The city center of Leeuwarden colored green for 100 days. Between May 7 and August 14, 2022 more than 1,000 trees walked through the city. This 'walking' forest was set in motion by hundreds of participants and has given the trees - and therefore nature - a voice. With a packed program and huge press coverage , Bosk has drawn attention to the most important aspects of looking differently at the relationship between human beings and nature. Bosk revealed the strength of radical imagination.
National
Netherlands
Mainly in Leeuwarden, Friesland but also the surrounding rural villages and smaller cities of Friesland joined in by buying the trees or providing seedlings from their older characteristic trees mainly through schools.
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-08-14
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Arcadia Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Dorine Last name of representative: Schreurs Gender: Female Nationality: Netherlands Function: Head of Development and Partnerships Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Snekertrekweg 1 Town: Leeuwarden Postal code: 8912 AA Country: Netherlands Direct Tel:+31 6 24129540 E-mail:dorineschreurs@lf2028.eu Website:https://arcadia.frl
Bosk was part of Arcadia 2022. A walking forest of more than 1000 trees that walked 3.5 kilometers through the city center of Leeuwarden in the summer of 2022 in one hundred days. The seemingly impossible became true. Partly due to the help of a huge number of people, the many trees were able to move to the next location. But also due to the enriching cultural, educational, participation and program, in which many people and organizations were involved. And certainly not last, due to the good organization and preparation, the incredibly good and intensive cooperation with the municipality as co-producer, and the involvement of the province and the many foundations and corporate sponsors.
The Bosk project showed an almost impossible plan with ambitious objectives. From coloring the city green, to awareness and behavioral change, from mobilizing social energy to strengthening the economic and creative climate in Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. And most importantly of course, by consciously disrupting the inner city life for 100 days in order to draw attention to a real walking forest and thus to our relationship with nature.
Green cities
Awareness and behavioral change
Mobilization of social energy
Long term thinking
Disruption public space
GREENER SURROUNDINGS - every Frisian will plant a tree in the coming years. The more than a thousand Bosk trees are given a final destination in or in the vicinity of Leeuwarden. Trees are also planted elsewhere in the province of Friesland. But Bosk's 1,200 trees are largely planted at locations within the municipality Leeuwarden. 100 trees have also gone to the village of Akkrum (municipality of Heerenveen) where they are planted. The underplanting in the tree containers is also transplanted within the municipality. Stimulated by Bosk, the municipality Leeuwarden structurally allocates extra money every year for greening the city. The various green partners have worked together and Plan Boom Friesland is working on the ambition to plant as many trees as possible in the province of Friesland in the coming years.
AWARENESS & BEHAVIORAL CHANGE - among residents in Leeuwarden but also in the rest of Friesland, the Netherlands and Europe. Particularly participating in moving, and educating the in-depth program contributed a lot. In addition, the documentaries and the book about Bosk (spring 2023) contribute to this goal.
DRIVER OF SOCIAL DEBATE - about the city of the future regarding heat stress, water drainage, CO2 emissions through the development of a diverse and in-depth conversation program. Bosk's broad program in the field of culture and education was crucial. For many residents and visitors the green, the tranquility, the softening and the coolness that it brought was greatly appreciated. Hundreds of times a day inhabitants would wish that Bosk would remain there.
AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE - Bosk harnesses the power of the imagination, is poetic and quiet. No matter how beautiful and impressive Bosk can appear in photos or film, it pales into insignificance compared to the physical experience of walking through the woods at one of the locations in the inner city. Bosk pauses. The visitors slow down, soften and smile. The contrast of a natural forest in the urban context is large and therefore radical, whatever the imagination and poetry enhanced. This is why Bosk was missed once it moved on to its next location. This made people aware of how it made them feel while it was there, surrounded in green.
COMMUNITY DRIVEN - we do it together. Bosk is a predecessor of the Neue Bauhaus, the elaboration of the European Green Deal and shows that we can only do it together. Bosch floats on imagination and on participation and interaction with citizens, companies and institutions. It walking forest activates and connects; it builds on the culture capital started during away from the elm mienskip. One of Bosk's most important pillars was to mobilize social energy, of which it can be said without hesitation that it succeeded. The approx. 4,000 participants when moving, the 15,000 pupils and students who benefit from the education programme, among other things participated, the artists, individuals, many organizations and companies that contributed to the success of Bosk, and all the visitors who came to Bosk and also the others came to view program parts of Arcadia.
