Work / 005

Nuevas Floras

2003  /  Sculptural intervention on living native trees  /  Variable dimensions

COLOMBIA

Nuevas Floras Colombia — Native tree with baroque carving Nuevas Floras Colombia — Sculptural intervention on trunk Nuevas Floras Colombia — Detail of carved Solomonic column Nuevas Floras Colombia — Ornamental prosthesis on living tree Nuevas Floras Colombia — Baroque volute on bark Nuevas Floras Colombia — Altarpiece element on branch Nuevas Floras Colombia — Tree absorbing the intervention Nuevas Floras Colombia — Chromogenic photographic record Nuevas Floras Colombia — Carving almost imperceptible due to growth Nuevas Floras Colombia — Convergence of nature and culture Nuevas Floras Colombia — Detail of arboreal intervention Nuevas Floras Colombia — Ensemble view of the series

BRISTOL

Nuevas Floras Bristol — Intervention on tree in Bristol

DO SUL

Nuevas Floras do Sul — Intervened tree in Brazil Nuevas Floras do Sul — Detail of carving on trunk Nuevas Floras do Sul — Ornamental form on bark Nuevas Floras do Sul — Sculptural intervention Nuevas Floras do Sul — Record of tree growth Nuevas Floras do Sul — Detail of organic process Nuevas Floras do Sul — View of the complete series

VERSALLES

Nuevas Floras Versalles — Intervened tree in Versailles Nuevas Floras Versalles — Ornamental carving on trunk Nuevas Floras Versalles — Detail of intervention Nuevas Floras Versalles — Baroque form in living tree Nuevas Floras Versalles — Ensemble view

Nuevas Floras is a series of interventions in the landscape, carried out on some trees of native forests in the mountains near Bogota, belonging to the Central Cordillera. Carved pieces made from their own wood have been applied to these trees, or parts of some of their branches or trunks have been carved.

A master carver participated in the project, carrying out the carving work on the 7 trees, following models provided by the artist that come from colonial and baroque furniture and architecture.

Nuevas Floras is composed of seven large-format color photographs (80 x 120 cm) taken immediately after the carving process was completed. The project aims to follow over time how each of the trees will process these interventions. Therefore, these photographs represent the first stage of a living process in continuous change.

From 2004 onward, Nuevas Floras became a nomadic project that responds to the specificities of the relationship between culture and nature particular to each place.

Curatorial text — Jose Roca (original in Spanish)

La obra de Escallon se encamina a perturbar la naturalidad de ese orden. “Nuevas Floras” posee dos aspectos fundamentales: su caracter nomada — porque la idea de la que parte puede desarrollarse en otros espacios — y el concepto de temporalidad — porque su duracion es indefinida.
Jose Roca — Columna de Arena 53, August 2003

[Translation: “Escallon's work aims to disturb the naturalness of that order. ‘Nuevas Floras’ possesses two fundamental aspects: its nomadic character — because the idea from which it departs can be developed in other spaces — and the concept of temporality — because its duration is indefinite.”]

CONTEXT

In 2003, Escallon won the First Prize of the III Luis Caballero Competition with this project, presented at the Galeria Santa Fe in Bogota. The jury, composed of curator Jose Roca among others, highlighted the way in which the work questions the boundaries between the natural and the cultural — a constant in the artist's trajectory.

RELATED WORKS

NUEVAS FLORAS BRISTOL — 2004

The Nuevas Floras project, in its nomadic phase, was first developed in the United Kingdom, with the help of an art restorer, R. Peploe. On that occasion, the branch of a Sycamore was intervened in Ashton Court Estate Park (Bristol). This park is a representative example of what is known as “the English natural landscape.” It was carried out in the context of a Visiting Arts artistic residency at Spike Island, Bristol, during 2004 and 2005.

NUEVAS FLORAS DO SUL — 2011

In 2011 the Nuevas Floras project was invited to the VIII Mercosul Biennial to carry out an intervention at one of the sites of the old Missions that the Jesuits created to evangelize the Guarani indigenous people, in southern Brazil. The work, carried out in the National Historic Park of São Miguel das Missões, responds to the direct experience of the landscape of the area and of the statuary pieces found in the Museum.

The landscape along the road to San Miguel is dominated by enormous monocultures of soy and millet. From time to time, small still-surviving islands of native flora come into view, resembling an oasis. Visiting them, I found gathered within a few square meters trees and plants of a wide variety of species that once populated those lands. I clearly felt agriculture to be the great shaper of the landscape.

These “islands” are preserved by a decree of the Brazilian government to protect the migrations of birds that would otherwise find no rest on their journey.

Fallen branches of some native trees and a tree that had already dried up were intervened with carvings alluding to the architecture of the temple and to the statuary of the Museum — in particular, to the figure of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of agriculture. The original posture of the saint, who looks toward the sky in a gesture connoting strength and confidence, was modified and placed in relation to the current landscape of the area.

The series is complemented by a satellite exploration of the road from Porto Alegre to São Miguel das Missões, in search of islands of native flora that have survived the monocultures. The series “Camino de San Miguel” and “Navegaciones sobre Rio Grande” present these images.

(*) Several trees of the intervened species were planted in the park.

NUEVAS FLORAS VERSALLES — 2017

Nuevas Floras Versalles was carried out in 2017 on a botanical estate called the Arboretum de Chevreloup, which once formed part of the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles as a hunting ground and is now a vast collection of trees from all over the world, belonging to the Natural History Museum of France. The invitation took place within the framework of the Colombia-France year.

The carving was carried out on two large branches of a white chestnut that had torn away from the trunk due to an ailment of the tree.

The Gardens of Versailles respond emblematically to the conception of nature proposed by the French baroque garden. Man controls and believes he directs nature according to the aesthetic parameters of the era. The design was chosen from among the decorative elements of the Palace of Versailles and takes the form of the hour hand of Louis XV's Astronomical Clock.