A family of oaks has settled in the heart of Geneva. Family name : Quercus. These are their firsts: five robur, ten cerris, sixty petraea fify-six pubescens and four frainetto. The photographic report presented here is the result of the juxtaposition of the work of two different photographers, consisting of their personal interpretation of the project through their multiple visits on site.
Dylan Perrenoud β digital camera and Guillaume Collignon βanalog photography, medium format. By a quite simple conceptual gesture the artist managed to use the power of art discourse and action to activate an environmental concern that has grown ever since. This happened in s, the same decade which saw a very substantial acceleration of violence towards all living beings on earth.
Ever since, we have been trying to develop our consciousness to counter this movement, with a relatively poor success. One the most interesting issues about his art gesture is that it constituted a real contract with the city of Kassel. It was through the engagement of a contractual relation that the piece acquired all its strength. Its subtitle was important as well: City forestation instead of City administration. The discussions, polemics, and difficulties to find the funds for this enormous project had the consequence of it being treated exactly as a moment or point of a political agenda.
This is probably the most powerful argument of the proposal. From his artist position and posture, Beuys anticipated what was going to become a political and civic issue: the presence of the vegetal and animal other-than-human-living-beings world in urban fabrics as a breathing, vital necessity. There is another perspective on this: co-existence.
We depend on other living beings to transform the atmospheric air into breathable oxygen. We can also think of these beautiful transforming organic machines as companions, creatures that live with us.
