The Forest of Winds is only twenty minutes awaydrive from Verdun, a small town that grew up on the site of an ancient Gallic settlement. This region is considered to be purely industrial, but there is not a single factory chimney in sight on the horizon. Only hills, copses and kilometers of fields cut by streams. A real paradise for lovers of hiking and horse riding. Six years ago, local residents decided to give the forest area of five thousand hectares to the power of landscape design, and since then a special commission annually selects candidates for participation in this unusual project. The earliest "works" in the Forest of the Winds date back to 1997. Some, the most fragile, were absorbed by nature after a few seasons. But most of these creations have become an integral part of the forest.
Miracle forest
- "A Thousand and One Reflections of Moss" by Luc Guenard.
- A human silhouette carved into a log fence by Irishman Tony O'Malley, the gateway to the Windy Forest. You can walk through it or ride on horseback.
- "By Mistake" - a bridge leading to nowhere, created by Pole Maciej Albrykowski.
- Among the trees covered with moss and covered with thick ivy is the Canadian Rhino-traveler Roger Godro. It is made of branches and needles, "packed" in a dense mesh.
For example, "Sylph" by Irishman Tony O'Malley -a human silhouette carved into a fence made of spruce trunks. This installation was conceived by the designer as a symbolic gate to the infinity of the forest. Volunteers were immediately found to help in its creation: in two weeks they dug a trench and dug tree trunks into it. A clearing, a stream, an edge of a forest, a plain or a forest clearing - the designers themselves choose the places to create their works. They have a wealth of material at their disposal: needles, branches, trunks, roots, leaves, streams. About a hundred works of landscape design are a hymn to nature and a warning about the danger threatening it. A fork four meters long, carved from a solid trunk and stuck into the base of a beech tree felled by a storm, appears before your eyes as an allegory of the earth-nurse. A rhinoceros is hiding in the thicket - an endangered animal that "migrated" to the Forest of the Winds from hot countries and found shelter here. Deep in the fir forest, the tree trunks are cut at an angle and decorated with mirrors - truly a "ray of light in the dark kingdom"!
- "Fork" by Robert Jakes.
- "Our cubic meter in heaven." This gigantic woodpile was laid down by two women - Stephanie Byutier and Francoise Kremel.
- "The path up" German designer Cornelia Conrads. This "stairway to heaven" of the branches floating in the air was created in 2001.
- In a clearing among dense fir trees, Dane Bo Karberg "built" the trunks according to their height. The cut of each log is finished with a mirror, which reflects the sun in clear weather.
During the two weeks allotted for incarnationsconcept, designers spend time in close contact with villagers, forest dwellers (for example, a deer took to visiting one German designer) and, of course, the forest itself. Far from roads and populated areas, every sound and smell takes on special meaning. Everything inspires creativity: the sound of a stream, the rustle of the wind playing in the dense crowns of oak trees, and a ray of sunlight brightly illuminating a clearing. Perception is heightened. Everything evokes admiration: the gnarled bends of trunks, the sculptural interweaving of roots, the fragile stems of grass, and the mysterious rustle in the forest thicket. And if the rain catches you by surprise, you can hide under a spreading tree, among the branches of which thrushes and tits are hiding, and wait until the wind disperses the clouds... The ephemeral art of the Forest of Winds shows how fragile the relationship between man and nature is. On these narrow paths you involuntarily feel like a small part of a huge living organism, which millimeter by millimeter, leaf by leaf, is winning back its rights.
- "Essence - existence" by Korean designer Sho Yeon-hye. The stone "sarcophagus" he created is designed to preserve the trunks and branches of fallen trees.
- Luc Guenard's creation is a green ball made of wide leaves, held together by stems and berries.
Text: Sonia Lazzari. Read more: How to style
