Startup Europe Awards

CONVERT ART, winner of SEUA Greece in Creative Category

 

Country: Greece

Category: Creative

Name: ‘Convert Art’

Project Aim: Recycled art

 Awards: Startup Europe Awards

What is Covert Art?

Convert Art, the first startup upcycling company in Greece, manufactures handmade products with high design, aesthetics and quality, made exclusively from recycled inner tubes, tires, electrical equipment, wood and aluminium.

 

What kind of things does it made?
Convert Art has created a collection of handmade polymorphic bags, jewelry, and different objects like coasters, wallets, agendas, folding trays etc. Always environmental friendly and completely vegan, the items do not contain any animal tissue.

How it started?
It started in 2012 when the artist Marina Griponisioti was accidentally found in a garage and began experimenting with a car tire in order to turn it into a new functional object. What was once a rubber after some treatment turned out to be a handmade belt.

Why does this project start?
The inner tubes in Greece are not recycled, so they end up useless in the garbage. The inner tubes cannot desintegrate easily, as a result when they are thrown away uncontrollably in the environment and especially if they are burned, dangerous fumes are released which can cause problems to people's health. Convert Art is the one and only company in Greece that uses inner tubes as a material to upcycle. Reducing the use of new materials can lead to the reduction of the use of energy, of air pollution, even reduce the gases produced by the greenhouse effect

How is the project growing?
Thus the Convert Art products were born, now there are more than 40 different kind of products which have been presented in various exhibitions and markets: Modern Creations (2016) Athens Fashion Trade Show (2016) The Fashion Room Service (2015) Greek Design = Good Design (2013) Pleiadon Mountain Resort & Spa (solo exhibition 2013) Myrtali Art Hotel (solo exhibition 2013) The Meet Market (2013) Ιn December 2013 the jewelry line won an award in the Greek Design = Good Design contest and in December 2016 the handmade polymorphic bags won awards in Top Design 2016 competition. In December 2014 the first Convert Art Lab Store was created in Xylokastro and in December 2016 the Convert Art Showroom opened in the center of Athens. By now Convert Art has more than 35 different sales points.

The recognition of Convert Art and Upcycling through the European StartUp Award will help me show my work abroad and inform as many people as possible in Greece and all over the world about this revolutionary method of reusing already existing materials through the Upcycling process. Upcycling can offer solutions to the huge environmental issues that our planet is facing