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Download Press release English - International symposium - october 2023

Download Press release French - Rencontres nationales - septembre 2023

Download Press release French - Observatoire artistique - juillet 2023

Download Press release French - Mémento sur la protection des allées - juin 2023

Download Press release French - Rencontres nationales - septembre 2022

Download Press release French - Observatoire artistique - juin 2022

Download Press release French - Observatoire artistique - mars 2022

Download Press release French - Observatoire artistique - juin 2021

Download Press release French - Observatoire artistique - septembre 2020

Watch the short film by Thierry Passerat

The RD 427 avenue, a 3.3 km long ash tree avenue, is documented at least as of the early 19th century and was replanted in the 1950s. The County road is running through the village of Trampot (Vosges), close to Joan of Arc's birhtplace Domrémy la Pucelle.

It is a very special avenue : due to be felled in 2005, it lead to investigating avenue policies in Europe and drafting of a white book about tree avenues (Road infrastructures - Tree avenues in the landscape) that was published by the Council of Europe as part of the work around the European landscape convention. To ensure its preservation, a bill was drafted and a legal protection of tree avenues in general was eventually integrated into the French environmental code in 2016.

The ash tree avenue is under the pressure of Chalara fraxinea, a fungus causing ash dieback. 24 trees were felled in 2019, out of 271. Some others were felled in 2022. But being situated in an open landscape, the trees resist quite well. The preservation of this avenue is interesting to monitor the resistance to ash dieback. It is also important for the rich biodiversity associated with ash trees.

The dynamics of the evolution of the trees and the avenue serves as a background for an artistic landscape observatory: we invite artists to follow this evolution over the years. The artworks produced will eventually showcase the avenue, for the benefit  of the village of Trampot.

In 2020, 2021, 2022, we invited two artists, Constance Fulda and Ridha Dhib. In 2023, French artist José Le Piez will make his contribution, and in 2024, the american photographer Wayne Gudmundson will add his part to the Observatory.

For the 5th season of the Artistic Observatory of the ash tree avenue in Trampot, we welcome several artists from different disciplines.

American photographer Wayne Gudmundson will be in residence from May 31st to June 6th in Trampot. His work, exhibited notably at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or the Reykjavik Museum of Photography, explores the marks left by humans, nature and time in the landscape. Concerning trees, his black and white photographs seek to show how they interact with the landscape, creating it.

He will photograph the avenue in Trampot as well as other avenues in the surroundings. His editing and printing work will be done as part of another artistic residency, at the Tusen Takk Foundation, in Michigan (USA).

For the fifth year in a row, visual artist Constance Fulda (France) will continue making rubbings of the ash trees in the avenue. Each rubbing on a special Japanese paper, is unique, like the signature of the trees, made of the imprint due to the bark and former scars. Put together, they will represent a piece of about 125 meters long. Read more about Constance Fulda and her previous work in the avenue under 'Observatory 2020' to 'Observatory 2023'. Constance Fulda will be in residence from June 16th to June 23rd in Trampot. Come and see her perform her rubbings on Sunday, June 23rd from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.

On the same day, at 3:30 pm, we will also welcome the French ensemble Angeli Primitivi (José Le Piez and Patricia Chatelain) for a concert of 'Arbrassons'. The Arbrassons are acoustic sculptures created by José. The sound is produced by simply carressing the wooden surface. This acoustic process was discovered and developed by José Le Piez. It has an amazing poetic force and seems to hold magic. Its only equivalent in the world is that of the livika, a sacred instrument used in funeral rites in Papua New Guinea.

José Le Piez will then remain in residence in Trampot to perform his art of sculpture, which he practices in the spirit of martial arts. José has worked in collaboration and exhibited with Ernest Pignon-Ernest or Giuseppe Penone, and his sculptures are exhibited e.g. at the Utopia Museum in Belgium, the Mona Museum in Australia, the Museum of Natural History of Rouen-Normandy, or the City of Sciences in Strasbourg. In Trampot, José will work on timber from ash trees in the avenue that had to be cut down in 2023.