Project developed by BoCA - Bienal de Artes Contemporâneas, since 2021.
It brings together local communities and artists, calling on them to contribute to a forest of works of art.
After putting down roots in Faro, Almada and Lisbon, in 2024 it returned to the capital and arrived in northern Portugal, in partnership with the municipalities of Braga and Penafiel.
Birch trees, oaks, laurels, stone pines, chestnut trees, strawberry trees and cork oaks have enriched the flora of the Shadow Island on the Encosta das Lages, in Penafiel. The initiative, which brought together 30 participants, took place at the new culture and creativity space, Ponto C, on November 16. The following week, on the 22nd and 23rd, in Braga, a group of 100 students and other Braga citizens turned up to plant 300 trees and shrubs in what was already the largest urban park of native forest in the country, Monte Picoto.
Remember that on March 23rd of this year, BoCA had returned to Vale de Chelas to celebrate the arrival of spring, in partnership with Lisbon City Council, planting a total of 450 oaks, strawberry trees and rosemary. We had already been there in 2021, in an inaugural planting, and in 2022, when 122 participants rolled up their sleeves in front of 580 specimens (including cork oaks, holm oaks, almond trees, carob trees and wild pear trees).
Inspired by the legacy of 7,000 oak trees by Joseph Beuys (1921-86), a leading figure in ecological art, who also argued that “we can all be artists”, BoCA began to design a project of planting trees as citizenship exercises in different parts of the country. Inclusive and participatory, it initially invites all citizens - regardless of age or gardening skills - to plant a tree and give it a title. What follows is a call to artists and curators for performances, events, debates or conferences; combining artistic programming with the creation of natural spaces.
