Thinking of natural spaces as spaces for creation and artistic experience is the main objective of The Defense of Nature. A project developed by BoCA since 2021, it brings together local communities and artists, calling on them to contribute to a forest of works of art. After having been to Lisbon, Almada, Faro, Penafiel and Braga, it debuts in Leiria in partnership with Zero.
On January 17, BoCA joined ZERO - Associação Sistema Terrestre Sustentável (Sustainable Terrestrial System Association) to plant native trees and shrubs in the Leiria National Forest.
The aim of this initiative is to restore two natural habitats of priority conservation - the dune zimbral and the faial-medronhal - in an area under the management of the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF).
The activity is free, open to all interested parties and includes personal accident insurance. Lunch will be in the form of a picnic, promoting a moment of conviviality among the participants, which is the responsibility of each one.
Program:
09:30 - Reception of participants and start of the planting action
12:30 - Break for picnic lunch at Samouco Picnic Park (where the initial meeting point was)
16:00 - End of activity
ON DEFENDING NATURE
A ten-year participatory project through which BoCA combines artistic creation and programming with the planting of trees in natural spaces. Created in 2021, “The Defense of Nature” comprises: on the one hand, planting native plant species in different municipalities across the country to build a “forest of works of art”; on the other, inviting artists from different artistic territories to create performances in natural spaces through the cycle “I Want to See My Mountains”.
Based on the legacy of “7,000 oaks” by Joseph Beuys, a key figure in ecological art, BoCA is designing a sustainable plantation involving the collaboration of artists and the local population. Creating a direct correspondence between generating life (natural) and generating life (artistic), each plantation thus establishes an integrated thought that unifies the natural and the artistic, in a combination of art and environment, biodiversity and sustainability.
