Tree Connections

An outsize land-art installation confronts the dystopian reality of climate change and deforestation: In Tree Connections, Swiss curator and artist Klaus Littmann (born 1978) presents his commanding response to humanity’s increasing estrangement from nature. Upon discovering Max Peinter’s dystopian drawing The Unending Attraction of Nature, Littmann was struck by the idea that “what makes us put animals in zoos could also happen to nature.” He resolved in that moment to bring Peinter’s vision to life; after years of searching and negotiation, Littmann finally secured a fitting site for his intervention. Enlisting the help of the landscape architect Enzo Enea, he successfully transformed the Wörthersee football stadium in Klagenfurt, Austria, into a native Central European forest. For two months during the fall of 2019, the stadium housed approximately 300 trees of diverse species that stood on a constructed “forest floor.” Today, the forest remains in proximity to the Wörthersee, reincarnated as a “forest sculpture” accessible to all. Tree Connections traces the evolution of Littmann’s project, urging readers to face the unsettling trajectory of the Anthropocene.