Plantation of 7.000 Trees

Defense of Nature

New Creation 

“Defense of Nature” is a 10-year project in partnership with the Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (League for Protection of Nature), in which BoCA proposes to bring its artistic programme together with natural spaces. During 10 years, the plantation of new creations (both natural and artistic), curatorships, debates and conferences will happen throughout different areas in the country, forming a forest of thousands of artists and artworks. In 2021, the project will take place in Lisbon, Almada and Faro, and starting in 2022, new regions will become a part of this project that aims to join art and nature. 

Inspired by Joseph Beuys’s project “7000 Oaks” (1982), BoCA designs a plantation comprised of various autochthonous species, involving the collaboration of artistic and academic communities, as well as local populations.

“We can all be artists” – the iconic claim by Joseph Beuys is invoked for the project as an invitation to anyone who would like to participate by signing up to plant a tree and give a title to their plantation/creation, which will be registered photographically and geolocatable.

For every plant an artist: with Beuys as inspiration, distinctions are overcome. Artists, traditionally recognised as such, are invited to plant and care for a tree. The art of generating life, in Beuys’s view, completes the circle, and the artist – who can be anyone and thus is indistinguishable from any other person – realises their potential as a creator in the ecological gesture of planting a tree.

Bringing together an extensive artistic community, both national and international, BoCA stimulates the cooperation between art and nature. Therefore, each tree planted is seen as an artistic gesture, where the creation of the artistic object corresponds to the creation of life, to the plantation itself. 

We invite all artists – i.e., everyone – to plant a tree in Lisbon, Almada or Faro. A form will be available at this page from September.

Concept: John Romão
Partner: Liga para a Protecção da Natureza
Support: Lisboa City Council, Almada City Council, Faro City Council