Arboreal Futures
Venue
Display map on Google MapsTrees can live for more than 1,000 years, and current climate models predict climate change of just over 100 years in the future. What will happen then? A collaboration between the EPFL Plant Ecology Research Lab (PERL), performance artist Maja Renn and designer and artist Krzysztof Wronski has given rise to a speculative journey through time and into the near future of indigenous trees.
What role do trees play in human society? Are they seen as building materials, CO2 reservoirs or living beings? How are trees adapting to climate change? Can technology support this adaptation process? And what can humans learn from trees?
Krzysztof Wronski's multimedia installations explore how living trees can be given extended possibilities for action and abilities. The artist's prototypes and interventions are intended to serve trees and at the same time scrutinise the relationships between humans and living organisms that are struggling with the climate crisis.
The performative installation [Pheno]Plasticity by artist Maja Renn describes scientific findings on the property of phenotypic plasticity, i.e. the ability of organisms to form different shapes in response to environmental conditions.
The research of the Plant Ecology Research Lab under the direction of Prof Charlotte Grossiord shows the latest research on the physiological and ecological reactions of terrestrial ecosystems to global change.
The transdisciplinary exhibition Arboreal Futures is part of the Dear2050 series and combines science with art and design to present the speculative future of trees and native forest ecosystems in Switzerland. It was produced by Climanosco, EPFL Pavilions and Durabilité EPFL.
