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@frau.zonderbar – @antoniocastello

When Alexander von Humboldt passed through Colombia’s Cocora Valley in 1801, he encountered no livestock or farmhouses, just a fog forest and mule trails. Among the valley’s remarkable flora was the tallest palm tree in the world: the Wax Palm. Growing up to 60 meters tall on the chilly slopes of the Andes, at elevations as high as 3,048 meters, they grow above the tree line.

Here, they control the hot winds from the Pacific Ocean that meets the cold mountain air, creating a fog forest. A thick wax silver coats the trunks of the huge trees, something not seen in others palm varieties.

Today, these beautiful and unique palms are in danger of disappearing. Aggressive agriculture (the region produces avocados and coffee) and cow pastures are growing at an alarming pace and when local industries chop down the forest the palms cannot reproduce. Their seedlings die in full sun or are eaten by cows and pigs. With them die birds and insects who feed from their fruits and live on their trunks.

In 2020 only a few thousand palm trees were counted, and most of them will die in the next 47 years. Many scientific papers and botanists have warned the Colombian government to protect the area but no effective response has been forthcoming.

As a Colombian, it is important for the artist to create awareness of this issue which affects key components in the region’s ecosystem. With the help of his wife, Natalie Hoyos-Herrmann, who traveled with him in 2018 to take photos and document the region, he began an art project in which he frames the pictures in old windows, rescued from Berlin’s construction sites. Their glass is then painted with acrylics, while the original photos remain intact underneath.