100 oak trees planted on Tate Modern’s South Terrace

Beuys’ Acorns exhibition at TATE Modern opened May 4th through November 14th, 2021. British artists Ackroyd & Harvey planted 100 young oak trees on Tate Modern’s outside terrace. It takes its inspiration from the artist and co-founder of the German Green party Joseph Beuys, whose centenary it is this year. From 1982 to 1987, Beuys and his helpers planted 7,000 trees alongside 7,000 basalt rocks in Kassel, Germany. Called 7000 Oaks this ‘social sculpture’, as Beuys called it, permanently altered the cityscape, connecting art to the emerging climate movement.
In 2007, Ackroyd & Harvey travelled to Kassel and collected acorns from the original oaks. A hundred of the now-grown trees will come together at Tate Modern, creating a living sculpture – a place for gathering and for rethinking our connections with nature.
At Tate Modern, Beuys’ Acorns will sit directly above Beuys’s work The End of the Twentieth Century, installed in the Tanks below. Its basalt stones are derived from the same rocks used in 7000 Oaks, reuniting the two elements from Beuys’s original piece.
Ackroyd & Harvey are co-founders of Culture Declares Emergency, which launched in April 2019. The movement aims to create strategic plans for individuals and organizations – including Tate – to help sustain the planet.
For more information visit: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/beuys-acorns