Arena for a Tree. Klaus Littmann’s art intervention for the 60th Venice Art Biennale

During the 60th International Art Biennale in Venice, a floating platform bearing a circular wooden structure was moored a short distance from the international exhibition: Arena for a Tree.  From a distance, the porous “hull” looks like an upside-down dome or a giant walnut shell with saplings sprouting from it. Seen close-up, it reveals itself as architecture, sculpture and stage rolled into one. Its horizontal structure, which was inspired by tree rings, provides three tiers of seating for around fifty spectators – all with unobstructed views of the centre, where three trees sprout from a central pool. This natural protagonist is embedded in a spatial concept that dates back to the beginnings of Western culture.

Originally a scene of combat, then of theatre, the arena is a venue that focuses all eyes equally on the event unfolding at its centre. The event in this case is utterly undramatic but nevertheless existential. The three trees, each of them distinctive in shape, symbolize at once both rootedness and mobility. They also provide shade, a habitat for insects and a source of raw materials. It is no coincidence that the choice of tree fell on the swamp cypress: it thrives on both freshwater and seawater, withstands gales, can soak up large amounts of floodwater, and promises to survive even scorching urban summers.

The temporary installation is located in the eastern outskirts of Venice, in front of a utilitarian red-brick building with ogival windows on the mar- gins of the Arsenale – a former shipyard covering around 48 hectares, i.e. a tenth of the city’s surface area.
The numerous waterside workshops are witnesses of Venice’s former prowess in shipbuilding, as a military base and as a trading hub. Moored in front of an extensive area currently undergoing redevelopment and repurposing, this ship-like structure, permeable to both air and light, signals a different kind of historical development: trees are now no longer primarily a raw material for masts, or for the piles and beams used in commercial and residential buildings.

They are living organisms that we can identify with – young, vulnerable saplings, indispensable for the global ecosystem and therefore requiring protection. The Arena for a Tree is a freely accessible venue for contem- plation. It was conceived as a silent alternative to the numerous events that the rambling Arsenale accommodates nowadays. Set apart from all commercial interests, it incorporates aspects related to the climate and water supply into the backdrop of Venice.

The main exhibition of the “La Biennale di Venezia” addresses that which is foreign. “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere” provides a stage for artists whose work focuses on national, linguistic, religious or gender identity as well as their perception of themselves and others. The focus on migrant biographies and the symptoms that “otherness” brings with it promises once again to present today’s art in a global radius. And Arena for a Tree, too, has the theme of migration as its leitmotif: over long geological periods, the swamp cypress was native to different regions of the world. Its “natural” home today is mainly in Mexico, Guatemala, along the Mississippi River and into the US state of Missouri. In view of global warming, it is also likely to take root in Europe.

Klaus Littmann in the Arena for a Tree, Venice, 2024_presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G

The projects of artist and curator Klaus Littmann often spring from an engagement with the culture of everyday life, offering contemporary art which, wherever possible, is located in the public space. Poetry is not exclusive. And trees, too, are there for everyone. They supply us with oxygen and, with their seasonal transformations, also provide us with images embodying the progress of life.

In autumn 2019 Littmann transformed the football stadium in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt into a forest. For Forest – The Unending Attraction of Nature became a silent mega-event that saw the antics of excited football fans yield to the serenity of trees under an overarching sky.



Trees up to 14 metres tall made the wind and rain audible; wisps of fog veiled their colours, turning their crowns into soft silhouettes; the coming and going of light and warmth filled the air with ever-changing scents, while birds and insects delighted in their new-found home. Arena for a Tree germinated like a seed from that memorable art project in Austria. 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.

At each new location, a new tree species is chosen that can thrive in the respective climate. Venice is the third port of call – and the first one on water. This element, with its winds and waves, silently surrounds the Arena for a Tree and bears it along in the global ecological cycle.

Arena for a Tree was created in collaboration with Enzo Enea of Enea Landscape Architecture. Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure developed the structure to design drawings by Klaus Littmann.

The temporary art intervention Arena for a Tree in Venice is presented by and made possible thanks to the generous support of Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G in cooperation with ECC-Italy (European Cultural Centre).

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Press release and photos courtesy of Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G