On 31 october, Halloween or All Saints’ Day or Shamhain or whatever you prefer to call it, I participated in the second Be-coming Tree Live Art event via zoom. See press release:
My part I described briefly:
Annette Arlander will perform ”With a Pine” in Brunnsparken or Kaivopuisto Park in Helsinki, together with a small pine tree, which she has visited a few times last summer and written letters to as part of her project Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees.
The organisers wanted three sentences to make a collage, and there my contribution was as follows:
My tree friend is a small pine tree growing on a rocky area in Kaivopuisto Park in the centre of Helsinki. The tree is special by being so exceptionally unremarkable, by living on such a limited spot of soil and by being one of my pen pals this summer. I have learned, among other things, that choosing a tree friend because they resemble a previous friend is not necessarily the best starting point for a relationship, but not completely impossible.
This was all before the event. I was alone with the pine, with occasional passers-by of course, and with two tripods: one for my phone and the zoom connection, the other for my ordinary camera for recording the video. Because the camera can record only twenty-one minutes at a time, I made my writing session in three parts, returning behind the camera to restart it twice, and to check that everything was fine with my phone. The organisers will hopefully share a recording of the zoom compilation at some point. The letters I will transcribe from my notes and add to the RC, here. The images I have of the event itself are video stills:
Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees 