BOSK

The city center of Leeuwarden was colored green for 100 days. Between May 7 and August 14, 2022, more than 1,000 trees roamed the city. This 'walking' forest was set in motion by hundreds of participants and has given the trees - and therefore nature - a voice. With a packed program of expositions, exhibitions, performances and meetings, publications in various online and offline magazines, newspapers, dailies, attention to the theme on TV, the radio, in council meetings and even a lawsuit for the rights of nature, Bosk has drawn attention to the need to look differently at the relationship between humans and nature.

Bosk turned the world around. The trees came into town. Bosk connected nature and culture and explored our relationship with nature. The project set people in motion, prompted politicians to accelerate greening and challenged companies to think about a clean(er) future. But Bosk was above all a story that thousands of people co-wrote.

Bosk's trees stood in squares and in a church. Children played between the Bosk trees, residents walked and the city council met. The trees brought silence and coolness to the city and encouraged us to reflect on our relationship to nature. Bosk, the cheerful, activist walking forest in Leeuwarden, made the city softer, wiser and greener.

With the help of thousands of residents, visitors and entrepreneurs, twelve hundred trees crossed the city center for 100 days last summer. They covered 3,5 kilometers. Bosk was part of the cultural manifestation Arcadia 2022. Art, culture and community spirit were used as a driver of imagination and change.

Bosk was a collective work of landscape art and taught us to look at the city differently. The combination of radical imagination, involving many people and putting socially relevant themes on the agenda worked: the power of a 'real forest' in the city became physically tangible.

What can we learn from trees? How do we reinvent ourselves? These questions were central to Bosk's educational and cultural deepening programme. It brought people together, activated the imagination and gave hope: if trees can walk, we can change too. If this is possible, more is possible. Artists played an important role in this. Art offers new perspectives, confronts and touches the heart. Inspired by the walking trees, artists created new, visual stories that are necessary to make the transition from me to we, from ego-consciousness to eco-consciousness.

Bosk; winner of the Events Innovation Award 2023.
 

The following objectives were pursued with Bosk:

Greening - by means of a campaign, every Frisian will plant a tree in the coming years. The more than a thousand Bosk trees will be given a permanent home in or near Leeuwarden. Trees will also be planted elsewhere in the province.

Awareness & behavior change - among residents in Leeuwarden but also in the rest of Fryslân, the Netherlands and Europe. Towards a truly sustainable world..

Driver of public debate - regarding the city of the future in relation to heat stress, water, and CO2 emissions by developing a diverse and in-depth program.

Community driven - we do it together! Bosk is a forerunner of the Neue Bauhaus, the elaboration of the European Green Deal, and this shows that we can only do it together. Bosk floats on imagination and on the participation and interaction with citizens, companies and institutions. The walking forest activates and connects; it builds on the path of the elpen mienskip taken during the cultural capital.

Economic impact - contributing to economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic; cooperation with hospitality and retail by attracting visitors from the city, Fryslân, The Netherlands and beyond.

Strengthening the artistic climate in Friesland - with Bosk, a major visual arts project in Fryslân came into fruition. As it received a considerable amount of exposure, and because it captured the imagination and attracted many visitors from home and abroad, Bosk has contributed to the artistic climate in Fryslân. Bosk also provided space for artists to be inspired by and respond to Bosk's themes. We granted commissions for this, issued an open call (BoskLab) in which 25 artists participated, and entered into several collaborations.

Beauty experience- Bosk harnesses the power of imagination, is poetic and restful.

Video's Bosk:
Bosk: https://youtu.be/YLZd0kYbYXo
Bosk trailer: https://youtu.be/ZkburA0JcL8
Bosk route: https://youtu.be/hp2AVbSRVRw
Bosk final ritual: https://youtu.be/qQabS7o2eEQ