The non-governmental organization Orkide Collective consists solely of women from the Kosovar city of Prizren. The collective carries out numerous activities to protect and promote the nature and culture of the city: creating art through embroidery, organizing courses on labor and  women’s rights, and preparing exhibitions and conferences. This helps to create a conscious and active community that identifies with the activities of the collective.

The intervention 7000 embroidery trees is a project that aims to protect the trees of the city through embroidery. The diverse designs of the embroideries and colored weaves serve to beautify the city, but they also become a metaphor of the flowering of Prizren and Kosovo after a  long period of war. Through an action that openly echoes the work of Joseph Beuys, who in 1982 planted 7000 oak trees together with the citizens of Kassel as a symbol of a new beginning for the city and its inhabitants, Orkide Collective similarly creates a “social sculpture” inviting everyone to take part in the cultural life of Prizren.

Ilaria Festa