Nova Gorica
The tree and the team are taking a well-deserved break. Not that nothing more is happening but the Tree Bike is taking a three-week break. The team travels to the Netherlands where, on June 21, the longest day of the year, a Birthday Forest will be placed on the A10, as part of the Amsterdam 750 celebrations. The organization is running and everything has been arranged. Richard is helping with filming and I am helping with directions for placing the trees so that the best possible image is achieved. This happens on the night of June 20-21. On the morning of the 21st, the forest will be officially opened and from what I have heard of it, it will be busy on the A10. The next morning, the 22nd, we leave early for Nova Gorica again because the Uniscape Landscape Festival – ‘On the borders of the planet’ – starts there on the 23rd, where I will be one of the speakers. We will also hold a Circle4Change workshop there with students from Europe. Then there will be a few days of rest before leaving on July nine for the second half of the circle. From Gorizia we will then cycle toward Venice where we hope to arrive July 13. This report will take a break and come back on the air July eight. It was a wonderful, inspiring and also spirited first half. I am very curious to see what the second half will bring. But first, as I said, enjoy the result achieved and the well-deserved rest.
Sat, June 21
Amsterdam
On the A10 ring road around Amsterdam, as part of the 15 km-long Amsterdam 750 festival on the Ring Road, a Birthday Forest of 750 trees is springing up. Constructed during the night of June 20-21 by the team from tree nursery Ebben, 65 trailers, about seven shovels with special rotating heads to be able to tilt the trays that are angled on the trucks. Started at half past eleven and around six in the morning the forest was in place. Even though the clearance between the two sides was too large for my liking, it was necessary for safety, they say. All in all, a sizable forest stood on the A10. And that is unique. Especially with the heat, it became especially clear what trees can do for shade and cooling. The forest was crowded and there was a lot of media attention, from Parool and AT-5 to Volkskrant, the German TV channel ZDF and Nieuwsuur. A successful action, whose forest program was organized by The Healthy City and Pakhuis de Zwijger. All interviews and also the opening talk went well, despite my lack of sleep. Around two o’clock the lights went out for me and I cycled home, taking a quick look at the trees from below in the Vondelpark on the way. The next morning I got up at five o’clock to go to Nova Gorica with Sanne for the Landscape Festival.
Mon 23 - Di 24 June
Nova Gorica - Gorizia
Nova Gorica, June 23 and 24, two days UNISCAPE – Landscape Festival – ‘On the borders of our Planet’ in Nova Gorica. Students from sixty Universities from Europe reflect on the theme ‘GO Borderless, the central theme of the Cultural Capital Nova Gorica-Gorizia, in the EPIC building on the border of Slovenia and Italy. Presentations and conversations, that’s how I can best summarize the two days. My presentation, which I had made as personal as possible by presenting my dream of the Birthday Forests, went well, and was also nice after the presentation on the cosmos. Stojan also had a nice talk about the cultural capital and his role as a curator. In my workshop afterwards on Circle4Change, which became more of a group interview, I wondered how to become “borderless”? And what are the pros and cons of physical, cultural and social borders? I ended with an action to experience the border feeling by having the room mixed up in two groups. That worked well. The next morning, two school classes were on the Circle4Change workshop program. The combination of “Tree-movements” with Sanne and “Tree-stories” with Kim and Karel from IN-Holland, went well and all children (11-15 years old) received a Birthday Tree to take home. After lunch we opened the Circle4Change exhibition in the station by walking around the circle on the floor map with Birthday Trees with the whole group. This resulted in a beautiful timelapse. In the evening to the concert at Palazzo Lantieri where we see Carolina again who we also met in February. What a beautiful Palazzo and what great music, I really missed this. Music also opens new doors. What a fine conclusion to these two days.
di July 8
Nova Gorica - Gorizia
Preparations
The time has come. With Richard and Daan, after a week and a half, I have arrived back in Gorizia to make preparations to start tomorrow the second half of our amazing and impossible expedition. Jokingly said: ‘We have reached the furthest point and are cycling back home with a bend, in ten weeks via Venice and the Alps’. The break weeks were very good, even though I’m not fully rested yet, we also felt like cycling again. For over three weeks the tree bike rested in the shade of the University building and Marco watered the tree every other day. Totally great. The tree has done well, it seems to be making new buds. But you can also clearly see that after three months, the tree is now much thinner in the leaves than at the beginning. And that is quite logical after 2,500 km. Hilbert Makkinga is also there to bring some three to four hundred new small birthday trees, and to reset the tree’s water management sensor, not so easy it turns out. The little trees (hornbeam and field maple) go into the trailer. Once again, it is mainly that complex logistical puzzle that takes some getting used to. What needs to go in which car and when is which car where, so that cycling with the tree is supported as well as possible. Are all the batteries charged? Is the route for tomorrow clear and who is cycling with us tomorrow? We take the tree bike to tomorrow’s starting point, the EPIC center, and the trailer and bus are already taken to the location where we will spend the night tomorrow night, in Porcenia, about sixty kilometers away. Whether the tree will make it that far we will see tomorrow, at least we won’t have to go back to Gorizia tomorrow, partly because there are three of us this week. Sanne comes Saturday and joins us again in Venice. After the bike is ready to leave, we drink a beer to all today’s actions, which, how could it be otherwise, went very smoothly. We eat something on the central square in Gorizia and walk back while it feels quite fresh for this time of year in northern Italy, it also rained quite a lot last night. Good for the plants we say. Sleep well, tomorrow we start.