The ART of Recycle – VERONIKA RICHTEROVA

“PET-ART” is how the artist defines her works. PET is the abbreviation of polyethylene terephthalate, the material of which plastic bottles are mainly composed.

Since 2004, Veronika has travelled to over 76 countries and collected thousands of bottles that she has turned into pieces of display art. Indeed, there have been many exhibitions in which she has participated, both individually and together with other contemporary artists.

Her brilliant intuition was to realize that the heated plastic becomes moldable and any shape can be obtained.

“The principle is very simple: every PET bottle tends to become smaller when heated. However, in my experience, it is difficult to adjust the process since the different types of bottles are of different quality and their behavior is often unpredictable.

The work is always full of adventures; the final sculpture is usually the result of many experiments.

The biggest advantage is that there is a lot of free material all over the world. I have a special house full of bottles that I find, which is my ‘treasure’ where I can go to choose what I want to work with”.

Veronika Richterova