Maria Cristina Finucci's HELP the Ocean Installation at Roman Forum

Maria Cristina Finucci's installation 'HELP the Ocean' has been installed at the Roman Forum in Rome, one of the world's most visited archaeological sites. The work consists of 76 metal gabions (1x2x1 meters each) lined with red netting and filled with plastic bottle caps, forming the word 'HELP'. It is part of Finucci's ongoing Garbage Patch State project, which she founded in 2013 as a federal state encompassing the five major plastic islands in the oceans, covering 16 million square kilometers. The installation is supported by Fondazione Bracco, with president Diana Bracco expressing pride in the project's ability to emotionally engage the public on ocean plastic pollution. At night, the sculpture is illuminated by Enel X and visible from Via dei Fori Imperiali. Alfonsina Russo, Director of the Parco archeologico del Colosseo, hopes the site will engage national and international audiences on the importance of preserving the planet. Finucci states that the work's location on the remains of the Basilica Julia was chosen because the Garbage Patch State, despite having no expansionist aims, experienced uncontrolled boundary growth, and the Roman Forum was selected to sound an alarm to millions of visitors. The installation runs until July 29, 2018.