Somewhere in the abbey grounds stands a dead tree. It stopped growing years ago, yet woodpeckers, wild bees, insects and fungi still find shelter in it. Together with the abbey, the City of Leuven’s green space department and tree specialist Pieter Pollet, Steegmann Mangrané selected this tree and cast its exact form in bronze. Now two versions exist side by side: one that keeps changing and harbours life, and one that no longer changes. Bronze, traditionally the material of monuments and lasting fame, here draws attention to ecological succession: decay that makes room for new life. The work is a new iteration of a project the artist began in 2020. After 21 February 2027 it travels to the Domaine de Graux in Tournai, whose collaboration helped make the project possible.

About the artist

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané is a Catalan artist based between Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro. He makes films, sculptures, drawings, holograms and immersive installations about ecology, perception and the porous boundary between organism and environment. Brazil’s Atlantic Forest is an important source of inspiration. He took part in documenta (13), the 33rd São Paulo Biennial and the 58th Venice Biennale, and has exhibited at Museo Reina Sofía, MACBA, the Serralves Museum and the Whitney Museum.