Monument to the Disappearing Forests

The installation consists of an immersive square grid made up of 81 tree trunks, which appear to emerge from the desert floor. Each tree in Claudia Comte’s abstracted forest is six meters high and lit with LED lighting, creating a configuration of pathways. Placed in the center of the installation is an old debarked and smoothed down oak trunk with a hole at eye level that provides another perspective. From here, the otherwise enclosed annual rings of the oak tree become visible. Due to the climate crisis, forests around the world are burning at alarming rates. Our global forests are vital for the ecosystem and its biodiversity – they are the lungs of our world and rethinking current models is imperative. Instead of economic paradigms based on the destruction and exploitation of forests, we must imagine more ecologically generative systems focused on the survival and cultivation of the environment. Situated in the public sphere, Monument to the Disappearing Forests can be perceived as a forest that comes to life in the desert light.

Monument to the Disappearing Forests, 2023, ©Claudia Comte
Commissioned by RCRC and Riyadh Art