Building "The Thinker's Burden"
A symbol for the INC5.2 Global Plastic Treaty negotiations
The Thinker’s Burden is a 6-meter-tall sculptural remix of Rodin’s iconic Thinker, which is being created for the INC 5.2 Global Plastics Treaty negotiations by Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong, in collaboration with SLS Illusions.In this version, the Thinker cradles a baby, sits atop Mother Earth, and is entwined in a giant strand of DNA — the building block of life — to highlight the growing health and environmental impacts of an unregulated plastic industry on both people and planet.Crafted from papier mâché, wood, and steel, and covered in living vines, the sculpture will be slowly engulfed by a mounting wave of plastic waste throughout the negotiations — a visual metaphor for the toxic legacy being passed on to future generations.This piece is a public call for world leaders to finalize an ambitious treaty with legally binding obligations that addresses plastic pollution, and the health harms it causes across its entire lifecycle — before it’s too late.
This installation is funded with the generous support of the Minderoo Foundation, Chris Larsen, Canton de Genève, Tracy Ferron, Maggie Kaplan, Erica Berger, and Ocean Care. We're still seeking potential donors to close a large funding gap! Please reach out if you can support.
What is the global plastics Treaty?
My last installation, the "Giant Plastic Tap" at the INC-4 Global Plastic Treaty negotiations.
Over the past two years, delegates from 193 countries have gathered five times to work towards a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty.Despite tireless negotiations, the most recent round—INC-5, held in Busan, South Korea—ended without resolution. Meanwhile, the situation only worsens.In response, an additional session—INC-5.2—has been convened in Geneva, Switzerland, to hopefully finalize an agreement aimed at ending plastic pollution across its full lifecycle, from production to disposal.Nations remain divided into two camps:- High Ambition Countries, pushing for upstream measures, including caps on plastic production
- Low Ambition Countries, advocating for downstream solutions like recycling and waste management.This art installation, located in the Place des Nations, right across where the treaty negotiations are happening - hopes to bridge this division by focusing on what both sides have in common: A desire to protect human health and wellbeing, not only for this generation - but for all future generations to come.
We need your support to finish this art installation!
To bring this project to life, we need a small army of volunteers to help us prepare all of these plastics, that are meant to drown our art installation in plastic.If you're free anytime between the 21st of July and the 16th of August, please join our WhatsApp Group!
This project exists because an entire community came to support it.
Our headquarters for this project, were graciously provided to us by Glitter Genève, while our material expert friends at Materiuum pointed us in the right direction to find a large variety of second-hand plastics.Papirec Genève provided us with 15 cubic meters of PET and HDPE and will recycle any leftover plastics from the installation for us.Finally, our non-profit friends at Summit Foundation, Trash Hero Switzerland, SDG Solution Space, Serve the City, Regen Eden, Zero Waste Switzerland, Zero Waste Geneva, Geneva Environmental Network, Gallifrey Foundation, Plastic Free Campus, Green Earth Action Foundation, Corde Cafe, and TannEco helped us to collect both trash and volunteers to make this project possible!Once this project is complete, our international non-profit partners will amplify this project far and wide;
5 Gyres, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Oceanic Preservation Society, As You Sow, Habitable, World Resources Institute, A Plastic Planet, Geneva Environmental Network, UN Environment Programme, Oceanic Global, Break Free From Plastics, UN Today, Gallifrey Foundation, Greenpeace, and Ocean Care.
We're so close to completing this project.
Can you help us get over the finish line?!?
We're still looking for volunteers, funding, media partners, journalists, influencers, and folks that we can hire as security guards to watch over the installation at night!If you have any ideas, please reach out to us.