Eduardo Srur: Inescapable Connection

Eduardo Srur, Labyrinth, 400 blocks of recyclable rubbish, including plastic bottles, cups and packaging, cardboard, tin cans, steel wire and plastic mirror, 20 x 20 x 2.30 m, Public parks in São Paulo, Brazil | 2012 

It is the lack of green areas, excessive impermeability of the soil, over occupation of river beads, irregular settlements over natural springs, dysfunctional sanitation and drainage, disorderly disposal of solid wastes, soil contamination, air and water pollution, sound, visual, and electromagnetic pollution, highly fragmented habits due to ever increasing urban sprawling, water scarcity, flooding and landslide happening simultaneously within the same city. It is the art work of Eduard Srur.

Grounded in a city that confronts countless environmental problems, Eduardo Srur expresses his interconnection with his living place through art. His artistic medium is mainly the City of Sao Paulo’s environmental problems. Clearly expressing discontent with human disregard for the environment, Srur’s urban interventions are made with material resulting from environmental neglect and so, he displays them in a way that induces viewers to be at least puzzled by the large scale of the issue.    

Eduardo Srur, Labyrinth, 2012 

Eduardo Srur, Labyrinth, 2012

He also builds forms that remind us of the causes and consequences of the poor environmental quality of our urban areas and places them in areas of difficult access due to environmental problems. The placement of Srur’s art interventions in highly degraded urban sites intentionally embeds his art with the disgraceful qualities of these places. Thus, along with experiencing Srur’s art work, viewers also smell, see, and dirt themselves with the issue that is the source of inspiration of his art work. 

It is as if Srur takes advantage of what disconnects him from his environment to express his connection – and concern – with it. 

Eduardo Srur, PETS, vinyl, motorized inflator pump, floating platform, anchorage, wire rope, electric wiring and cables with fluorescent lamps, 10 x 3.5 m each (20 pieces), Concrete banks of the Tietê River, São Paulo, Brazil, 2008 

PETS ___ Seen by approximately 60 million people in 2008, including three thousand public school kids and teachers for special visits, this urban intervention featured large scale blow-up sculptures based on the well known shape of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles placed on the concrete banks of the highly polluted Tietê River that crosses the city of São Paulo where PET bottles are commonly seen floating and is symbol of the disregard for water resources in a city that is confronting a water scarcity crisis right now.

At the end of the exhibition, the plastic material of the inflatable bottles was transformed into hundreds of schoolbags designed by the artist Jum Nakae and donated to the schools that had taken part in the tour.

Beyond the environmental message concerning the generation and disposal of waste, the work is also about recycling the gaze of viewers. PETS was re-exhibited at the Guarapiranga reservoir and in Bragança Paulista, a neighboring town to Sao Paulo (1)

Eduardo Srur, PETS, 2008 (detail)

Eduardo Srur, PETS, 2008 (detail)

Tiete River, Sao Paulo, Brazil : pollution
Man who collects garbage to sell for living says he collects two tons of PET bottles per month in the Tiete River. From this activity, he makes about US$ 700 a month and says that he has found everything, but fish.

Eduardo Srur, The Dead Aquarium, Fishing net, nylon string, solid waste collected from the beaches, Acqua Mundo, Guaruja, Brazil | 2014

The Dead Aquarium___ By invitation of Leo Burnett Tailor Made, Srur created a submerged installation in the largest aquarium of South America - the Acqua Mundo Aquarium - in the City of Guaruja, Brazil.

The main room of the Acqua Mundo is located in the middle of the aquarium and provides a 360-degree view of the tank, which, for this art installation, was divided into two halves. One of the halves maintained the marine species that are usually displayed in the aquarium, while, the other displayed solid waste found at the beaches of the region. The unavoidable comparison between the graceful movement of living beings and the morbid static of the floating garbage was unsettling and thought provoking. Finally, one must choose between an ocean filled with life or one filled with death. (1)  

Eduardo Srur, The Dead Aquarium (detail)

Volunteer collecting floating garbage for Voluntary Action EcoFaxina at the Bay of Santos, near Guarujá, Brazil (Feb. 11th, 2015). Marine pollution causes degradation of habitats and leads to death thousands of marine animals every year.