Everything has a soul The starting point and inspiration for Things Talk is the waste art of the artist Henry Heerup (1907-93), and not least his conviction that everything has a soul, i.e. that even 'dead' things have an inner life, which should be respected.   Rubbish sculptures On his daily cycle rides from his home in Vanløse to his outdoor studio in Rødovre, Heerup collected materials for his sculptures in the form of used furniture, broken toys, bicycle parts and many other things.   Heerup called his sculptures "rubbish sculptures" and never hid the identity of the items of waste. On the contrary, he used the original history and function of the thing as a part of the sculpture and allowed it to fuse into the new meanings that were created in the artwork.

Heerup regarded waste as a resource. When something is discarded, its original value is suspended, i.e. its history, manufacture, form and previous function. In short, throwing something out robs the item of its history, but according to Heerup, it is possible, through art, to give waste a new identity, a new set of relations and hereby a new life.
 

In Things Talk this particular artistic process - where things are rethought from waste to sculptural form - will be used to rethink the things that we use in our everyday. The aim is to use art - and not least, children’s imaginations - to invent new and surprising ways to recycle. The idea is to give children both a fun and different way to relate to the debate on climate change. At the same time the rubbish sculptures will appear as diverse expressions of children’s views on climate change and recycling.