When: October 8th 2022, 3 pm – 5 pm
Where: Villa Saroli, Lugano, Switzerland
Webstite: www.i2a.ch
The workshop aims to propose the creation with children of an environmental art installation that playfully tackles the theme proposed by the Swiss Biennial of the Territory 2022. The idea is to play with the concepts of (un) finite and infinite. These, in a sense, are similar. The (un) finite has a beginning but not a term, it is incompleteness in its positive meaning of “available for further evolutions”. Even the infinite does not have an end, and not even a beginning. Both do not end, or at least they cannot be explained in their entirety.
Explaining infinity to a child is not easy. This can be achieved by adopting that classic image of the chicken and egg. Who was born first? Continuous cyclicality. In the same way we can extend this idea to the plant world. Who was born first, the acorn or the oak? By combining these two cyclical images, we obtain a “Tree Egg”.
It is an egg-shaped structure, made with branches, twine and intertwining willow, which will contain a stone and a small red oak plant inside. The external structure symbolizes the egg shell, the stone a seed (or a vegetable yolk), and the plant will be the tree that will break the shell over time. The external structure is (un) finite, permeable to light, air and rain, but also to the eyes of visitors. A shell that protects but allows passage. The thoughts turn to the artwork of Joseph Beuys and his 700 Oaks. The artwork, environmental art that becomes fluxus, frees itself from the artist and from whoever creates it, continuing indefinitely until the last of the oaks will be alive. Thus, the plant born from the Tree Egg, will potentially continue its course towards a theoretical infinite.
From (un) finite to infinite, a recourse to itself. The installation is easily assembled by children aged 5 and over, as they do not have to use any dangerous tools or materials. All the materials used are ecological and 100% biodegradable.
For registration write to kids@i2a.ch