FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature. A temporary Art Intervention by Klaus Littmann
FOR FOREST, whose pictorial idea goes back to the dystopian pencil drawing “The unending Attraction of Nature” (1970/71) by Max Peintner and which Klaus Littmann discovered over 30 years ago, was a unique art action that brought together art, nature and architecture in an unprecedented way. With this installation, Littmann wanted to challenge our perception and sharpen our view of the future of the human-nature relationship. The project also saw itself as a reminder that the self-evidence of nature could one day only be marveled at in places specially assigned to it, as already happens today with animals in the zoo, for example. With 299 trees, some of which weighed up to six tons, landscape architect Enzo Enea designed a Central European mixed forest over the entire field. From the stands, spectators could view the trees from different perspectives, day and night, on the field where soccer is usually played.
The images of the “stadium forest” went around the world and touched people in a way that only art is capable of. In this short documentary, director Robert Schabus invites us to take a look inside Klagenfurt’s Wörthersee Stadium in the fall of 2019. Robert Schabus goes on an atmospheric search for traces of the project and asked the visitors what emotional impression is created in them by the completely new way of looking at the seemingly familiar – the forest.
The documentary will be shown as part of the current exhibition TREE CONNECTIONS presented by the Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger