The Name-Giving Project

Curated by Jose Abad Lorente Artist in residence Hall’Makwanda and website developer Marcus Wiseman

Summary of the project

Padrin@ Dame Un Nombre or The Name-Giving Project is an interactive art project which aims to raise ecological awareness about the destruction of the environment in Murcia and the felling of fruit trees. Through the project, people will have the opportunity to adopt a tree, which they give a name, and with which they can create a fictional 'family'. The object is to create personal links between trees and people. Adopters (Padrin@s) will receive a one-year renewable adoption certificate with information and beautiful photos of their adopted tree. Their names, together with the name they give to their tree, will be part of the artwork El Mural Enraizado which is based on the modern calligraphy style called the ‘Linking Line'.

The adoption fee is €45

This fee will go entirely to help support the orchard and maintain the trees. Adopters will have the option to pick 30kg of mandarins from their tree and for those who can't come to pick the mandarins; we can donate the mandarins in your name to people with needs in the community. In addition, there is a special promotion . All those who adopt 3 or more mandarin trees, will be able to enjoy a 2 night for 2 persons stay free in the Refugio, where they can enjoy the peace and beauty of the orchard and eco-arts centre. You can find the adoption form by clicking here.

Padrin@ Dame un Nombre - The Name-Giving Project

Context

El Refugio EcoArt aims to protect and care for the trees in the garden of El Refugio. The mandarin orchard is too large to be a family garden and too small for market agriculture, making it unsustainable. In the last 10 years, the mandarin harvest has varied between 300 and 500 kilos, which have been lost. It was sad and unfair to see mandarins rotting on the trees and in the ground. The only alternative option is to cut down the mandarin trees. This art project initiative is against the destruction of the environment, in particular the felling of fruit trees, caused mostly by the demand for 'perfect' fruit required by market agriculture. This means that driven by the global system of economy and market, fruit trees must be cut down and replaced when they fail to obtain high yields. Due to this problem, the idea of creating El Padrin@ Dame un Nombre arose as a creative response to the destruction of the environment, and the exploitation of nature at the service of humanity. The art project Padri@ Dame un Nombre tries to open communication and create relationships between people and trees. Based on Ecoart practices it seeks to raise environmental awareness about the unjust marginalization of plant life, unethical farming practices and the problem of deforestation, and mass production agriculture.

Padrin@ Dame un Nombre | The Name-Giving Project

Introduction to the project

This community art project aims to create a cross-cultural understanding between Asian and Western cultures, religions, thoughts and art practices. The project is inspired on one hand by the ideas of Buddhism and the Christian ceremony of name giving through Baptism. On the other hand it is based on ecological thinking, and socially engaged and relational art. The project is also part of my ongoing practice-based research on art through which I have developed my own style of calligraphy named ‘The Linking Line’. This is a calligraphy style based on the Buddhist concept that everything is connected, interdependent and circular. The Linking Line is an intervention on a text with a line that links, connects and joins all words together. The research explores the aesthetics of words and ligatures. Under the Padrin@ Dame un Nombre project the Linking Line research furthers the concept through relational art. The act of linking words is turned into a socially engaged practice where the Linking Line connects people and trees to one another. The title of the project ‘Padrin@ Dame un Nombre’ is translated into English as ‘The Name-Giving Project’. Padrino in Spanish means godparent and in Christian Baptism is connected to the act of name giving. The project is also inspired by the Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree and his lineage, which according to the Theravada tradition is composed of twenty-nine Buddhas including Buddha Maitraya who will achieve enlightenment in the future. Each of these Buddhas were sitting under a tree when they attained Enlightenment. Therefore the Buddha's lineage is directly linked to a tree and embraces ideas of nature, relationships and lineage between humans and trees.

Photo Documentation and Orchard Mapping

In the first collaborative art residency hosted at the El Refugio EcoArt on November 2021, the invited artist duo Hall’Makwanda developed the first stage of the project, which was the mandarin trees’ photographic documentation and orchard map. The map is a way to identify each tree independently and is also a way of introduction to the mandarin adoption program. The tree documentation uses a portrait photographic style, which as a genre is usually used to capture the physical and psychological qualities of people. Taking trees as a subject, as living and individual beings they are represented showing all their qualities as a tree. The documentation follows a structure of numbering and photographing each tree with 3 photographs. In the 1st photo a portrait of the tree capturing it in full; in the 2nd photo there is more detail, capturing a branch, a leaf, and fauna; in the 3rd photo is shown a ribbon and number that hangs from the tree. The whole body of photographic work makes a total of 495 photographs, in which each photographic tree triptych represents and personifies the trees and their individual characters.

Tree Adoption and Name Giving

Padrin@ Dame un Nombre is an art project and a platform to explore ecological, community, and visual art practices. The project aims to create environmental awareness through a strategy of tree adoption. The adoption program is based on the action of name-giving, the trees are adopted by the project participants who become the godparent – Padrino - of the tree. In doing so the project helps participants to understand that nature is not just about non-humans but that we humans are also part of nature. Like in an average family lineage, the Padrino@, the person who adopt the tree will give a name to the adopted tree in order to create a fictional family, a new lineage between people and trees. Mandarin trees can be adopted through an annual fee of €45 per tree, which will be allocated to the maintenance of the trees themselves, their care and preservation.

Tree Adoption Form

People and Trees – Family Relations and New Creations

The Padrin@ project’s fictional families initiative is focused on reconnecting people and nature, in order to motivate and generate new creative ways to express and maintain healthier relationships between people and trees. The project takes place at El Refugio EcoArt, a space for creativity and a platform for art and ecological experimentation. Tree adopters and invited artists in residence have the opportunity to explore and represent their relationship with the tree. In their second art residency in May 2022 Hall’Makwanda developed a series of art works around their experience of living in El Refugio and their relation with their adopted tress Coa and Solve.

The Rooted Mural

On going project by Jose Abad Lorente El Mural Enraizado is an artwork which collects the names and surnames of the trees’ godparents, along with the names that the godparents have given to the trees. This written compilation of names is a contemporary representation of a family tree, and the base text for the later calligraphy work, which will use the Linking Line concept to interlace and connect people and trees names.

Mandarin Donation

In nature fruit trees are known for their generosity, providing food to all ecosystems - human and non-human. Generosity is also a well-known concept in Christianity, which is related to charity, the selfless act of giving without expecting a return. And in Buddhism generosity is denominated as Dana, which is an antidote to combat human suffering based on greed, anger and ignorance The gesture of adopting a tree not only acts to give a name and create bonds of union between people and trees but it also promotes generosity The collection of mandarins takes place over the months of October and November. Each person who adopts a tree and has paid the fee will have the option of collecting 30kg of mandarins themselves or making an act of generosity, where the mandarins are picked and donated to people in need in the surrounding community.