Mise en scène d'objets de nature à Paris et Varsovie: Les arbres remarquables de deux forêts périurbaines

Abstract

Remarkable trees are unusual natural objects, exceptional because of their size, their appearance or their history. They have become products of cultural consumption. They are given names, they are photographed, mapped but, above all, protected and looked after. As exceptional individuals, they appeal to man's imagination much more than does an ordinary forest area, which is only a society of anonymous trees. This article compares the status of special trees in two large urban woods: Fontainebleau and Kampinos which are located near the capital cities Paris and Warsaw. These exceptional territories - with their large number of visitors - enable us to study the fine interweaving of nature and culture in the representation of natural objects. One key question concerns the management of special trees, these outstanding individuals. They do not fit to the usual principles of high productivity which only aim at producing large quantities of wood. They require different approaches: aesthetic, relating to cultural heritage or to landscape, which are linked to the dramatic growth in the needs of urban inhabitants - in our leisure society - in search of nature, which they hope to find in woods. This "tree-mania" is not without its excesses. It contributes to the fight for the prolongation of the life of older trees at all costs; it favours a "fixist" view of nature, to the detriment of a dynamic conception. A tree is born, it lives and (usually) it dies. It is not eternal. © NSS-Dialogues, EDP Sciences 2004.