BOSK
What can we learn from trees, as a mirror for change in our society? What is the intimate connection between man and tree? To answer these questions, Johanneke spoke to several local residents, recorded sounds and made images. At night and during the day.
Bosklab
The research
“Every time we breathe, we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Oxygen is not infinite on our planet. By planting enough trees, we can make up for the lack of oxygen and limit the amount of carbon dioxide. Green leaves have small mouths with which they absorb carbon dioxide from the air. When the sun shines on the leaves, carbon dioxide and water are converted into sugars and oxygen in the leaf. Sugars are used by a tree to grow, but a tree does not need oxygen during the day. Oxygen leaves the leaf through the leaf mouths.”
At night, the whole process is reversed. Trees take in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Trees use oxygen at night to burn the stored sugars and with the released energy they can grow.
Breathing forest (‘SYKHELJE’)
And so the idea for the breathing forest was born. SYKHELJE (that means breathing in Frisian). During the night. At the Oldehoofsterkerkhof in Leeuwarden. A mysterious fairytale-like performance with light, sound and fog – in which fiction and reality come together in different art disciplines. Like a live movie set that you can walk through. Cut off from the people, the forest exists in itself, and you may only enter the forest when you whisper…”
