[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]8BOXES
urban recycling project
Shahin, visual artist and painter, and Bengin, architect and urbanist, are Kurdish Syrian brothers who escaped their country after being active in the civil protest against the regime of President Assad. In 2014 they united their artistic strengths and started a recycle bike project. Under the name of 8BOXES they make unique bikes out of trashed bike parts.
Since they arrived in Amsterdam they surprised themselves about the existing consuming society, which is a result of the modern fast life people live. They noticed an enormous amount of thrown away goods, amongst also a lot of bike parts, out on the streets and started wondering why these materials were not recycled. Probably because not many people believe that you can make a bike out of trashed parts and it takes a lot of time to do it, which leads to less profit.
Still Shahin and Bengin found it environmentally, socially and urbanly necessary, in a bike city like Amsterdam, to start recycling what they found.
It was a long journey of trying in which they also started to use other materials like bags, belts and furniture. The voyage led to the discovery that you can do it.
The necessity as mentioned above is triple.
Environmentally recycling is friendly and in this case it means the avoiding of using 19,6 kg of coal for the production of 1 kg of steel for a new bike.
Socially they want to make people aware of the consuming society we live in and show that you can have a new bike out of old and thrown away parts.
Urbanly, it enhances the local economy, and besides it is a way of cleaning the streets and make them look neater.
The work on each bike takes an average of 60 to 180 hours of work. They make twisted rims straight again, repair broken spokes and gears, restore other destroyed parts, remove rust from frames and paint them. Although the recycling is a long process, the brothers consider it also fun time. It’s a continuation of their childhood, in which they grew up without any fancy toys and enjoyed at a young age to be creative with anything they found.
The name 8BOXES arose out of the 8 different boxes of tools and materials they work with and the 8 different disciplines they’re specialized in: art, design, architecture, animation, film, urbanism, graphic design and mechanics.
With the profit of the sold recycled bikes Shahin and Bengin would like to support family and refugees in and outside of Syria, who are now facing a very difficult time in camps and villages.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” interval=”3″ images=”5317,5318,5319,5320,5321″ onclick=”link_image” custom_links_target=”_self” column_number=”2″ img_size=”medium”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
