Humanity is the most aggressive invasive species on the planet. We colonise, reshape and observe the world, yet its processes - and eternity itself - remain beyond our full understanding. Consider Old Tjikko, the 9,550-year-old Norway spruce in the Swedish tundra; Surtsey, an island that rose from the sea off Iceland just 63 years ago; or Lotus gomerythus, a plant species discovered in 2016, whose only known specimen grows on La Gomera in the Canary Islands. More than a decade in the making, this experimental film by filmmaker Carlos Marqués-Marcet and photographer Aleix Plademunt reflects on how our gaze constructs the world and on the complex relationship between images and language. A Tree Is a Tree is a philosophical essay that spans the microscopic world of microorganisms and the boundlessness of the universe, contemplating humanity’s place within it.
