The artwork centers on the relationship between trees and cities, their resemblance and potential for cooperation.

We analyze several layers of city data: city map, which is a replica of trees which live in this city, inhabitant's mobility patterns, and citizen's mapping the information about the city. Through overlapping these layers of the data, we search new ways of integrating trees into the cityscape and maintaining the city structure alive.
We identify the key trees in the city, and runs algorithms to identify shortest and greenest journeys. Highlighting the arborescent structure of city mobilities we calculate green index for each trajectory of citizens.

We defined the green index of a trip as the relation between the number of trees are there on the real trip path divided by the number of trees on the shortest path. The green index helps us to understand whether people deviate their path more towards the greener path, rather the shortest path.

This work is in line with the Leonardo da Vinci research who studied arborescent structures to estimate how the flows are distributed in the tree structure, and define the law of the square root, which can be applicable to flows in the city as well.

In Collaboration with:
Data analyze and scientific part of project development: Liu Bauer
Assistant data analyze: Yasamin Nematollahi
Cartography: Vlad Afanasiev
Documentation: Marco Innocenti
3D scans: Marc Santolini

Advisors:
Lorenza Baroncelli, Pier Luigi Capucci, Valentino Catricala, Marina Prepotenska

Partners: Institut Français Italia, Art&Science International Institute, Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaire (Paris, France).

Acknowledgements:
Orto Botanico di Roma, Musei di area biologica, Polo museale Università "La Sapienza”, Roma
Caterina Giovinazzo
Flavio Tarquini
learning planet institute, Paris

The Artwork is realized by Olga Kisseleva and co-commissioned by Sony with the support of Vittorio Loreto, Alessandro Londei, Bernardo Monechi, Matteo Bruno and the S+T+ARTS program of the European Union in collaboration with MAXXI, curators Chiara Bertini, Alessio Rosati, Monia Trombetta.

Repairing the Present received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement LC01641664.

Olga Kisseleva is one of the key figures in international art&science field. She has had major exhibitions in Modern Art Museum (Paris), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid) Fondation Cartier for contemporary art (Paris), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven). Her works are present in the world’s most important collections, including Centre Pompidou, Louis Vuitton Foundation, ZKM, NY MoMA... Olga Kisseleva teaches contemporary art in the Sorbonne University, she is the head of Art&New Media program and Founding director of Art&Science International Institute. In 2020 for her EDEN project focused on trees’ communication Olga Kisseleva was awarded the S+T+ARTS Grand Prize for innovative collaboration between technology and art that opens new pathways for innovation.

Liu Bauer is a researcher, working in interdisciplinary research institutes. She worked on climate, urban, mobility projects in institutes in Berlin, Utrecht, Paris, London, Moscow (strelka), Mallorca. Her recent focus is on citizen science and open city data, which she is developing in City Interaction lab in Montreuil, France