Project ‘de Wensboom’
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de botanische tuin van Kina.
Op vraag van de Stad Gent, gecreëerd ter gelegenheid van 100 jaar De wereld van Kina.
Gemaakt van de op zijn wortels staande Zilverspar die getroffen werd door een blikseminslag.
The 'Wensboom', a creation for the garden of Kina, Ghent.
Origin:
There is a Bavarian legend that goes like this : long ago, three forest workers encountered a beautiful woman in the woods. She broke off three twigs from a silver fir, which she gave to the men with the words: 'These are lucky twigs. Keep them safe!'. Two of the workers did not trust it and threw away the so-called 'witch twigs'. The third put the twig on his hat, after which it turned into gold. The other two went back to search for their twigs, but they found nothing. According to the legend, around midnight they still search in the woods for their silver fir twigs.
Creating a sculpture, in a location like 'the Kina garden' on the occasion of the 100th birthday, has by definition several facets.
First and foremost, it must be a sculpture, monumental, contrasting, and strong, standing on its own roots: a tall silver fir, referring to its uniqueness and growth form, with its almost symmetrically standing branches.
Within my oeuvre, this sculpture falls into the family of column forms.
The second aspect is that a sculpture, in a public space like this garden, should have something interactive. Thinking about the Bavarian legend and the fact that there is always a need for hope and happiness, a place where everyone can discreetly leave his wishes would be a blessing.
In another culture (India), I encountered a similar tree. It's a tree where the fruit of your wishes arrives. This tree is called kalpa vriksham, which roughly translates to 'Wish Tree'.
The sculpture will be equipped with slots up to a certain height so that both adults and children can insert their folded papers with wishes into these slots.
The third facet is about multimedia and dialogue. This is possible through a website called www.WensboomGent.be.
This site contains some information and visual material about the Wish Tree and the surroundings. But what is particularly important is the contact form where a wish can be filled in. In the Kina garden, this wish will then be printed, folded, and placed in the Wish Tree. When a contact form is completed, we can send back a digital postcard of the Wish Tree with the date the wish was made.
Of course, there is a blog provided on the website, which the 'wisher' can fill in if his wish has come true.