“Living” Memorials Commemorate 9/11

Since September 11, 2001, people have planted trees, created parks, and even made efforts to restore forests. Now, there’s an exhibition and a Web site, complete with directions and maps, highlighting these locations. From October 7-27 New York’s New School and the USDA Forest Service will present “Land-markings: 12 Journeys through 9/11 Living Memorials,” 12 digital explorations, created with documentary photo, video, and archival information, through hundreds of memorials. The 700 assorted sites documented by the USDA Forest Service’s Living Memorials Project, initiated in 2002, range from sunflower plantings to window boxes to permanent sculpture parks. “September 11 memorials reflect traditional, almost universal, mourning rituals and beliefs,” says Erika Svendsen of the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station. A comment on the Living Memorial Web site brings this idea further: “For centuries, humans have used nature as a symbolic and innate response to mark the cycles of life.” ::Living Memorials Project ::The New School::USDA Forest Service