A Curator Has Moved a Forest to a Soccer Stadium as a Warning About Climate Change. Here Is a First Look at the Epic Artwork

Three hundred trees are growing
in a soccer stadium in Austria in an epic work of Land Art that
aims to raise awareness about the world’s climate emergency, and
the dangers of deforestation. The remarkable installation organized
by the Swiss curator Klaus Littmann is the realization
of a long-held dream based on an artist’s drawing he saw more than
three decades ago.

Littmann confesses that Max
Peintner sounded skeptical that his vision, which he created in
1970, could be ever be realized. But the
Basel-born curator, who
studied with Joseph Beuys, will unveil the meticulously planned art project in the city of
Klagenfurt in southern Austria on September 8. Called For
Forest–The Unending Attraction of Nature, it has
transformed the Wörthersee soccer stadium into a temporary forest
of trees native to Austria and Central Europe.

The curator has transplanted
hundreds of specimens, some of them fully grown and weighing up to
six tonnes each, to create the living work of art inspired by
Peintner’s work, which predates Beuy’s proposal to plant 7,000 oak
trees at documenta in Kassel in 1982. 

The installation in Austria took a total of 22 days to execute,
with diverse species like alder, aspen, field maple, and
common oak being sourced from nurseries in Italy, Germany, and
Belgium. The team, which was overseen by the firm Enea Landscape
Architecture, opted to source from three locations to minimize the
number of journeys involved in moving the plants to Austria.

Each will be transplanted again
at the end of October after For Forest closes. Mindful of
the ecological footprint of the project, the curator explains that
they will be moved to a site near the stadium.

The Swiss curator first saw
Peintner’s work on paper more than 30 years ago. “I am very glad
that [his] dystopian drawing ‘The Unending Attraction of Nature’
has finally become a reality,” Littmann tells artnet News. “Never
has the timing of one of my projects been so spot on,” the
68-year-old curator added. 

Peintner, who is due to attend
the opening of For Forest this weekend, represented
Austria at the 1986 Venice Biennale. Littmann’s version of his
drawing opens as this year’s Venice Biennale’s Golden
Lion-winning Lithuanian
Pavilion also raises awareness about climate change. The
operatic installation features an indoor beach.

With forest fires raging in the
Amazon, and Hurricane Dorian causing devastation in the Bahamas,
the experience of nature contained inside the man-made structure of
the soccer stadium seems set to also strike an emotional chord
among spectators. The audience will be able to view the forest from
many different angles within the 30,000-seat stadium. The ephemeral
work will continually change as leaves on the tree change color and
drop during the fall.

“With this art intervention I
would like to challenge our perception of nature and sharpen our
awareness of the future relationship between nature and humankind,”
the curator says. “This project is also a warning,” he adds:
“Nature, which we now take for granted, might someday only be found
in specially assigned spaces, as is already the case with zoo
animals.”

The installation is the highlight of a program of related
exhibitions and events across the Austrian city, which includes
performances and theater pieces. There will also be a group show
called “Touch Wood” at the Museum of Modern Art in Carinthia and at
the Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt, which explore the theme of
forests.

“FOR FOREST” will be on view at Wörthersee Stadion from
September 8 through October 27, Klagenfurt. 

The post A Curator Has Moved a Forest to a Soccer Stadium as
a Warning About Climate Change. Here Is a First Look at the Epic
Artwork appeared first on artnet News.