Sarunas ar kokiem / Conversations with Trees

The participatory performance "Conversations with Trees" by Krista Burāne and Kristīne Brīniņa, was an opening event for the literature festival Punctum.
The participatory performance "Conversations with Trees" took place on May 14 from 12:00 to 1.00 pm in Linden Alley, opposite the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia, during the scheduled Cabinet meeting. The performance was not a protest against any of the issues on the meeting’s agenda, but is a reminder that every decision made will affect people and therefore, in a more direct or indirect way, other living beings, including trees. In Latvia, the attitude towards nature is characterized by anthropocentric approach which tends to dominate over nature, consuming and subjugating it. This was observed both in the amendments of the Cabinet of Ministers on forest cutting that were canceled by the Constitutional Court, and in the fact that country’s biologically diverse and old forests are still not protected by law. In legal texts and in the minds of many, trees are seen as cubic meters that have to bring economic benefit, and the lives of trees are given a relatively high price but little value. The consequence of such an attitude is the very poor and endangered state of nature's health in Latvia, as evidenced by the data of the Natural Register. The participants of the participatory performance gathered by the 136 Linden trees of the alley and devoted their time and attention to the trees. The performance was a public gesture that expressed interest and care for the life of a tree. Riga's central street literally became a meeting place for trees and people, where people were not afraid to see a tree as a living being, talk to it, know what they wanted to say to it and hear the answer.