"We Are What We Throw on the Ground": Tipi Metropolitani® Launches "City Scraps®", the Box That Recounts City Leftovers

Barcelona, Spain, March 08, 2014 --(PR.com)-- "We are what we eat?" "No, we are what we throw on the ground": readapting german philosopher Feuerbach's famous assertion, Tipi Metropolitani®, Barcelona-based digital company founder of the 'urban culture' project www.tipimetropolitani.it, opens a new non-conventional publishing branch: 'City Scraps®', an 'urban art' project that analyzes the deepest soul of the world's major cities through the collection and assembly of scraps found in the streets. "In order to understand a city and all that goes on in it there is nothing more true than the waste that emerges from the streets and sidewalks: remnants of any kind that we have collected, sorted and reassembled in an elegant transparent box," said Federico Pisanty, project founder and Tipi Metropolitani's editor-in-chief. "Surprisingly, we found out that what was picked up in all the cities so far 'sifted' - Milan, London, Paris and Barcelona - reveals a state of mind of the metropolis at the same time restless and creative. Mixing shreds of local brands - club napkins, event tickets, trendy boutiques packaging scraps etc. - and 'day by day' life remnants - butts, bottle caps, subway tickets etc. - we created a fascinating and schizophrenic 'mix and match' in a coherent representation of the cities in which they were collected."

Produced in cooperation with several local contributors, 'City Scraps®' is a painstaking and challenging work. Since the launch phase the initiative is recording a success beyond the most optimistic expectations, with thousands of purchase orders signed, mainly on the corporate gifts side. In a few weeks the B2C sale will start through Etsy.com too.

"The reason for this interest? According to us it's twofold: on the one hand, 'City Scraps®' boxes are objects which, in their simplicity and elegance, represent better than any other souvenir (postcards, pins, stickers, and various other gadgets) the visited city; on the other hand because they are a strong 'urban anthropology' tool, as they can sum up in a few square centimeters, how people live in the cities involved in the project. Probably, in a few decades, the 'City Scraps®' boxes will be the most comprehensive findings to reconstruct today's city life!" said Pisanty.