lucasmomparler

147

According to recently discovered records in the L’Arxiu de Tarragona, there are indications of a supposed parallel world where, 147 years ago, the last tree in the city was felled. It appears that in that alternate world, trees vanished from the face of the earth, much like the dinosaurs.

This project presents a series of historical photographs and a short documentary that recount the city’s history through the most significant events that took place in a Font square without trees.

In our world, the first records of trees in the square date back 147 years, making them potentially the oldest inhabitants of the city, silent witnesses to its history. Since then, in the Font square, trees have been planted and removed multiple times throughout the 20th century.

*Project developed at the Art Residency SCAN Tarragona + L'Arxiu

We might be more similar to that parallel world than we think.

In 1936, before one of these clearings, a resident wrote in the Diari de Tarragona: “Sense sensibleries que no fan al cas, creiem que uns arbres que han costat a la població els seus treballs fer-los crèixer i que a força de convivencia se’ns han fet familiars, no poden ésser destruïts així com així, sense un poderós motiu que hi obligui”. (Without undue sentimentality, we believe that trees, which took considerable effort from the community to grow and that, through years of cohabitation, have become like family to us, cannot be so easily destroyed without a powerful reason.)