This was intensified by a video combining collected footage and satellite images of the dumps.

In 2024, with the Plastic Art Performance collective, she launched Holobiont, adaptive movement for interspecies survival⁶, a collective dance project that brought together an international team of artists to «dismantle anthropocentrism through the collapse of the unitary biological self». The performers wore costumes designed to grow various seed species on biodegradable gauze, showing how their movement was influenced by living organisms on their skin. For about ten days, GCV silently observed under a microscope the transformation of seeds into micro-plants at up to 1000x magnification, creating slides that were gradually integrated into the show. The result was a live performance, a unique fusion of dance and microscopy: a «dialogue between dancers’ bodies, caught in their interconnected networks, and the timid transformations of a humble seed, the locus of all potential and all life».

The third and most recent project is Black Delta, conceived shortly after to respond to fires in the Văcărești Natural Park, using a practice of “affective ecology”⁷ to «give voice to a wounded landscape through a variety of tools, establishing a kind of affective ecology practice». The open workshop offered a free, non-hierarchical exploration of different art forms and senses, engaging visitors through olfactory, visual and acoustic images, along with guided movement and a pause at a microscope research station. «Part of my work involved collecting many samples of water and soil from both burned and unburned areas of the park to compare them under the microscope», she recounts. «This led to the creation of a sample library that could be consulted during the participatory event».

Tools for caring

The microscope is almost always at the heart of GCV’s creations, and she admits to always being behind on adopting new technologies. But it is not just that. The use of a tool that focuses on the minuscule is a conscious choice, an intention and a hope—«to inspire more care and gentleness for all that is small and unseen, but extremely alive, both around us and within us. To keep sharing its beauty and vital role». She vividly remembers the first time she “encountered” a microscope. It was in the biology lab curated by her mother for over 20 years—a true cabinet de curiosités⁸ filled with giant, lush ferns, snake plants, Monstera, birds of paradise and various palms. «My young imagination conjured journeys into unexplored tropical forests, next to life-sized anatomical mannequins, educational panels on biological cells and dozens of teaching tools, including rare vintage tech like overhead projectors, slides and lightboxes, all surrounded by floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with stuffed animals and spooky skeletons trapped in formaldehyde», she recalls, as if still there. «And on one of those shelves stood proudly two microscopes, carefully wrapped in dust-proof covers: the two treasures of the Educational Laboratory of the Pedagogical School in my neighbourhood. The first microscopes of my life».

Despite all the technological innovations she has since encountered, the microscope has always remained her favourite tool for making art, an «immersive toy that instantly transforms me into the carefree girl who looked through it for the first time and forgot to breathe».

On the rare occasions when her microscope rests, GCV turns to photography, using it in a creative and polyphonic way that is more innovative than many so-called “advanced” technologies. She uses it to capture traces, as an intimate tool for documenting inner processes, for archiving grand stories and tiny details. She has even created a visual library of organic textures captured in every place she has visited, which she continues to expand into a work in constant evolution.

Her curious gaze is always alert, even with technology, but the only form of technological excess she accepts is one aimed at tracing and exploring new paths toward a symbiotic future. This also applies to artificial intelligence, which she has so far avoided—and intends to continue doing. Her choice is grounded in environmental reasons, which she explains clearly, though she admits that there are circumstances in which such technology can bring benefits, if well managed. «While I strongly oppose the accelerating adoption of AI due to its electricity and water consumption, its increase in carbon emissions and electronic waste», she says, «I also recognise its positive impacts in some fields, starting with medicine».

The Plastic Art collective

Photography was also the gateway to performance, leading to photo-performative projects with the Plastic Art Performance Collective⁹ and Alina Tofan, the other artist who co-founded it. Together they created «projects that taught us to adapt and understand how each of us sees the world, even to inhabit those views for a short time».

«We were and still are both deeply concerned by the endless (non-recyclable) production of plastic, its ubiquity and the damage it has caused to ecosystems both globally and locally», she explains. «We joined forces to express in a complete work the urgent concerns we had accumulated over the years about the state of the planet and our destructive behaviour, within a turbo-capitalist Global North and, specifically, our corner of Eastern Europe».

Shortly before the pandemic, the two artists began mapping emotional biographies of plastic waste: emotional and material narratives that tell of plastic’s pervasive presence in human life, from childhood to adulthood. Starting from Tofan’s memories and later inviting more plastic testimonies from the community, they developed in 2020 a cultural intervention project called Plastic: Affective memory and Waste, with a travelling performance, a virtual reality installation¹⁰ and a booklet. A bold and multifaceted beginning that spawned a series of connected and standalone projects, always carrying strong environmental messages.

Their research continues to expand, but the idea of working with discarded material—whether plastic or textiles—remains a constant for GCV, driven by a desire «to pursue ideas or processes that show the interconnectedness of living beings or address the roots of the current polycrisis», she explains. «By provoking, critiquing and offering possible solutions».

«I want everything I create to remain native, fertile and useful, like plant species naturally growing in my back garden».

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1. Adaptation refers to adjustments in ecological, social or economic systems in response to actual or expected climate stimuli and their effects. It refers to changes in processes, practices and structures in order to moderate potential damage or take advantage of opportunities associated with climate change. In simple terms, countries and communities must develop adaptation solutions and implement concrete actions to respond to current and future impacts of climate change. https://unfccc.int/topics/adaptation-and-resilience/the-big-picture/introduction ↩︎
2. Transmutation is a term that takes on different meanings depending on context, but generally indicates a radical change in the nature, form or substance of something. ↩︎
3. The term “hyperabject” is a theoretical synthesis of Timothy Morton‘s Hyperobjects: objects so vast (such as climate change, plastic, radioactivity) that they escape traditional human perception and defy the boundaries of time, space and human intelligibility. Julia Kristeva‘s theory of the abject: that which is expelled, disgusting, and destabilises identity and symbolic order. Cfr. Frantzen, M. K., & Bjering, J. (2020). Ecology, Capitalism and Waste: From hyperobject to Hyperabject. https://philpapers.org/rec/FRAECA-4 ↩︎
4. Alexkiro artistic page: https://youtube.com/@alexkiro1867?si=wRIvt3Gd3wNxvofT ↩︎
5. The official page of the project: https://thereisnoaway.net/ ↩︎
6. Holobiont, in detail:
   https://www.plasticartperformance.com/holobiont-micros/
   https://alexkiro.github.io/holobiont/?page=44 ↩︎
7. Fires in Văcărești Natural Park: Gjergji, O. (2024, January 8). Romania, società civile ed UE per fronteggiare gli incendi. Osservatorio Balcani E Caucaso Transeuropa. https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/aree/Romania/Romania-societa-civile-ed-UE-per-fronteggiare-gli-incendi-229069 https://www.balcanicaucasoorg/aree/Romania/Romania-societa-civile-ed-UE-per-fronteggiare-gli-incendi-229069 ↩︎
8. Cabinet de curiosités, what it means and why it is called that way: Guillermet, J. (2023, May 30). Cabinet de curiosité : définition, histoire, objets singuliers…Voici comment le composer. https://deco.journaldesfemmes.fr/guide-amenagement-et-travaux/2691699-cabinet-de-curiosite-definition-histoire-objet/ ↩︎
9. Plastic Art Performance Collective, official website: https://www.plasticartperformance.com/ ↩︎
10. Alexandru Claudiu Maxim’s virtual reality work (part of Plastic affective memory and waste – the plastic biography of Alina) can be viewed as a 180-degree video. “Tofan’s memories”: https://youtu.be/qkzttLZaKHU?si=XRz4Ij5rkFMm7Ek1 ↩︎