Art Rubbish in Cologne

Apr. 22 - After exhibitions all over the world, one thousand of sculptures made of rubbish are back on display in Cologne.

One thousand sculptures of people made out of rubbish went on display outside the Cologne cathedral on Friday (April 21).

The so-called 'trash people' are back in Germany as part of a world tour. According to the artist H.A. Schult, they are spreading a message about the dangers of the environmental imbalance in the world.

"The sculptures have been shown in Paris, on the Red Square in Moscow, they stood the Great Wall of China, in front of the pyramids in Giza, under they earth in the atomic bunker in Gorleben, 2,700 metres high on the Zermatt alps, in Brussels and in Kilkenny. From Cologne they will go to New York and Santiago de Chile. They will come to rest in the Antarctic to scream their message about the unequal ecological balance to the world," he explained.

Ironically the thousand sculptures require 16 containers when they are shipped around the four corners of the world, and containers lost from container-ships are some of the most dangerous forms rubbish in the seas.

Cologne is the only German city on the tour, and already crowds are flocking to see the sculptures, resembling an army of people spread out across the square. The sculptures are made entirely of refuse, old drinks cans, bits of computers, old bits of rubbish.

"The idea presented itself, we live in the Age of Trash," Schult explained. "We no longer live in the Stone Age, we live in the Trash Age. These sculptures which I made out of rubbish, they are reflections of ourselves, we produce trash and one day we shall become trash." - Reuters Video here