Make_Shift City

BASURAMA
Urban Solid Waste
2008 – present / heute
Various cities worldwide
/ verschiedene Städte weltweit
TRASH-O-RAMA
Residuos Urbanos Sólidos – a.k.a. RUS (Urban Solid Waste) – is a travelling
public art project developed by Basurama (trash-o-rama). Since 2008, the Spanish
collective has been visiting different cities around the world with the common goal
of dignifying locally produced waste and revealing the hidden potential of neglected
urban spaces.
RUS has been carried out in cities that share common issues – mass consumption,
unequal access to resources, and the dangerous working conditions of garbage
collectors. However, since every project is developed in close collaboration with
local cultural representativesand agents, Basurama adapts each intervention in
response to the specific needs of each community.
Abandoned or neglected urban spaces are carefully selected and transformed
with waste materials found in the immediate surroundings. Projects are cheap,
easy to reproduce, and easy to adjust. As local counterparts are included in the
construction process, Basurama provide participants with meaningful tools that
allow them to modify and customise their own environment.
Basurama works with any kind of waste, be it solid, domestic, or industrial. They
also mobilise disadvantaged communities at the margins of society to rethink their
options.
Thus the consolidation of a local network results in a greater collective awareness
– beyond consumption, production, and reuse to wider issues of social exclusion
and empowerment.
RUS is funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation
(AECID). The movement remains mobile, with an international focus: having
started in Miami in 2008, RUS travelled south through Latin America and has lately
expanded to cities in Africa and the Middle East.
← Ghost Train Park, Lima: an abandoned railroad track became an amusement park. / Geisterzug-Park,
Lima: Ein aufgegebenes Gleis wurde zu einem Vergnügungspark.
↑ Design with repurposed tires and a 1,500-euro budget / Ein Entwurf aus wiederverwendeten Reifen,
realisiert mit einem Budget von 1500 Euro
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