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2022-04-25

ARENA FOR A TREE, Basel 2021 / Zurich 2022

A FINAL SURGE FOR LIFE

ARBOR DAY 2022 - For the arena in the courtyard of the National Museum, the choice of tree fell on a "clinically dead" high-trunk apple tree. It is intended as a reminder of an agriculture whose yield can only be secured with great manual effort (trees with lower crowns have displaced the high trunk over a large area). More than 11 million high-trunk fruit trees were brutally felled or blown down in Switzerland from 1950 to 1975. In his book "Baummord" (Tree Murder), political scientist Franco Ruault tells the story of a general-staff action that changed Swiss agriculture forever.

In recent years, heat and drought in particular have taken their toll on trees. Dying trees once again sprout vigorous blossoms. When a tree feels the end approaching, it wants to reproduce quickly and pass on its genes. What you can currently see in the „Arena for a Tree" is also called a scare or emergency bloom. These blooms are not a good sign, but rather the last gasp when the trees are in a bad way.

Offspring is what trees need if they are to cope with maximum temperatures in the future and be equipped to deal with dust and pests. One wishes each one a good location: space, time and care to throw up new seeds.

The walk-in art intervention ARENA FOR A TREE by Klaus Littmann can be visited free of charge during the opening hours of the National Museum.

With kind support of the Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger

ARENA FOR A TREE | walk-in art intervention | Landesmuseum Zurich, Museumstrasse 2, Zurich | MO-WE 10:00 – 17:00, THU 10:00 – 19:00, FR-SU 10:00 – 17:00 | admission free

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