REMOVE ME! The Alien Rubbish (2024)
Proposal for Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2024: Correct Mistakes
Vere River Construction Waste Site, Georgia
By DirtCrew (Sasiwimon Paosanmuang & Timpika Wetpanya)
The Alien Rubbish is a proposal for an experimental environmental installation that questions the afterlife of architecture and humanity’s responsibility for its debris. Set along the Vere River, an area overwhelmed by illegal construction waste that once triggered a landslide in central Tbilisi, the project reuses discarded materials to assemble vividly coloured “rubbish bins.” Installed at odd scales and colours across the landscape, these alien bins act as intruders within a beautiful natural setting, symbolising the waste that should never have been dumped there.
Each bin carries the message “Remove me!”, inviting visitors to relocate or repurpose it by carrying the rubbish bins down from the Vere River until the installation disappears entirely. This participatory gesture transforms waste into a collective act of accountability. What appears as a gift becomes a reminder of our shared duty to recognise and manage the material traces of architectural production.
We are all part of the formation of civilisation through architecture, but when its term expires, what remains? And where does it go?
By transforming fragments of neglect into acts of awareness, The Alien Rubbish reflects on cycles of creation and destruction, the failures of waste policy, and the ethics of coexistence with our built environment. Conceived as an assemblage of mistakes, the project aspires to leave no trace, not because it has been perfectly cleaned, but because it should never have existed there at all.
