Ala Plastica

Artist: Silvina Babich, Alejandro Meitin
Location: La Plata, Argentina
Year of completion: 1991
Researcher: Rodrigo Marti

Ala Plástica is an art and environmental NGO based in Río de la Plata, Argentina. The main concern is to link the art way of thinking with the development of projects in the social and environmental realm. Since 1991, Ala Plástica has developed a range of non-conventional artworks, focused on local and regional problems, and in close contact and collaboration with other artists, scientists and environmental groups. Ala Plástica works bio-regionally, within Argentina, as well as internationally in relationship to other transformative arts practitioners.

In 1995, with Junco/Especies Emergentes [The Reed/Emergent Species] Ala Plástica, begins to articulate various visions of the region by creating communication and cooperation platforms side by side with communities along the Estuary of the La Plata River. The study of the extraordinary propagation system of the reed, its ability to create new territories and its cleansing capacity, allowed us to activate the metaphor of rhizomatic expansion and of the emergence of a series of interconnected exercises at the Plata River estuary to explore new and creative ways of developing and applying socio-environmental profiles for the La Plata River and its coastal development.

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Ala Plastica is exceptional in their ability to work formally within institutions of power while simultaneously maintaining the dynamic and creative force of artists and organizers. They use the local river basin as a subject around which to start conversations about the relationship between urban and rural life, and ecology and sustainability, as well as a focus for developing strategies around finding long term solutions to environmental degradation. Ala Plastica is literally organizing and creating knowledge, community and legal recourse in order to combat environmental degradation in the region. Ala Plastica offers an exemplary example of new ways for understanding public art by putting dialogue, community and social issues in public places.

All copyright belongs to Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University.