In these times of war, ecological disasters, and the rise of fascism, combined with the capitalist logic of hyperproduction, organising events such as the Reciklart festival may at first glance appear pointless and irrelevant to the current situation. But in reality, the opposite is true: events featuring art to raise awareness, encourage creativity, create (temporary) communities where different generations and interest groups can meet and socialize, while at the same time making clear political statements and raising awareness about ways of doing everyday things outside the frame of neoliberal capitalism, are more necessary today than ever.
Recently, our festival has started focusing each year on one of the many challenges that contemporary society faces, attempting to elaborate on it. This year's theme is the issue of e-waste, which is thus the subject of most of the workshops, an art colony with students from Serbia and Slovenia, which will result in a group exhibition at the Alkatraz Gallery, a lecture, and several performances.
The theme of the festival might seem distant from the chilling reality of genocide, which is traumatising the whole world, even though it is also driven by it through corporations that make huge profits from the genocide. The profit motive is fuelling the machine of fear and is even lobbying in Europe for an ever-increasing drive towards (re-)armament. Thus, Slovenian politics bowed to the demands of NATO and Trump virtually overnight and decided to allocate a fifth of state revenues to armament. Weapons will, of course, be produced and purchased to use them and then produced again and again, thus completing the vicious circle of what to the majority of the population is like a black hole. This also means further extraction of valuable raw materials for the production of enormous quantities of electronic waste, not to mention the horrors and devastation of war.
The era of digitalisation and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence go hand in hand with huge amounts of electronic waste, a large part of which is made up of batteries that are extremely harmful to the environment. We can find electrical devices in our closets, waiting to be repaired, which is actually more expensive than the device itself, thus leading to the accumulation of electronic waste, which is often toxic. Electronic devices are not manufactured sustainably, as this is not in line with (hyper)consumerist logic. On the contrary, if you want to be trendy, you need to buy a new phone every year. But in the background of this consumption of electronic devices, increasingly linked to the use of the internet and artificial intelligence, lies massive pollution of nature and the exploitation of huge quantities of natural resources (e.g. water). Electronic devices are virtually omnipresent around us and represent an extension of ourselves (smartphones and computers), while at the same time being part of the so-called green transition. There is virtually no mention of the optimisation of electronic devices (sustainable production). Repairs are expensive and difficult to access. Not to mention modern-day slavery and poor working conditions for people who produce cheap goods for the Western world. We associate buying new things, including electronics, with instant feelings of satisfaction, positive self-image, and image building.
Being cool because you recycle, because you are perhaps not using a smartphone or social networks, because you mend your torn pants, because you maybe construct a table out of old cabinets, because you shop at the local market instead of Hofer, thus supporting local produce, because you eat vegan, because you exchange things you no longer need with friends, because you try to connect people into small communities, because you visit performances and art galleries, because you are creative, because you are a wonderful being who needs a community of people around you and nature to survive. Perhaps you can share a piece of your story with us.
Danijela Zajc