I DREAM OF TREES

For Torn Together artist Gustiele Fistaról has reimagined the installation I Dream of Trees into an interactive, digital experience for sharing dreams with a sick tree.

Gustiele has been returning to a specific tree in Herzberge, Berlin, since 2021, creating performances, videos, and installations that reflect on life and death, and the increased fragility of nature caused by human behaviour and  interventions.

By exploring the relationship between hope and decay, Gustiele considers how dreams can help us to imagine a future on a planet that, like the tree, is also unwell.

 

Installation images

Gustiele first encountered the tree in 2021, creating the piece Tree 150, a participatory performance where she installed a “patient” sign on the tree and invited people to be with it and express their desires, reflecting on: where desires go after a person’s torso topples over?

To view I Dream of Trees click here

 

Find out more and listen to the poetic text created for the performance, in either Portuguese or English, here.

Installation video

In 2024, Gustiele reconnected with the tree collecting video footage that brought the tree inside the Museum Kesselhaus Herzberge, as part of Onsite Residency and Festival. Here she created an interactive installation where visitors could speak into a mic and share their dreams with the tree. The video was triggered by visitors’ voices, activating visual layers to give the appearance of the tree listening and responding.  

For Torn Together, this has been translated into digital space, where you can share dreams with the sick tree through an interactive website. Here, Gustiele is bringing art and technology together to create empathetic connections and collective contemplation about pressing ecological issues. Click here to view I Dream of Trees

 

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Activate your mic when prompted and share a dream to a tree in digital space.

 

Best viewed on desktops, rather than mobile devices. If you are using Firefox, you may need to use an alternative browser. Use Google Chrome or Safari for best results.

 

If you experience any difficulties make sure your microphone is activated in your browser settings, refresh your browser, or follow this link. 

 

With the tree’s condition acting as an analog for wider environmental vulnerability, and the act of dreaming as a symbol for human resilience and change, I Dream of Trees considered the potential for regeneration. 

 

Elements from this exhibition, and the rest of our programme, will be shared across our digital platforms. Find out more about Torn Together and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to make sure you don’t miss out.

 

GUSTIELE FISTARÓL

Gustiele Fistaról is a transdisciplinary artist and researcher from Brazil whose work navigates the intersections of performance and technology. Rooted in the exploration of daily  life, her research draws inspiration from Georges Perec’s concept of the Infraordinary, investigating the subtle and often overlooked aspects of the everyday. Through her practice, she seeks to expand the relationship between audience, space, performer, and the art object, creating works that foster new ways of perceiving and engaging with the world.

Gustiele’s work is deeply collaborative and site-specific, emphasising collective creation as a central element of her artistic process. By responding to the unique contexts of each site and engaging participants in the creative act, she crafts experiences that reflect both personal and shared narratives. Her transdisciplinary approach blends diverse fields to generate hybrid forms of expression, fostering innovative ways to navigate bodies, spaces, and behaviours.