Tree City Life

By Kathrin Schulz

Supervisor: Dr. Gesa Lüdecke

 

 

Maple tree at Theresienwiese

Trees in Munich can be found almost everywhere — next to streets and houses, in public squares and parks, or next to the Isar river, just to mention a few. City residents pass them by whenever they leave their homes, being more or less aware of them throughout their everyday lives. Trees have various positive effects on cities, ranging from cooling the city climate and contributing to biodiversity to increasing health and wellbeing. As they are valuable companions to humans and other species, I wanted to find a way to sensitize residents of Munich to the lives of city’s trees.

Willow tree at the Isar river

With my audiovisual art exhibition Tree City Life, I want to shine a spotlight on city trees, highlighting the different kinds of built environments they live in, as well as what is happening on and around them in terms of multispecies interactions. The exhibition also aims to raise awareness about the relevance of trees and the beneficial effects they have on the city’s climate and air quality, as well as how they contribute to biodiversity.

True bugs on a beech tree

I chose to focus the exhibition on audiovisual material that would appeal to the senses, combining them with poetry so that visitors to the exhibition could immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the different trees. I filmed different tree species in various locations around Munich and arranged the video clips and poems to form a virtual online exhibition.

Ladybug on a linden tree

Through the combination of audiovisuals and poems I aimed to evoke a feeling of care for the trees or at least an interest in city trees that could lead to a more conscious way of living with them in the city and maybe new ways of engaging with or thinking about trees, nonhuman beings, and urban environments in general. The exhibition also implicitly poses the question of whether there are enough trees and green spaces in Munich’s cityscape, gesturing to what a livable city could look, sound, smell, and feel like for humans as well as other nonhuman species.

You can access the exhibition here.

Linden trees at Fürstenrieder Straße

All pictures are stills from the audiovisual exhibition Tree City Life.