L’Arbre
pourfendu

It’s said they communicate, but who can imagine the merciless battles trees sometimes wage to gain a little bit more ground, a little bit more light? In the Jardins de l’Europe, Bob Verschueren takes us to a time of jousts and piercing lances, somewhere between an epic and a futurist novel.

Although we’re far from Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees, this work alludes to the depth of the philosophical tales told by this author much appreciated by Verschueren. L’Arbre pourfendu [the tree under attack] always remains standing. Will the young tree that has pierced it have the last word? In this fight for influence, the strongest will not necessarily win. But what allegory is this work pointing to? It’s up to us to unravel the threads and discover the myriad ways to read them. The din of knightly novels and dazzling sagas, the violence of tournaments and the dizzying imprint of a made-up world joins the tangy perfume of surrealism.

Bob Verschueren, born in 1945 is an internationally recognised contemporary Belgian artist. Today, more than 350 of his in-situ installations can be seen throughout Europe and beyond.