Fabio Novembre (IT)
www.fabionovembre.com

Adopt a Tree

13.07. - 19.07. 2008

Trees are mankind’s connection to the world. By destroying them, mankind destroys itself, as trees provide us with oxygen to breathe. In response to global deforestation, in 1997 the American environmentalist Julia Butterfly lived 738 days on a 600-year-old California Redwood tree to protect it from ruthless logging. Fabio Novembre, Italian designer, picked up the story and challenged the participants of the workshop to adopt a tree. The participants had to develop a close relation to their selected tree by giving it a name and thinking about a trees desires and needs. In the following days, the participants built objects around their trees symbolizing the presents humans wants to give back to nature. These gifts for example included a nest for leaves or picture frames displaying the trees ancestry to symbolize humans respect for nature. In daily discussions, the participants talked about feasibility of their projects. After four days mainly individual work, on Friday, the 21 participants built a soccer field with the idea of having the lines made of flower seeds and played soccer.