It’s not every day you see a five-meter-tall tree moving on its own, even less transported by bicycle. This surreal spectacle did not go unnoticed by those who, last July, saw a small caravan of bicycles passing over the Ponte della Libertà, heading toward Venice, with precisely one pedal-assisted bicycle at the head carrying a plant with an imposing 6oo-pound stem. Pedaling it was Bruno Doedens, a Dutch architect turned land art artist, who with his “Circle4Change” project will ride more than 5,ooo kilometers every three years in a circular fashion through different states of Europe to raise awareness among the people he meets on his way to change their lifestyles and plant trees.
«The goal is to turn this distance traveled into opportunities for people, organizations, artists, municipalities, and businesses to come together to promote on the one hand an increase in awareness of the importance of having as many trees as possible to limit the effects of climate change by mitigating pollution and on the other hand to take direct action by planting them!» the artist explains. Starting from Leeuwarden in the Netherlands at the end of the journey, which moves along an imaginary circumference, Bruno will eventually have traveled through the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, France and Belgium, having as opposite poles just his own city, already European Capital 2018, with Gorizia and Nova Gorizia, Capitals 2025 joined across their old border Italy and Slovenia.
«After 20 years in the office I realized that even architecture is dominated by capitalism and values such as ecology, social and culture are being crushed by the pure logic of profit so I switched to land art to raise awareness of the need to change vision – explains the artist – Two years ago I started planting trees with my project “Bosk” to give back space to nature within an urban context by making for more relaxed people connected to green. The initiative inspired similar experiences in Europe and the U.S., so I wondered what I could do to make a contribution to bring society back from a humanocentric to a naturocentric view. In my opinion it was easier to experience nature through trees than to discuss urban planning models, so I thought that plants in addition to being “talking” could also become “circulating”».
«I wanted to offer a model to show that the earth can be a better place to live, and since there are 8 billion of us, everyone can do their part to preserve the planet by becoming responsible, and since trees live longer than we do, we have to take care of them – he adds – are ancient life forms that know everything about the place where they are planted because they are connected to the soil at a deep level, they are symbols and activators of life, I chose the oak tree as the very image because of its resilience, which teaches that to connect to nature you don’t need to be all the same, but you need to relate to each other. The message that I am bringing together with my companions is that if we want to, our habits can change. However, for that you need to create a purposeful narrative, with credible and positive stories, because if you only tell negative things, people will not take action. So we are storytellers for the purpose of changing mindsets, not proposing to go back to 5oo years ago but to believe in sustainable technical and scientific innovations ».
«Starting right from storytelling – Bruno relates – for our society it is interesting to show that what seems impossible can be done, so I decided to organize a bicycle trip carrying the very emblem of this project: a tree. The crazy idea of carrying 6oo kilograms of ballast with it was a success, despite critical technical and logistical issues. The circle represents precisely the spirit of unity and collaboration, this is not just an art project where we incentivize tree plantings, but it is activist, we aggregate more and more people as we pass through, and in every municipality we pass through we meet the mayor to explain our initiative and have them tell us about their sustainability projects, everywhere we gather support and enthusiasm, there is a lot of desire, especially in the smaller towns to be part of something bigger ».
«The circle that I drew on the map was meant to be something that would stimulate not only the imagination but also activate a kind of ‘social energy,’ I don’t want the project to remain mine, but to be as shared as possible, so that together we can overcome the impact of the negative news that we are inundated with every day – he adds – the circular line thus becomes a platform, a laboratory for innovating and connecting that as well as becoming a great work of land art, will be transformed into a modern long-distance hiking and cycling route equipped with a positive message, which we aim to renew every three years. That is precisely why in addition to the main initiative of a tree “pedaling” through Europe we are also promoting the “Birthday Tree“: incentivizing people to give themselves a plant as a sign of celebration. If I had done that, there would now be a whole forest to commemorate my 66th birthday. With the mayor of Leeuwarden , we identified a dedicated green space to be populated with birthday plants ».
«I admit that traveling with a tree on your back is peculiar, in fact the reaction of people is incredible, they often open their windows and applaud us as we pass by, even animals look at us in curiosity, flank us and run with us, fascinated by a moving tree – Bruno smiles – and of course the arrival in Venice was unusual, with the bicycles then being loaded together with our tree on a boat heading towards the Architecture Biennale through the Grand Canal and Rialto, as the “Circle4Change” project was hosted by the European Cultural Center in the Space Existence 2025 exhibition at the Palazzo Mora palace. Here an installation of a giant 3.5-meter high QR code, designed by Theo Heldens, led to a collection of traces of this experience. Since Venice was right on our circular line, we immediately responded enthusiastically to the proposal to participate; it only took a few emails to make the idea concrete ».
«On this journey, where I am accompanied by three other people in addition to myself and those who join us for some of the stops, we are joined by a group of 16 others who support us in terms of social media communication thanks to our sponsors – he concludes – this is the beginning of something that we hope will grow more and more, we have seen that everyone we meet, especially children, react positively, a sign that the idea and the project can work. That is why we continue to seek funding, and those who want to help us can do so by joining our crowfunding directly on the site dedicated to “Circle4Change.” The tree that travels with us will be planted in Leeuwarden once we return to our destination, with a plaque that will tell its story, proving that paradise exists and is already here you just need to look for it, it is nature, with its beauty, that we must defend and preserve».
C.I.D. s.r.l. Società a Socio Unico – Casa editrice del settimanale Gente Veneta – CF e PI 02341300271 – REA: VE – 211669 – Capitale Sociale 31.000 euro i.v. – Dorsoduro,1 – 30123 Venezia
Iscriviti a GREEN&SALUS e non perderti nessun aggiornamento, ti invieremo 1 volta a settimana i nuovi articoli!
