Performance artistique à Trampot filmée par Thierry Passerat (Vimeo).

For the launch of the Artistic Observatory of the ash tree avenue in Trampot, we welcomed the French visual artist Constance Fulda. Fascinated by trees, she placed her Japanese papers - an extremely light and durable paper that does not turn yellow with time - on the bark to capture the intimate history of the ash trees bordering the RD 427. The result is puzzling: each tree revealed a kind of constellation, a complex network of "cores" and filaments resembling a strange mycelium.

This is the first time Constance Fulda has made such a series of rubbings in an avenue. Usually, she works on single trees such as the huge banyan tree of Thrissur, India, or the millennia-old cedar of Yakushima Island, Japan.

The audience received a miniature rubbing and a copy of an unpublished handwritten text offered by poet Christian Bobin.

Vosges Television (ViàVosges) aired a report available here.

Constance Fulda will return to continue her work until each tree has its "portrait".

The Observatory could be launched thanks to our donors, in particular

On July 15th and 16th, 2023, for the 4th season of the Artistic Observatory of the Trampot avenue (Vosges), we welcomed once again the artist Constance Fulda. She continued her patient rubbings of the ash trees in the Trampot avenue - 157 have already been made, representing an art piece of nearly 80 m in length. Ultimately, it will exceed 100 m! With heir paint roller and her Japanese washi paper, both extremely thin and strong, Constance reveals the trees' unique and fascinating calligraphy of their bark. Magic happens - even an attentive gaze would be unable to anticipate the image.

We also welcomed the storyteller and musician Julie Ory. Where Constance Fulda reveals the written expression of the trees, Julie Ory makes us open our hearts to listen to their language. The audience was captivated by the tales which she complemented with cello pieces.

As part of the Artistic Observatory of the ash tree avenue in Trampot (Eastern France), we welcomed the Franco-Tunisian artist Ridha Dhib on March 24th. The day before, he had stopped in Trampot on his long performance 'Ex-tracés', and written a short passage of the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees. 

The avenue is now documented by a photo and a video sequence with an augmented reality compass that points towards Mardin, at the Turkish-Syrian border, 3118 km away, the goal of the "Ex-tracés" performance. This virtual artwork of our Observatory will only exist if it is known and shared by as many people as possible. You can comment the picture and the avenue here.

On June 25th and 26th, artist Constance Fulda returned to continue the rubbings of the ash trees on washi paper. 113 have already been completed, representing roughly half of the final work, and a length of 56.50 m. For six of the rubbings made, they represend the only tangible remains of the trees, since these were felled in 2022..

During her performance, Constance Fulda also exhibited six 8m high rubbings of oaks intended for the reconstruction of the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris. It created an 'emotional shock,' as one participant expressed it. There is no doubt that the effect will be as mighty when Constance Fulda's intervention for the Observatory is completed, as the entire work will be nearly 125 m long!

 The Observatory can be continued thanks to the support of our donnors, the IRIS foundation in particular

We continued the Artistic Observatory in Trampot with visual artist Constance Fulda in June.

The Observatory was featured on a regional radio programme (France Bleu) and in a news report on French television France 3. The public is always surprised by the result of the rubbings, which resemble constellations or clusters of neurons, with no apparent connection to the underlying bark.

The observatory continues thanks to the support of our donors, in particular