JAVIER ARCE
Santander, Spain, 1973
Received the Fundación Botín Art Grant in 2006

Soy un árbol (I Am a Tree), 2025
4K single-channel video, 9:16, for vertical screen
50’07’’
Fundación Botín Collection. Acquired in 2025.

Soy un árbol is an environmentally oriented feature-length film presented as a vegetal fable. Over the course of 50 minutes, a continuous overhead long take uninterruptedly traverses the surface of a tree stump located in the garden of the cabin where the artist lives, turning it into the visual and symbolic axis of the work.

The film is structured in four parts, punctuated by two environmental interludes that function as spatial and temporal transitions. The first part operates as an invocation: a local farmer circles the trunk while calling upon the animals, establishing a bond between human beings and the natural environment. In the second part, it is the trunk itself that “speaks.” Through references to dendrochronology, climate change, plant communication, resilience, and nature’s capacity for adaptation, the focus shifts from the human toward a non-anthropocentric perspective.

The third part introduces a voice-over that narrates a fragment from The Overstory by Richard Powers. In this segment, an imprisoned environmental activist reflects on the notion of natural time - represented by the rings of the wooden bench on which he sits in his cell - in contrast to human time. Finally, the fourth part presents an abstract dialogue among the plants inhabiting the garden, evoking a form of non-verbal communication that transcends human language.