Garbage Patch State
Art by Maria Cristina Finucci
The Garbage Patch State – Wasteland is an ongoing transmedia, environmental artwork by Maria Cristina Finucci. The project aims to raise awareness about the environmental hazard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch caused by the dispersion of plastic debris in the oceans. Installations, performances, and videos have been carried out under the patronage of UNESCO and the Italian Ministry of the Environment.
Installations
Paris UNESCO: 11 April 2013
Venice Biennale: 12 April 2013
Madrid ARCO: 18 February 2014
Rome MAXXI: 11 April 2014
New York UNHQ: 29 September 2014
Geneva UNOG: 29 June 2015 for World Environment Day celebrations
Milan EXPO: 15 June 2015
Venice BLUEMED: 16 October 2015
Paris COP21: 30 November 2015
Palermo UNIPA: 11 April 2016
Mozia, Sicily: 25 September 2016
Roman Forum, Rome: 8 June - 29 July 2018, HELP the Ocean
Fuorisalone, Milan: 8 April - 14 April 2019, HELP
Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles: 14 October 2022, What About the 8%?
Fuorisalone, Milan: 17 April - 23 April 2023, H2o Help
Description
On April 11, 2013, in the "Salle des pas perdus" of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the first presentation of The Garbage Patch State took place with the display of a large scale installation and performance artwork. Hundreds of transparent plastic bags, each filled with water and a multitude of brightly colored plastic caps, were created. These bags were meant to be small reproductions of the "islands" present in The Garbage Patch.
The bags were arranged in front of a mirror approximately 30 m (98 ft) long. It looked as if there were twice as many as there were in reality. On the back wall, opposite the mirrors, there was a large image representing distant clouds made of large pixels.
The public source identifies “Garbage Patch State” as art by Maria Cristina Finucci. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Garbage, Patch and State.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Garbage Patch State”, the useful work is to connect “art by Maria Cristina Finucci” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17631200. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Garbage Patch State”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Garbage Patch State primary sources, Garbage Patch State archive and Garbage research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Garbage Patch State”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Garbage Patch State” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.