Riscarti Festival 2025 Rome: When Art Recycles the World
The twelfth edition of Riscarti, the festival dedicated to artistic recycling, closed on October 5th in Rome at La Vaccheria in the EUR district. The event uses art to tell the story of the climate crisis and spread collective awareness, transforming waste materials into powerful artworks that inspire care for the environment.
This year, Cristiano D’Innocenti stood out as one of the main protagonists, winning the Radio Rock Award for his impressive work: Et exterminandi eos qui corruperunt terram, a massive collage of topographic photographs measuring 300 cm × 250 cm. Started in 2023 during the Piemonte Colours festival in Muriaglio (Turin), the piece depicts an angel blowing one of the trumpets from Saint John’s Apocalypse. D’Innocenti assembled the main body of the work in just seven hours, as required by the contest, earning one of the top prizes in the Art & Recycling section. He announced that he will present the final version of the collage in Rome in 2025, during the Holy Jubilee of the Eternal City.
“I’ve always made art from discarded objects,” D’Innocenti says. “I recover and reuse them, giving each a message linked to its material.” The topographic photographs composing this collage were found in a Berlin dumpster in 2007. Since then, he has given new life to those materials, drawn by their print quality and the visual patterns they create. “Giving new form to recovered objects means offering them a new life and a new meaning. Through art, we amplify the silent voice of nature, a nature tired of humankind.”
This collage is the third in a series, following two earlier works, one of which was in color and already exhibited. The concept of this latest piece is to use every remaining fragment, transforming even the smallest scrap into part of the final composition.
The festival hosted about thirty biologists, artists, and performers, showcasing works made from environmental waste, accompanied by ambient music and sound performances designed to highlight climate change. The event received support from organizations, schools, magazines, and public institutions, including the City of Rome, the National Federation of Biologists, ISPRA, and OBLA.
NZIRIA participated, presenting NZIRIA Beer and the project 3rd Space Boxes, an initiative inviting contemporary artists to design portable art spaces made entirely from recycled materials. Two of these boxes were exhibited at the festival, embodying NZIRIA’s vision of regenerative art and creative reuse.
How to join us 🔗 3rdspaceboxes
Festival director Marlene Scalise expressed her satisfaction: “Art and nature are part of the same ecosystem. The role of the artist-biologist is essential to leading a cultural and regenerative transformation. Materials tell a collective story, opening the way to a more sustainable future.”
Once again, Riscarti proved to be a laboratory of ideas, sustainability, and beauty, merging biology, art, and environmental awareness. It is an invitation to rethink our relationship with matter and nature itself. 🔗 riscarti.com
See you at Riscarti Festival 2026!
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A Taste of Riscarti GALLERY 2025
