6999 Oaks

2012
Project for a public competition in Caen (Fr)
Digital drawing, chipboard, styrofoam, modeling figure
unknown dimensions

Displacement to Caen, France, of one of the 7000 oak trees planted by Joseph Beuys in 1982 for the Dokumenta 7 in Kassel, Germany.

Joseph Beuys works 7000 oaks, is one of the major contribution in the field of contemporary art to the ecological mouvement. With this action, Beuys wanted to show the nessecity of protecting the biosphere. 30 years later, in reaction to the way the new place Saint Sauveur in Caen was conceived (without any square of green space), I proposed to use the public order for the production of a new piece of art and proposed to move one of the 7000 oak trees planted by Joseph Beuys in 1982 for the Dokumenta 7 from Kassel to Caen. A way to place nature in the center of our preoccupation again and to remind us that this action of planting, should never stop if we want to preserve the livability of our cities center.