Marie Oehm
120 Kilos of sand
A box, two signs, a chair and a brush. With these five simple elements Marie Oehm (Bonn, Germany, 1998) hopes to actively raise awareness on the impact of turning up at a cove (in this case, Caló des Moro, in Santanyí) and what it means to “return” the sand that visitors involuntarily take with them. It is estimated that the average person takes away 35 grams of sand, which stick to them, when they leave a beach. This means that if 3,500 people visit said beach in a day, between them all they are removing over 120 kilos of sand. An excessive amount that needs to be taken very seriously.
Sand is the second most-consumed resource on Earth, after water. It is an element in crisis, due to over-exploitation by big industry. Companies use sand as a raw material for making houses, bridges, buildings, doors, glass, microchips and many other unexpected products which we use frequently in our everyday life (for example toothpaste).
As the global population grows, so does the demand it creates. Several [...]
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