Buttboard

The buttboard is a travelling piece of art that is on show in different places. You can watch the making of Buttboard on YouTube.

About 4.5 billion cigarette butts about 500, 000 tons, end up in nature around the world. However, the real reason behind this pollution is people’s ignorance. There is a common misunderstanding that cigarette filters compost in nature like every other organic component, and that’s also the reason why people don’t think it’s actually trash. In reality cigarette filters are made of plasticthat takes up to 15 years to decompose in nature and bits of it could be eaten by animals, birds, fish and eventually it could end up on our table as well.

In Estonia about one billion cigarette butts end up on the street and in the sewers each year. Smokers have a habit of throwing the filters straight into the sewer hole, thinking that the water treatment plant will filter it out. The truth is, that most of the rain water, including cigarette filters and the rest of the litter that’s lying around, will be swept straight into the nearest body of water. For example in Tallinn, nearly half the rainwater doesn’t pass through a treatment plant. People tend to have no idea that a cigarette filter surfs straight into the sea and is one of the most common sources of pollution in the Baltic Sea. One cigarette butt contains more than 40 toxic chemicals, like acetone, ammonia and arsenic that cause great damage to marine biology.

In the spring of 2019 we wanted to raise more awareness on the issue on the issueand came up with a plan to collect all the cigarette filters and turn them into a travelling piece of art. In July of 2020 the Buttboard was completed. John Kaju, a professional windsurfer and boatmaker from Saaremaa made the bottom part of the SUP-board. The top part of the board, including the design was created by a well-known artist to our festival guests, Ines-Issa Villido. The cigarette filters are coated with strong epoxy resin, which permanently attaches them to the paddle board and prevents harmful chemicals from being released into the environment. And for your information – yes, the board floats and you can paddle on it; no, it doesn’t smell.

So now you know the story behind the Buttboard. Tell others and spread the message.

Trust the whale

“Trust the whale” or affectionately illiku’s forest whale was created for the I Land Sound 2023 festival. With its life-size 5-metre body length it is a little bit bigger than a newborn humpback whale. The sculpture is covered in fishnets and cigarette butts that are one of the biggest sources of pollution in the oceans. Huge amounts of plastic, including cigarette butts, have been found in the stomachs of whales and other aquatic animals, and fishnets that are left adrift in the sea are a major threat to whales because they can get stuck.

A whale in the middle of the greenery looks a bit odd, maybe even a little magical, bringing a part of the deep sea into the daylight. The area of the body of water on planet Earth is unfathomable. And most of the time people don’t think about the fact that our activities on land will reach distant places in the world’s oceans. Just like that, litter and plastic travels with rainwater into the rivers and seas straight to oceans, where only 40 years ago huge garbage islands were discovered. These garbage islands are spread out over hundreds of thousands of kilometres and still collect more and more plastic. Inevitably this pollution also affects all sea animals, including the world’s biggest – whales.

It is estimated that since the beginning of the whaling industry about 3 billion whales from different species have been hunted, and because of that the population of some whales has become endangered.

Whales have an important role in preserving the Earth’s ecosystem. Even though they are far from our cultural space, they keep us alive by feeding the phytoplankton, that feeds on whale excrement. Phytoplankton is just like a rainforest that floats in the ocean and produces at least half of the planet’s oxygen. It helps to maintain the fish population and helps to fight climate change by binding immense amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.

The more whales, the safer our planet!

Artist: Ines-Issa Villido

Ilandphant Ellu

ilandphant Ellu was born in 2019 and at the time she was part of the setting of Loojangu stage. The authors of the piece are Kristjan Klemets, Kertu Laanela, Heikki Gross and Eva Reiska. Ellu carries the message of taking care of animals and nature and compels us to think about the choices we make and how they affect our surroundings. Awareness and care open up opportunities to work with nature. Ellu also aims to raise people’s awareness about the life and destiny of the elephants who are used for hiking trips, rides and other forms of entertainment in tourism. Although elephants are very intelligent and like to learn new things, they are still wild animals and in order to make them obey humans they are subjected to a cruel training process.

Ilandphant Ellu is a life-sized African elephant, whose trunk moves and spews water. By climbing her you can experience the feeling of riding a real elephant without harming the animal. The see-through piece is illuminated and made of metal.