Procida 2022, an exhibition against environmental pollution from plastic in the sea

As part of the cultural program of Procida Italian Capital of Culture 2022, the Chiaiolella Marina is offering Watersurface, an exhibition that aims to bring to light the issue ofenvironmental pollution, until Dec. 31, 2022.

It therefore presents the work of three internationally renowned underwater photographers, Nicholas Samaras, Pasquale Vassallo and Guido Villani, in an effort to combat plastic pollution that grips the world’s seas and oceans. By 2025 the oceans will contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish, and by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish. Floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii is a 1.6 million square kilometer plastic island, more than 400,000 times the size of the island of Procida. The Mediterranean, according to Legambiente’s Beach Litter research, has for every 100 linear meters of coastline about 670 pieces of trash. Plastic accounts for 95 percent of waste in the open sea: on the seabed and beaches of our peninsula, 134 species including fish, birds, turtles and marine mammals are victims of plastic ingestion.

These data gave rise to the idea of telling the story of the adaptive responses of fish and mollusks to the new environmental conditions linked to the anthropocene: striking images, also made in the Gulf of Naples, which will run 50 meters along the pier of the Chiaiolella harbor. One sees a jellyfish catching the wrapper of a chocolate; another does the same with a Q-tip. An octopus playing with a soccer ball; a cuttlefish does the same with a condom. And a seahorse clinging to a disposable mask.

“With our shots, taken around the world, we tell the story of the daily risks that marine species face because of humans and our impact with the hope that the resilience of some species does not reduce our sense of responsibility towards the environment,” Pasquale Vassallo explains.

Free admission.

Procida 2022, an exhibition against environmental pollution from plastic in the sea

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