“Plastic. Brilliant or perverse, how do you see it?”

A good opportunity to reflect on the biodegradability of leather compared with the synthetic materials that imitate it

The Museu de la Pell d’Igualada presents the exhibition “Plastic. Brilliant or perverse,how do you see it?”, produced by the Museu de la Vida Rural. The show, which can be visited until 30 January 2022, is an invitation to reflect on plastic through the visual arts.

Curated by Núria Vila, it features the participation of some twenty local and international artists and brings together objects, photographs, videos and artistic installations around plastic that constantly challenge and question the visitor: “How do you see it?“

Leather Cluster Barcelona is taking part in the exhibition and invites visitors to see the show while reflecting on the biodegradability of leather compared with the synthetic materials that imitate it, which are made from plastic and therefore from compounds derived from petroleum, a limited natural resource that, beyond the negative environmental impact of its production process, is costly and complicated to recycle and has very poor biodegradability.

Leather is rich in carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, three elements that bacteria and fungi like to feed on, a factor that means that, once deposited in an ordinary landfill, it will biodegrade within a few years, and far more quickly than, for example, synthetic materials, which take between 100 and 500 years (polyethylene) or longer (PVC and polypropylene). Moreover, unlike plastic, leather is harmless to the oceans and carries no risk of microplastics forming.

Through this exhibition, the cluster wishes to champion leather as an example of the circular economy, and the correct use of the term leather only for those articles of natural origin. The term leather is used in many cases, but not always respecting the nature of its origin. Leather of animal origin, as a raw material for making consumer products, is a biophilic material, that is, one that reconnects us with nature, because its origin is natural. Imitation leather is of fossil origin and therefore appropriates the term leather for its positive connotations, which as a synthetic material it cannot offer, because it is neither natural nor durable, nor does it grow more beautiful over time. And vegan leather, a term that has appeared more recently, refers to artificial or synthetic products, or to varieties of new biomaterials that are emerging. However, this last term is all too often used to mislead people into believing that it is a material of natural origin when in fact it is synthetic or combined with synthetic polymers.