The main social message of the project is the question “What do we leave behind?” The relationship between the landfill and art left very different, personal experiences for the viewers and sparked discussions. So what next?
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“At the landfill ends up what we bought, what we no longer needed, and what we threw away. And it is precisely the landfill that is the place where we very clearly see the cost of our consumption. We may not see the waste after taking out the trash bin, but it does not disappear anywhere.
This concert made us look at waste differently – not as something left outside our doors, but as a trace of our own choices. Waste management policy does not start at the gates of the landfill, but with each of us: how we deal with what we no longer need, what we buy, how we produce. To truly solve this problem, we must follow a simple rule that waste begins long before it ends up in the landfill,” says the Minister of Environment Ieva Andriulaitytė, who participated in the concert.
Many viewers shared that they had formed a completely different opinion about the landfill and how everything happens there. And when, sitting in the middle of it, in ringing silence, they listened to classical music, people had various reactions. “I haven’t been with myself like this for a long time. I closed my eyes and drifted away. Now it’s very hard to think about anything,” shared a viewer from Jonava immediately after the concert.
A business representative who attended the concert did not say much but stated that business should get its act together more. “Less pollution, healthier products. Recyclable materials and packaging that return to reuse. Circular economy saves resources and at the same time we become richer. Because we need to buy fewer raw materials from abroad and at the same time live cleaner.”
“I haven’t been alone with myself like this for a long time. I have long wanted a form that would touch not only representatives of this sector but also the wider public, for whom this topic may not be familiar. Some may think that the city is beautiful and clean by itself. But in reality, we still have room to improve. I think this is a good start for further development,” shared Kaunas RATC director Laurynas Virbickas after the concert.
The consumption problem still seems far away
The director of the Kaunas Artists’ House, Aistė Paukštė, after the concert noted that today the themes of waste and recycling are very actively discussed in art. However, she notices that the consumption problem still seems very distant to people.
“We show it in gallery exhibitions, but we do not believe that this is already our world. Because you can simply close the door and forget. But when the art action takes place in a place like a landfill, just being there brings you back to reality.
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We felt reality with our whole body: sounds, images, smells, silence, the scale of the place itself. I think we should continue to hold exhibitions, concerts, discussions here. It is much more relevant and impactful than in halls. Also, it must be admitted that often after a one-day festival, a lot of waste from it also ends up in the landfill. Therefore, in art, it is important not only to talk about it but also how we create that art.”
Science world representative Simonas Barsteiga raised the question: how to make people stay longer to discuss and reflect not only on the way to the car but in the same place after such experiences. “Maybe next time when we see a fire on the news, we ourselves will be able to understand how and why it happens. Because we were there ourselves.
Site-specific experience helps to internalize. Not only to take responsibility yourself but also to demand responsibility from others. Such phenomena should expand into various formats, other regions. In the future, art could be complemented by scientific facts. Art draws people’s attention, but without scientific facts, we still do not understand how to solve these problems.”
The first impact of the project is not measured in tons of waste
The project director and co-author Ingrida Ozar states that such a project opened a functioning part of the waste management system to the public. “Art here became not an illustration of the problem but a means for a person to meet it face to face.”
For the project organizers, it is important how much and how people got involved: from viewers to discussions on social media. What they understood, what questions they raised, how attitudes changed. “We can count the public discussion caused by the project and the involvement of institutions. But we would like to measure the long-term impact differently: what specific problems the initiative helped to raise, what people it brought together around them, and what solutions were tested or implemented thanks to that.
“The long-term ambition is not only a series of art projects but also the goal to bring together people who want and can jointly create a measurable contribution to changes in consumption culture and the waste system,” says project director and author Ingrida Ozar. She invites businesses, scientists, or state institutions to partner and contact personally for further actions.
“Concert for piano and landfill in D minor” is the first project of the social initiative “Let’s Try Again.”
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