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FABIENNE CLAUSS

«The Arolla pine (Pinus Cembra), despite all its remarkable properties, its original qualities
of resistance and longevity is an unknown hero of the Alps. It is rarely quoted in literature, in poetry and little represented in the history of painting... Yet, of great beauty, it is of exceptional constitution and robustness, which allows it to withstand the extremely harsh and unfavorable conditions in the Engadine between 2200 and 2500 meters, at the edge of the last forest belt.
Despite the wind, frost, snow, avalanches and all the bad weather during three-quarters of the year, it grows very slowly and finishes, over the centuries, to look like an eternal giant.
The impressive silhouettes of old Arolla pines, erected as living and monumental statues, question us about the notion of time, of eternity ...
Some can reach or exceed the millennium!
Through this exhibition, I wanted to share the marvellous and inexpressible feeling of wonderment and discovery that I experience each time that I visit these majestic trees in the highest layer of the forest. For me, these trees are the guardians of Silence and Infinity.»

Fabienne Clauss, 2017

 

«Ce que tu vois [...] d'un arbre, ce n'est que le dehors et que l'instant offerts à l'oeil indifférent qui ne fait qu'effleurer la surface du monde. Mais la plante présente aux yeux spirituels [...] un étrange voeu de trame universelle.»
Paul Valéry, 1945,  Dialogue de l'arbre
«What you see [...] of a tree, it is only the outside and an instant which are offered to the indifferent eye that only scratches the surface of the world. But the plant presents to the spiritual eyes [...] a strange wish of universal structure.»

«Un arbre est un chant dont le rythme déploie une forme certaine, et dans l'espace expose un mystère du temps.»
Paul Valéry, 1945,  Dialogue de l'arbre
«A tree is a song whose rhythm deploys a certain form, and exposes a mystery of time in space.»

«Der Arvenwald ist die Zierde des Gebirges, dessen kahlen Schädel er mit weihrauchduftenden Locken schmückt»
A. L. Schnidrig 1935 in der Zeitschrift «Die Alpen»
«La forêt d’aroles est l’ornement de la montagne, elle en décore le crâne chauve de sa fourrure à l’odeur sauvage.»
«The Arolla pine forest is the ornament of the mountain, whose bald skull it adorns with its wild-smelling fur.»

«Les forêts embellissent la terre!...elles apprennent à l'homme à comprendre la beauté... elles lui donnent le goût de l'infini...»
Tchekhov, Oncle Vania
«Forests beautify the earth!... they teach humankind to understand beauty...they give us a taste of the infinite...»

«Je vénère le pin cembro comme un dieu. Je lui dois le bâton avec lequel je marche: il a un bois blanc qui ne jaunit pas avec le temps, costaud et élastique dans les courses sur les sentiers. (...) J'ai trouvé le plus valeureux des arbres à deux mille cinq cents
mètres: un pin cembro qui avait grandi sur une minuscule corniche qui le protégeait du vent et recueillait pour lui un peu d'eau de pluie. Il m'a semblé découvrir un temple secret, et j'ai dû dire quelque chose comme une prière.»
Paolo Cognetti, Le garçon sauvage, 2016 (Prix Stresa 2016, Prix Médicis étranger 2017)
«I venerate the Arolla pine like a god. I owe it for the stick with which I walk: it has a white wood that does not yellow with time, strong and elastic along the trails. (...) I have found the most courageous tree at two thousand five hundred meters: an Arolla pine that had grown on a tiny cornice which protected it from the wind and collected for it a little rain water. I had the sensation of discovering a secret temple, and I had to say something, something like a prayer.»

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