ARENA FOR A TREE Venice
An art intervention by Klaus Littmann
Arsenale Nord, Venice
16 April – 31 July 2024
A storm had practically rained out their festive inauguration in April, and their departure on August 1st was also accompanied by threats of storms and thunderstorms. During the blue hour, the art intervention ARENA FOR A TREE concluded after three and a half months. The return trip on the water against the unique backdrop of Venice marked the end of the project. The public had the opportunity to watch this fascinating spectacle from the mainland.
The journey – pushed by a barge – from the historic Arsenal North to the port of Marghera took around three hours. The pontoon on which the wooden “Arena for a Tree” stands measures 21 by 21 metres – the art installation with the three bald cypresses in its centre weighs 50 tonnes.
The arena’s final location is in the tree museum of Enzo Enea, laid out in a 75,000 square metre park near the Obersee part of Lake Zurich in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland. This means that the “Arena for a Tree” will remain open to the public, offering space for the presentation of further trees of the future. The three bald cypresses will put down new roots outside the pontoon and may even recall their appearance in Venice a hundred years from now.
This summer, the 60th Art Biennale in Venice was enriched by the art project Arena for a Tree. The floating platform near the international exhibition united architecture, sculpture and a stage. Its permeable wooden structure is reminiscent of a tree’s annual rings and can accommodate around fifty people. In the centre stood three bald cypresses, symbols of rootedness and adaptability. Inspired by the main exhibition of the Biennale entitled “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere”, “Arena for a Tree” not only explored the themes of migration and identity but also conveyed an important message about climate change and sustainability. For the art installation in Venice, landscape architect Enzo Enea chose the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). It is considered a climate-resistant tree because it thrives in warmer climates and in short- and long-term flooding with fresh and salt water. It has the extraordinary ability to soak up flood water, prevent erosion, and cool and clean the air. These characteristics make it particularly resilient to the challenges of climate change that Venice also faces. Over entire geological eras, it was native to various regions of the world.
The “Arena for a Tree” emerged like a seed from the temporary art intervention FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature, Austria’s largest public art installation, in which we planted a total of 299 trees up to 14 metres tall on the football pitch in the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt in 2019. “Arena for a Tree” was first presented as an outdoor project in 2021 as part of the “Tree Connections” exhibition at the Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger on the Münsterplatz in Basel and in the spring of 2022 in the courtyard of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. Venice was the third and final destination – and the first to incorporate water as another important environmental element.
Designed by Littmann and realized by Schnetzer Puskas Engineers, the arena consists of a basket-like, 7-metre-high transparent structure made of wooden frames and slats. Viewed in plan, the design of the structure together with the inner stand represents the trunk of a tree in profile, including the concentric pattern of the annual rings, i.e. the lifespan of a tree.
“The “Arena for a Tree” in Venice was an incredible experience and a special event. There are very few other places where you can meet so many people from different countries and cultures. The project moves people, and that’s the most wonderful thing about it: when you create a project and find that it moves people. That makes me very happy," says Klaus Littmann.
“Arena for a Tree” was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G and the cooperation with ECC Italy as well as the support of the Municipal Council of Venice and the port authorities.
A publication on the project is planned.
Direction and cinematographer: Chiara Becattini, Giorgio Bosisio
Drone pilot: Claudio Martin and David Marosa
more about ARENA FOR A TREE, Basel 2021 / Zurich 2022 / Venice 2024