More than 15.000 children and students actively participated in the education program. The cultural program in and around Bosk brought a beautiful layering and depth to the project. More than 4000 volunteers and participants helped again and again moving the trees. 65 companies also participated. Coloring the city green was activated. The municipality played a major role. The program we developed, eventually reached a wider audience than expected. For example, the municipal council embraced long-term thinking, an entire program was developed by the joint churches and a lawsuit was conducted about the rights for nature, also a sustainability program was implemented by the Campus Friesland of Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Chancellery and the sustainability platform Fossil Free Friesland. In-depth exhibitions have also been realized, including 'If trees can walk' about the story behind Bosk, 'Natuurlijk Fryslan' in the Frisian archive Tresoar about the role of biodiversity in the province, and 'Groen Pleidooi' in the town hall about it greening the city. Regarding the number of visitors, it is difficult to give a concrete number but all hotels were continuously full. Communication and marketing have, partly thanks to the website bosk.frl as part of arcadia.frl and social media, had a wide reach. And in addition to the great press attention in the Netherlands, there was also an article about Bosk in The Guardian.
In the municipal politics of Leeuwarden, the city council embraced long-term politics in three sessions. These three evenings took place in the open space in Bosk as well as in the town hall, and involved an information, debate, and decision-making part, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Future. How do you create the space to go beyond political periods to think about the long-term themes of the city? And how do you feel about that? And how do you keep each other on track? The Council of Leeuwarden adopted two motions via an information meeting, a thematic debate, and a final decision. They decided to dedicate a council to thinking about the future at least once a year, to plant a tree as a reminder of generational thinking and agreed to work more on youth participation. A video has been made of this to inspire other municipalities to follow their example. The city council of Leeuwarden was also inspired by Bosk. The walking trees stimulated them to think about the long term. Living in a healthy green environment. When the temperatures are high, the city is a place where heat stress is experienced. Greener cities can be an answer to that.
LOCAL: Municipality of Leeuwarden
REGIONAL: Province of Friesland
NATIONAL: ministry of agriculture (LNV), National tree strategie, Mooi NL (ministry of urban planning)
EUROPEAN: Frans Timmermans honored us with a visit
In Leeuwarden, the city council embraced long-term politics in 3 sessions. These evenings took place in the open space in Bosk and in the town hall. They involved an information, debate, and decision-making part, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Future. The Council of Leeuwarden adopted 2 motions through an information meeting, a thematic debate, and a final decision. They decided to dedicate a council to thinking about the future at least once a year, to plant a tree as a reminder of generational thinking and agreed engage more in youth participation. Also the Bosk team is helping formulate a policy for a greener Leeuwarden.
The District Court of the Northern Netherlands, in close cooperation with the Bosk team organized a public trial directed by employees of the court and two law firms. The lawsuit involved a neighbor dispute about whether to accept a large tree in the front garden. This reflected society, part of which wants to become more sustainable and part of which wants to keep it the way it is now. The judgement - the tree must go - showed that nature in the Netherlands has very little or no rights. After the well-attended court case in Bosk the 'Manifest Rights for Nature' was nominated and will be presented to the House of Representatives with the request to investigate how nature can get more rights in the Netherlands so that it can contribute to change and improve our attitude towards nature.
At Campus Friesland of the University of Groningen, students organized a Bosk related sustainability program in which biodiversity was the central theme. The sustainability platform Friends of Fossil Free Friesland and the Association Circular Friesland set up a program which involved the signing of a covenant for biobased construction by 90 Frisian construction companies. Students also organized a panel discussion in which Bosk, the municipality of Leeuwarden, the young climate movement and Circular Friesland were represented.
For Bosk we chose for the category Reconnecting with Nature as Bosk sprouts from the strength of radical imagination which only the arts possess. Bosk was part of Arcadia 2022. A walking forest of more than 1000 trees that walked 3.5 kilometers through the city center of Leeuwarden in the summer of 2022 in one hundred days. The seemingly impossible became true. Partly due to the help of a huge number of people, the many trees were able to move to the next location. But also due to the enriching cultural, educational, participation and program, in which many people and organizations were involved. And certainly not last, due to the good organization and preparation, the incredibly good and intensive cooperation with the municipality as co-producer, and the involvement of the province and the many foundations and corporate sponsors.
