Six metres beneath the Mediterranean, Marseille-based artist and freediver Sofiane Benyahia is hard at work with a needle and thread. But instead of fabric, he is stitching together discarded drink cans, torn fishing nets and plastic waste recovered from the seabed. Sofiane Benyahia said, "On the way down, I found a plastic bottle and a drink can that's already breaking down; this is what it looks like. The micro-particles of aluminium eventually end up inside our bodies."He added that freediving is a way of reconnecting with the living world. In Underwater, you are just as vulnerable as everything around you. You are on the same level as marine life."Concerned that traditional clean-up campaigns were no longer enough, Benyahia began transforming underwater waste into artworks designed to confront viewers with the pollution hidden beneath the surface. Displayed in a Marseille gallery, the pieces aim to show that what disappears into the sea rarely disappears at all.
Comments