Starting from April a platform bearing a circular structure made of wood will be moored close to the Arsenale, in Venice. From a distance, the large ‘hull’ looks like an upside-down dome or a giant walnut shell with a sapling sprouting from it. Seen close-up, it reveals itself as architecture, sculpture and stage rolled into one. Mimicking the growth rings of a tree, its horizontal structure can seat up to fifty people in three tiers.

Artist and curator Klaus Littmann prefers to develop art projects for public spaces. In autumn 2019, the football stadium in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt was transformed into a forest.

Arena for a Tree developed like a seed from that large-scale art project. It was installed first on Basel’s Münsterplatz (Cathedral Square) in 2021 and graced the inner courtyard of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich in the spring of 2022. Venice is its third port of call – and the first one on water. Water makes the temporary island tangible as part of a global ecological cycle. And it also shows trees in their global mobility and adaptability. This is how Arena for a Tree connects to themes from this year’s La Biennale di Venezia. Dubbed Foreigners Everywhere, it explores the wider field of art as part of the global tension between south and north and provides a space for contemplation and reflection for anything and anyone that might seem distant, foreign and overlooked.

The opening event for Arena for a Tree will be held on the 16th of April, 2024 from 17:00 to 19:00. For more information download the press release here or contact Ginevra Fiorentini at ginevrafiorentini@artspr.co.uk

The Arena for a Tree is located on a raft at Arsenale Nord and can be reached by lines 4.1, 4.2, 5.1 and 5.2 (ACTV stop “Bacini – Arsenale nord”) or by foot from Campo de la Celestia, via the suspended bridge along the north boundary wall of the Arsenale.

RSVP elena@ecc-italy.eu