On the cliffs of Ognina, in Syracuse, the waste abandoned by swimmers and uncivilized people no longer disfigures the landscape, but is transformed into powerful tools of ecological denunciation thanks to the project GluDaMare. Created by Alessandro Torrisi – account manager by day and passionate diver in his free time – the initiative gives new life to plastic bottles, cans, flip flops and nets recovered during sea storms or free diving.
Alongside him, friends and relatives such as Marco Torrisi, Eviana Fatina, Daniele Mascherucci, Luciano Catinella, Ivan Celano and Giorgio Corallo contribute to giving shape to unique installations. The name of the project contains a triple soul: onomatopoeia glu which evokes the underwater world, the origin of the materials from the sea and deep affection to love towards nature.
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Ecological totems and the battle against cigarette butts
The symbol of this visual protest are the plastic totems, anthropomorphic figures designed to monitor the coasts and warn passers-by. A clear example is the work that uses a bottle filled entirely with cigarette butts collected in just two square meters of cliff as a nose, accompanied by a sign that recalls the enormous global impact of this waste. Through creative workshops aimed at children, created in collaboration with the MEDSEA foundation and the Rebelterra association, the artist promotes environmental awareness and critical consumption, teaching how to transform waste into fish, sailboats and whales to rediscover the wonder and original respect for the oceans.
The ecological emergency of the Mediterranean and the value of protection
The artistic journey is based on alarming data provided by Greenpeace, according to which over 5 trillion plastic fragments are floating in the oceans. In this scenario, the Mediterranean Sea represents an extremely vulnerable ecosystem: despite covering just 1% of the world’s waters, it concentrates over 7% of global microplastics.
Being a semi-enclosed basin with a single natural outlet into the Strait of Gibraltar, the complete replacement of its waters takes around 80 or 100 years, permanently trapping any waste. Faced with this emergency, the totems positioned along the coast of Syracuse do not only represent a creative exercise, but a severe ecological warning to remember that protecting the sea depends solely on our daily behaviour.
