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Stadium Forest: Nature's Unsettling Spectacle
7 Sep
Summary
- A stadium was transformed into a temporary forest with 299 mature trees.
- Visitors viewed the forest from the stands, observing nature as a spectacle.
- The installation questioned the future of nature and its increasing rarity.
In Austria, Klagenfurt's Wörthersee Stadium underwent a remarkable transformation in the autumn of 2019. Swiss artist Klaus Littmann replaced the familiar football pitch with a dense forest of 299 mature trees, creating an installation titled FOR FOREST. Spectators were invited to view this unexpected landscape from the stadium's stands, observing the trees as a curated spectacle.
The project, inspired by Max Peintner's 1970 drawing "The Unending Attraction of Nature," aimed to provoke thought about how common elements of nature might become rare. Visitors experienced the forest not by walking through it, but by observing it from above, reinforcing the idea of nature becoming an attraction.
This temporary forest installation served as a subtle warning about environmental changes. It presented a healthy forest in an unusual context, highlighting the potential for intact nature to become diminished and confined to designated viewing spaces. The project generated significant global attention, attracting nearly 200,000 visitors during its two-month run.
Following the exhibition's conclusion on October 27, 2019, all 299 trees were carefully relocated to Lower Austria, where they became the foundation for a new FOR FOREST Campus. This ensured the living trees had a future beyond their role as an artistic installation.
