The Beyler foundation & the work of Ernesto Neto
If you are at the Zürich main train station, you cannot miss the new art installation by the Beyler foundation and made by Ernesto Neto, an artist from Brazil. Ernesto Neto was born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro and he is a contemporary artist of today's times. He uses organic materials for his art installations and mostly his art work is larger then life, he says his work is also based on spirituality and people can also touch his art work, use them walk through them and smell them too. His works of art can be found in places like Tate Modern in London, at the MOMA in New York and at Pompidou in Paris.
But we dont have to travel to London and Paris, right here at the main train station of Zürich, you can see, feel and walk through his work of art for free. This art work is called as "Gaia Mother Tree" It started on the 30th of June and it will be here till the 29th of July. So head over to the main station and see for yourself. He
has made this huge tree with strings of cotton cloth which are dyed in organic colours and made with the help from the people of the Amazon. The whole art piece is made with hand knotted macrame type of a technique, its 20 meters high and there are strings hanging down. There are different programmes tours, meditation, mantras, macrame making etc. going on while this art installation is here. You can check more here.
Opening of the "Gaia Mother tree"
On the opening day Ernesto Neto was himself here and there were many people and activities were going on here. I was talking to one of the guides from there and he said, of course its a big huge tree type of a figure but you can always interpret it in your own way. That sounded interesting. The soon I heard this, my mind took me to an old, big and huge Bargad ka ped (in hindi) Banyan tree in India. Now after seeing this art work, I came home and read about the Indian Banyan tree, and turns out that a Banyan tree is the national tree of India. I felt a bit ashamed not to have known that. But anyways Banyan tree or Bargad ka ped has been and its always a very popular tree in India and its also considered sacred too. You can read more about Indian Banyan tree
Now if I compared the Gaia Mother tree with a Banyan tree, it immediately brought back good old memories of my childhood and especially my father. When I lost my father, the felling I got was that my big tree was chopped, under whose shade, comfort and protection I used to feel safe.
But this art gave that feeling back, When I went inside it, I felt a great sense of comfort, love and cozy feeling. Thanks to these artists who make our lives enriched with their art. If you do visit this art piece do let me know if you also think it has some thing in common with the banyan tree or else what was your interpretation.