via luzinterruptus, photo by Gustavo Sanabria

Luzinterruptus, a group from Madrid, Spain who performs outdoor interventions through the use of light, feels that the city is looking less and less green with the ripping out of trees to make way for improvements. They feel the city looks as though it is dying. It becomes more and more gray as large expanses of concrete grow within the public realm and existing trees that were removed are not replaced or transplanted upon construction completion.

To bring a little color back to the street, they staged an action they called “Injertos de Luz Verde” or “Green Light Grafts”. They chose a deciduous tree in which to hang plants and lights on a popular night for the youth of Madrid. These bright additions brought life to the street well into the morning

The colored green bags reminded me of an exhibition at the 2008 Venice Biannale, an architecture exhibition in Venice title Out There: Beyond Building. Part of the exhibition had pavilions from various countries which held a common message important to the country and current projects. The German pavilion chose to focus on climate change, consumption and environmental destruction. Fifty stunted apple trees were shocased ripe with apples and drip-fed with colored green dye as if the trees are now only able to survive on artifial life support that keeps the green flowing.