Scientific exhibitions

Plastic Matters: Wild lives / Matières plastiques : des vies sauvages

Plastic Matters: Wild lives, 2018. LeMeur, Strady and Kieu-Le.
Summary: Plastics have gradually transformed Vietnamese lifestyles since the country opened up to international trade in the late 1980s and the gradual importation of new consumer goods made from polymers. The country has, in a few years, shifted from an economy marked by shortages to a system of production and mass consumption, especially manufactured goods made of plastics.Nowadays, Vietnam has become a major exporter of plastic objects and it is becoming a coveted place in the international plastics market. In parallel, the scientific community has identified the country as one of the main responsible of the oceans ‘pollution by plastics: Vietnam occupies the 4th place of a ranking published in the journal Science in 2015.
This trilingual exhibition (French, Vietnamese and English) intended for the general public aims to make an inventory of the social lives of plastics in Vietnam, following the objects from their places of production, consumption, in the privacy of daily life and up to the accumulations of waste in the aquatic environment.
It is based on a scientific collaboration of French and Vietnamese social scientists and environmental scientists: Mikaëla Le Meur (Anthropologist) - Émilie Strady (Water Geochemist) - Kiêu Lê Thuy Chung (Geologist). Relying on Elza Montalhuc's original and illustrative graphic design, this exhibition proposes to make sensitive and accessible the local and global issues related to the plastic material, a popular and democratic subject, but whose effects on the environment are more and more disturbing.
Details: 22 panels 60*120cm
Language: French, English and Vietnamese

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