The Bosk project showed an almost impossible plan with ambitious objectives. From Coloring the city green, to awareness and behavioral change, from mobilizing social energy to strengthening the economic and creative climate in Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. And most importantly of course, by consciously disrupting the inner-city life for 100 days to draw attention to a real walking forest and thus to our relationship with nature.
Bosk's success is partly due to the combination of:
BOSK AS A WORK OF ART - with the help of many artists and creatives a different perspective was sketched what a greener future in the city could look like with more trees: a softer and connecting city;
BOSK, THE WALKING FOREST, AS AN EVENT - that mobilized people, organizations, and companies; and
BOSK AS A DRIVER OF CHANGE - with a broad program the transition was stimulated and
activated towards a more sustainable society in which people are not burdensome but enriching for nature and the earth.
But Bosk's success is above all due to the choice to connect radical imagination
with the broad mobilization of many people from all layers of society and putting it on the agenda of socially relevant themes based on Arcadia's central question: How are we better ancestors? That is why we can be proud and say that Bosk has contributed to further strengthening the socio-cultural breeding ground in Leeuwarden and Friesland, which also provides a solid foundation for future Arcadias.
The artwork Bosk stands for radical imagination: a forest of more than 1000 trees walking the city center of Leeuwarden seems impossible, yet it happened, with a good preparation and the help of 4000 volunteers and many partners. If this is possible, more is possible. If a large forest can walk 3.5 km through a city in 100 days, which was demonstrated this summer in Leeuwarden, then we people must be able to make sustainable choices for the healthy future of our globe? Sustainable choices that are more urgent than ever.
The entire project was community driven or what we call the mienskips methodology in Friesland. This methodology is characterized by a bottom up approach and goes back to the history of Friesland which originated from mounds. Currently Friesland has 480 villages all originated from mounds. AS the land would flood twice a day, people were dependent on each other: they needed one another to survive.
When Leeuwarden Friesland became European Cultural Capital LF2018, this was also the reason why Friesland won the bid, the community driven approach. And again it proved to still be more alive than ever. Being the legacy organization of LF2018 we still thrive on this mienskipsmethod. Currently we are working with de University of Groningen on aan PhD on the mienskipsmethod duress 4 years. Also we are writing a manual on this method as we want to share our approach with others in the Netherlands, Europe and the rest of the world.
Participation and the community (mienskip in Frisian) are also an intrinsic part of Arcadia, and therefore in the Bosk program. It is intwined into everything. In Bosk the mienskip was invited to join in the story of the walking forest. We have offered people and organizations the space to establish a relationship with the forest. Existing initiatives were given the opportunity to join, but also new initiatives were encouraged and supported, financially, substantively, and practically.
We are working on a manifesto 'Rights for Nature' that will be presented to the House of Representatives at the end of 2022. The ecumenical group Geloven in Leeuwarden (Believing in Leeuwarden) is working on a follow-up debate program. There are also talks with the council in Leeuwarden to determine the course of long-term thinking. Omrop Fryslân (local Frisian broadcaster) has released a three-part documentary. This will be a short film which is complementary to the poetic film. With both films and the book it is possible to generate a lot of publicity. We are thinking about 'Bosk-on-Tour' to propagate the underlying ideas.
After the attention in The Guardian, more interest has been shown from abroad. Bosk has not gone unnoticed in the Netherlands either. The artistic director and project manager regularly had zoom-meetings with interested municipalities and / or institutions to tell about the origins and implementation of Bosk.
We were approached by various countries/cities if they could do the same in their towns/cities, however the conditions must be met otherwise it will not work. Also the Bosk team needed a good rest after the 100 days. But nevertheless, of course Bosk is replicable. Als Bruno Doedens, artistic leader of Bosk, is working on a Bosk version for Europe starting in Leeuwarden and traveling in a circle through Europe in 2025. We a currently looking into the feasibility of the project.
Bosk addressed climate change in a wide variety, such as the advantages of a green(er) city and what that could actually look and feel like, what it can do for water storage, heat stress and biodiversity. The radical imagination of Bosk makes it an ultimate New European Bauhaus project!
