Pini di Roma

The area around Zurich’s main train station is undergoing significant change. Europaallee has already been completed, but the other side of the tracks is also in flux. There, on Zollstrasse, a group of Mediterranean pines, scientifically known as Pinus pinea, is now growing in a turquoise container on the roof of the cantonal administration building. It is the iconic tree of Rome, yet, like all southern vegetation, it is steadily migrating northward. This art-in-architecture project, created by Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller on behalf of the Canton of Zurich, is aptly named Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome). For twenty years, the artistic duo has been exploring environmental science topics from a cultural perspective, consistently finding powerful imagery to illustrate and address this transformation. Thus, Pini di Roma is also a “climate change experiment.” The trees are integrated into the TreeNet measuring network, a joint project of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, ETH Zurich and the Institute of Applied Plant Biology, and thus contribute to the research of urban ecology.

Text Kunstbulletin