To Make Into a Bundle, 2024
Sculpture series
To make into a bundle (Zvezda Park)
Plane wood inlay in chestnut live edge slab
240 x 110 x 6 cm
To make into a bundle (Carpet)
Plane wood inlay in chestnut live edge slab
240 x 110 x 6 cm
During my residency in Ljubljana, I learned that, in 1941, to the great annoyance of the city’s inhabitants, many avenues of centuries-old chestnut trees throughout Ljubljana were cut down and replaced with plane trees, which were more ‘sympathetic’ to the architect Jože Plečnik. Later, I discovered that the so-called Winter Aid Committee distributed these chestnut trees among the poorest inhabitants. These centuries-old chestnuts were burned in the stoves and ovens of Ljubljana’s households.
I discovered a new side to this story. There is a possible connection between the replacement of the trees in Ljubljana and the public reception of one of Plečnik’s first major commissions – the Zacherlhaus in Vienna (1903−1905). After the completion of this building, the design was mocked in the city’s local newspapers as Der Höchste Maroni Ofen von Wien (Vienna’s largest chestnut stove). I wonder to what extent this ecological metamorphosis is motivated by the possible insult to the architect’s ego? Or, as Plečnik himself once contradictorily claimed: trees in cities should never be cut down unless monumental design requires it. It is interesting to consider under whose conditions one of the greenest European inner cities came into being.
Discovering these historical stories surrounding the cutting down of chestnuts in the city of Ljubljana coincided with a small accident after which my finger had to get stitched up in the hospital. This made me think about making a cut or cutting down a tree as an artistic gesture in the history of art and architecture; and the possibility of healing such a cut or wound.
To Make Into a Bundle (2024) is a series of chestnut wood objects. In the work, the negative spaces created by saw cuts in the chestnut wood are filled in with wood of the more favorable plane tree. The work is a testimony to the trees in the city that have been replaced. The thin, inlaid wooden lines hold the different blocks of wood together and suggest that the wood is ‘connected’ or bandaged. With the return of the chestnut trees in Ljubljana over the past hundred years, the work shows the possibility of healing from the personal vendetta by the bruised ego of the architect against the chestnut tree in general. I find it interesting to think that the mockery of the Zacherlhaus in the Viennese newspapers could have led to the heating of the homes of the poorest inhabitants of Ljubljana during the cold winters of the Second World War.
Installation view Annotations - RAVNIKAR, Ljubljana (SI)
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Installation view To Decide Where the Shadow Falls - Plečnik House, Ljubljana (SI)
To make into a bundle (Zvezda Park)
Plane wood inlay in chestnut live edge slab
Sculpture, 70 x 38 x 5 cm
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Sculpture series
To make into a bundle (Zvezda Park)
Plane wood inlay in chestnut live edge slab
240 x 110 x 6 cm
To make into a bundle (Carpet)
Plane wood inlay in chestnut live edge slab
240 x 110 x 6 cm
During my residency in Ljubljana, I learned that, in 1941, to the great annoyance of the city’s inhabitants, many avenues of centuries-old chestnut trees throughout Ljubljana were cut down and replaced with plane trees, which were more ‘sympathetic’ to the architect Jože Plečnik. Later, I discovered that the so-called Winter Aid Committee distributed these chestnut trees among the poorest inhabitants. These centuries-old chestnuts were burned in the stoves and ovens of Ljubljana’s households.
I discovered a new side to this story. There is a possible connection between the replacement of the trees in Ljubljana and the public reception of one of Plečnik’s first major commissions – the Zacherlhaus in Vienna (1903−1905). After the completion of this building, the design was mocked in the city’s local newspapers as Der Höchste Maroni Ofen von Wien (Vienna’s largest chestnut stove). I wonder to what extent this ecological metamorphosis is motivated by the possible insult to the architect’s ego? Or, as Plečnik himself once contradictorily claimed: trees in cities should never be cut down unless monumental design requires it. It is interesting to consider under whose conditions one of the greenest European inner cities came into being.
Discovering these historical stories surrounding the cutting down of chestnuts in the city of Ljubljana coincided with a small accident after which my finger had to get stitched up in the hospital. This made me think about making a cut or cutting down a tree as an artistic gesture in the history of art and architecture; and the possibility of healing such a cut or wound.
To Make Into a Bundle (2024) is a series of chestnut wood objects. In the work, the negative spaces created by saw cuts in the chestnut wood are filled in with wood of the more favorable plane tree. The work is a testimony to the trees in the city that have been replaced. The thin, inlaid wooden lines hold the different blocks of wood together and suggest that the wood is ‘connected’ or bandaged. With the return of the chestnut trees in Ljubljana over the past hundred years, the work shows the possibility of healing from the personal vendetta by the bruised ego of the architect against the chestnut tree in general. I find it interesting to think that the mockery of the Zacherlhaus in the Viennese newspapers could have led to the heating of the homes of the poorest inhabitants of Ljubljana during the cold winters of the Second World War.
Installation view Annotations - RAVNIKAR, Ljubljana (SI)
Installation view To Decide Where the Shadow Falls - Plečnik House, Ljubljana (SI)
To make into a bundle (Zvezda Park)
Plane wood inlay in chestnut live edge slab
Sculpture, 70 x 38 x 5 cm
To Make Into a Bundle (2023) was part of the solo exhibition
To Decide Where the Shadow Falls, Plečnik House, Ljubljana (SI)
18.10.24 - 26.01.25
Annotations, RAVNIKAR, Ljubljana (SI)
24.10.24 - 21.12.24
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To Decide Where the Shadow Falls, Plečnik House, Ljubljana (SI)
18.10.24 - 26.01.25
Annotations, RAVNIKAR, Ljubljana (SI)
24.10.24 - 21.12.24
