Photography: Superflux
Superflux has created a forest inside the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, bringing in a mix of living trees and blackened pines rescued from wildfires.
The installation, which is entitled Invocation for Hope, is part of the Vienna Biennale for Change 2021, which this year takes the theme of love for our planet and its climate.
Superflux ‘planted’ over 400 trees inside the museum, surrounding a ring of still-living plants, shrubs, and moss with rows of dead pines – dragged out of the forest in Austria’s Neunkirchen and transported to the capital.
Visitors drawn to the pool at the heart of the installation will catch glimpses of animals, thanks to a mirror and screen located at the bottom, which shows footage of zoo animals drinking from water troughs. Regular watering and grow lamps will ensure all of the living foliage continues to grow for the duration of the exhibition, which is on display until 3 October.
At the end of the biennale, the burnt trees will be repurposed as compost, and the green ones are set to be donated to local schools in Vienna. Londoners can also visit an urban woodland this year, thanks to Es Devlin’s Forest For Change installation in the courtyard of Somerset House.
Over the pond, a ghost ‘forest’ of dead trees is also on show in Manhattan until 14 November as part of an installation on climate change by artist Maya Lin. See more.
