Performance artistique à Trampot filmée par Thierry Passerat (Vimeo).

For the launch of the Artistic Observatory of the ash tree avenue in Trampot, we welcomed the French visual artist Constance Fulda. Fascinated by trees, she placed her Japanese papers - an extremely light and durable paper that does not turn yellow with time - on the bark to capture the intimate history of the ash trees bordering the RD 427. The result is puzzling: each tree revealed a kind of constellation, a complex network of "cores" and filaments resembling a strange mycelium.

This is the first time Constance Fulda has made such a series of rubbings in an avenue. Usually, she works on single trees such as the huge banyan tree of Thrissur, India, or the millennia-old cedar of Yakushima Island, Japan.

The audience received a miniature rubbing and a copy of an unpublished handwritten text offered by poet Christian Bobin.

Vosges Television (ViàVosges) aired a report available here.

Constance Fulda will return to continue her work until each tree has its "portrait".

The Observatory could be launched thanks to our donors, in particular

On July 15th and 16th, 2023, for the 4th season of the Artistic Observatory of the Trampot avenue (Vosges), we welcomed once again the artist Constance Fulda. She continued her patient rubbings of the ash trees in the Trampot avenue - 157 have already been made, representing an art piece of nearly 80 m in length. Ultimately, it will exceed 100 m! With heir paint roller and her Japanese washi paper, both extremely thin and strong, Constance reveals the trees' unique and fascinating calligraphy of their bark. Magic happens - even an attentive gaze would be unable to anticipate the image.

We also welcomed the storyteller and musician Julie Ory. Where Constance Fulda reveals the written expression of the trees, Julie Ory makes us open our hearts to listen to their language. The audience was captivated by the tales which she complemented with cello pieces.

As part of the Artistic Observatory of the ash tree avenue in Trampot (Eastern France), we welcomed the Franco-Tunisian artist Ridha Dhib on March 24th. The day before, he had stopped in Trampot on his long performance 'Ex-tracés', and written a short passage of the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees. 

The avenue is now documented by a photo and a video sequence with an augmented reality compass that points towards Mardin, at the Turkish-Syrian border, 3118 km away, the goal of the "Ex-tracés" performance. This virtual artwork of our Observatory will only exist if it is known and shared by as many people as possible. You can comment the picture and the avenue here.

On June 25th and 26th, artist Constance Fulda returned to continue the rubbings of the ash trees on washi paper. 113 have already been completed, representing roughly half of the final work, and a length of 56.50 m. For six of the rubbings made, they represend the only tangible remains of the trees, since these were felled in 2022..

During her performance, Constance Fulda also exhibited six 8m high rubbings of oaks intended for the reconstruction of the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris. It created an 'emotional shock,' as one participant expressed it. There is no doubt that the effect will be as mighty when Constance Fulda's intervention for the Observatory is completed, as the entire work will be nearly 125 m long!

 The Observatory can be continued thanks to the support of our donnors, the IRIS foundation in particular

At the end of the symposium organized in 2018, we exchanged thoughts about the initiative called “Tree Avenues - Horizon 2030”, and we retained three keywords:

link, knowledge, events.

Link

By their very nature, tree avenues constitute a physical link between two points. They trace routes, even valued touristic routes such as the German Deutsche Alleenstraße, and precious ecological corridors.

Tree avenues create temporal links: today’s tree-lined streets and roads take us back to the “French-style” garden of the 17th century; memorial avenues in Australia or Canada etc. take us back to WWI. 

Tree avenues form symbolic links: the avenue planted in 2014 on both sides of the German-Polish border in a program called “Make avenues – not borders” is an example. Symbolic links are doubled with human links. And these effortlessly transcend geographical distances.

This makes avenues perfect carriers of the values of cohesion and peace. “Horizon 2030” we are aiming at is an horizon with more avenues, and qualitative avenues, i.e. more physical links, more symbolic links, more human links.

Possible actions: Planting avenues - Creating or managing touristic routes -Twinning avenues and linking people together

Knowledge

Knowledge is essential if we want to preserve avenues in the long term.

We need precise know-how in terms of management to counter the disappearance of trees and avenues.

We need to know where we can find our avenues, we need to be able to recognize them when only a few trees are left, in order to be able to acknowledge their value, to prevent their disappearance, or to replant them.

We need to know the characteristics of tree avenues in general and of each avenue in particular to reconcile the technical imperatives of trees and roads with their historical / cultural interest, their environmental interest, and their social interest (as is required under the terms of article L350-3 of the French Environmental code).

Breaking down divisions, sharing knowledge between different kinds of stakeholders—the man in the street, elected officials, and professionals—and between different kinds of professionals—experts in arboriculture, biologists, landscapers, developers, road managers etc—, and building together is crucial for quality projects and to avoid conflicts.

Necessary actions: Inventories and studies - Sharing knowledge - Crossing disciplines & building together

Events

Events are absolutely necessary to fight against attrition of memory, due to things being forgotten or becoming banal, and to keep heritage alive and visible in the community.

The initiative

The participants in the conference listed 58 actions they have already undertaken or would be interested in taking part in. They could all be related to one of the key-words “link”, “knowledge”, “events”

Events: Dynamic events (circulating in avenues) - Static events (artistic) - Linking events to each other