A soccer stadium in Austria has been transformed into a forest, thanks to a new art installation meant to draw attention to the effects of climate change.
Wörthersee Football Stadium, a 32,000-seat arena in the city of Klagenfurt, is now home to around 300 trees. The project, which runs from September 8 through October 27, is called “For Forest — The Unending Attraction of Nature.”
Designed by Swiss artist Klaus Littmann, the installation is designed to remind people of the world’s shrinking forests, as well as other disappearing natural wonders.
“One day, we might have to admire the remnants of nature in specially assigned spaces, as is already the case with zoo animals,” the project’s website says.
10 PHOTOSSee the forest growing inside an Austrian soccer stadiumSee GallerySee the forest growing inside an Austrian soccer stadium
FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature, Art Intervention 2019, Wörthersee Stadium Klagenfurt | Austria
FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature, Art Intervention 2019, Wörthersee Stadium Klagenfurt | Austria
FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature, Art Intervention 2019, Wörthersee Stadium Klagenfurt | Austria
FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature, Art Intervention 2019, Wörthersee Stadium Klagenfurt | Austria
Max Peintner’s 1970 pencil drawing of the original concept. 
FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature, Art Intervention 2019, Wörthersee Stadium Klagenfurt | Austria
Artist Rendering
FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature, Art Intervention 2019, Wörthersee Stadium Klagenfurt | Austria
FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature, Art Intervention 2019, Wörthersee Stadium Klagenfurt | Austria
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The project’s roots go back more than 80 years, with Littmann basing his installation on a 1937 dystopian drawing by Austrian artist and architect Max Peintner. The drawing shows crowds of people packed into a large arena as they look down on a collection of trees.
Littmann’s goals are similar to that original idea, with the artist saying his aim is to “challenge our perception of nature and question its future,” while warning a forest like this “may someday only be found in specially designated spaces.”
There are 16 different types of trees planted in the arena, some of which weight up to six tons each. After the project ends, the forest will be relocated to a site near the stadium.
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