A Tree,

A Tree,
To what extent is anthropomorphism a way to strengthen the connection between humans and trees, or an anthropocentric danger that makes it impossible to acquire objective knowledge? Exhibition A Tree, showcases research and works where artists explore the relationship between people and trees and ways in which we can relate more closely to their time span.

With works by: Sanne Vaassen, Gerbrand Burger, Hira Nabi, Manjot Kaur, Ingela Ihrman, Goldin+Senneby, Alice Ladenburg, Roderick Hietbrink.

Plants make the world; they create soil, shape landscapes, and regulate the climate to some extent. They provide the production of oxygen, fuel, food, building materials, and shelter and form ecologies where all kinds of species come together and enter into a myriad of partnerships: symbioses. 

The exhibition A Tree, is about vegetal agency, plant knowledge, and the interaction between plants and people, specifically focusing on trees. Forester Peter Wohlleben says people often misunderstand trees, mainly because they are so slow. To put this into perspective, the concept of tree time is used. This concept refers to the experience of time that trees relate to. The exhibition tries to set its watch to tree time and showcases research and works where artists explore the relationship between people and trees and ways in which we can relate more closely to their time span. 

Some tree species, such as pines and Japanese cypress trees, can live up to 5,000-10,000 years. They stretch their lives over periods of time we can hardly imagine. Part of the climate disruption problem we face stems from people’s inability to think and plan far ahead. Modern individualism is another part of this problem, in which the relationship to earlier and future generations and ancestors is lost. Trees can be a particularly valuable companion and inspiration for thinking further and back in time and taking into account a complex ecology.

A Tree, is a research project commissioned by Onomatopee that through a multitude of forms activates its multipurpose project space, morphing the outcomes and exchanges between exhibition, public program, publication, and workshop with a myriad of actors.

A Tree, is also the first iteration of a five-year program, introducing a rich encounter of folklore and critical research titled A Tree, with a Bird, by a Woman, on Land, Under a Star, each curated by Marjolein van der Loo. The title contextualizes the project as a recipe or a spell with exit points that become chapters and grow into their own ecology of stories and actors. Together, they form a composition, like a tarot card that tells about the future and the past or an insight, warning, or recipe for now.

A Tree, A reader on arboreal kinship
The edited volume forms an ecology of artistic practices that share intimate and embodied, speculative and queer ways and observations of arboreal kinship ranging from poetry to song, drawing to recipe, and short story to essay. 

With written contributions by:

Joss Allen, Céline Baumann, Bárbara Sánchez Barosso, Jorge Menna Barreto, Gerbrand Burger, Renée Bus, Lucy Davis, Amirio Freeman, Chihiro Geuzenbroek, Femke Habets, Roderick Hietbrink, Ingela Ihrman, Manjot Kaur, Mari Keski-Korsu, Alice Ladenburg, Marjolein van der Loo, Karen Lofgren, Hira Nabi, Frank Resseler, Anne Richter, Jerrold Saija, Oscar Salguero, Sanne Vaassen, Jonmar van Vlijmen, Müge Yilmaz. 

A Tree, is on show at Onomatopee from July 13 until September 21. Open every Friday and Saturday between 12-5 PM. More info on our website.