![]() ![]() Historically known to keep outsiders at bay, this opening of doors by Saudi Arabia is a step toward allowing new voices in contemporary culture to be heard. “They allowed me to exhibit what I wanted and there was no censorship.” “The fact that I, as a woman originally from Puerto Rico, can put a gigantic object that has references to projectiles and bullets in the desert in Saudi Arabia is revolutionary,” shared Gisela Colon, who created a large projectile-shaped sculpture for Desert X. While some participating artists felt political pressure to bow out of the exhibition, in the end, they were proud to be part of this breakthrough. Fostering engagement at this critical time provides a way to connect artists and individuals who have remained isolated for far too long.” “The exhibition will engage with the citizens of the country-half of whom are under 30 years of age. “Our hope is that in helping bring a site-specific contemporary art exhibition to the desert of AlUla, there will be new conversations, new cultural dialogue between individuals and communities,” shared Neville Wakefield, Desert X Artistic Director and co-curator of Desert X AlUla. ![]() Visitors are encouraged to dive into the artwork, whether jumping on the artificial puddles of Manal AlDowayan’s Now You See Me, Now You Don’t or connecting with one another on One Two Three Swing! by the Danish collective Superflex. “But now, people are starting to question themselves.It's a historic moment for contemporary art in Saudi Arabia, with a roster of young artists-many of whom are women-using the desert as their canvas. “For many years we consumed, and no one seemed to care that more and more textile waste was being generated,” she said. ![]() The process uses neither water nor chemicals. Things are changing, though, according to Rosario Hevia, who opened a store to recycle children’s clothes before founding in 2019 Ecocitex, a company that creates yarn from pieces of discarded textiles and clothing in a poor state. Whether the clothing piles are left out in the open or buried underground, they pollute the environment, releasing pollutants into the air or underground water channels.Ĭlothing, either synthetic or treated with chemicals, can take 200 years to biodegrade and is as toxic as discarded tyres or plastic materials.Ĭhile, the richest country in South America, is known for the voracious consumerism of its inhabitants. The same report said clothing and footwear manufacturing contributes 8 percent of global greenhouse gases, and that “every second, an amount of textiles equivalent to a garbage truck is buried or burned”. To make a single pair of jeans requires 7,500 litres (2,000 gallons) of water. Water wasteĪccording to a 2019 UN report, global clothing production doubled between 20, and the industry is “responsible for 20 percent of total water waste on a global level”. “I wanted to stop being the problem and start being the solution,” he told AFP about the firm he created in 2018. “The problem is that the clothing is not biodegradable and has chemical products, so it is not accepted in the municipal landfills,” said Franklin Zepeda, the founder of EcoFibra, a company that makes insulation panels using discarded clothing. “What is not sold to Santiago nor sent to other countries stays in the free zone” as no one pays the necessary tariffs to take it away. “This clothing arrives from all over the world,” Alex Carreno, a former employee in the port’s import area, told the AFP news agency. But at least 39,000 tonnes that cannot be sold end up in rubbish dumps in the desert. Some 59,000 tonnes of clothing arrive each year at the Iquique port in the Alto Hospicio free zone in northern Chile.Ĭlothing merchants from the capital Santiago, 1,800km (1,100 miles) to the south, buy some, while much is smuggled out to other Latin American countries. The social effect of rampant consumerism in the clothing industry – such as child labour in factories or derisory wages – is well-known, but the disastrous effect on the environment is less publicised.Ĭhile has long been a hub of second-hand and unsold clothing, made in China or Bangladesh and passing through Europe, Asia or the United States before arriving in Chile, where it is resold around Latin America. A mountain of discarded clothing, including Christmas sweaters and ski boots, cuts a strange sight in Chile’s Atacama, the driest desert in the world, which is increasingly suffering from pollution created by fast fashion.
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