Yuval Elazari Volcani

New Life

The concept of reusing junk has fascinated me all my life because I thought of it as a wasted substance. Since I was a child, I collected, renovated, repaired, dismantled, and tried to give a new life to other people's trash. I have been trying to produce as little household waste as possible in the past few years. This is how I discovered that packaging is the main ingredient in most households' trash cans. What is packaged? Everything ... We also pack ourselves. When I tried to define 'packaging' I was exposed to a world of different economics, industries, and ways of marketing that use the same type of packaging to mold meaning, attraction, and popularity. While working on my project, I consulted with family and friends and used their waste to create my own new collection of clothing items. All pieces were made with minimal intervention to the waste material while trying to understand what the material could and wanted to become. This is the story of how I created a full collection from our biggest and untapped resource: trash. Materials: cardboard (egg cartons), polyethylene (agricultural nets), BOPP (snack bags), polyamide (nylon bags), paper (newspapers) Working techniques: punching, threading, braiding, knitting, sewing, folding (smoking).