concept
TreeEast – an avenue of trees
Planting 888 trees with a wooden bicycle from Aachen (Germany) to Tehran (Iran)
Shahin Tivay Sadatolhosseini & Anke Scharrahs
We – a well-traveled artist and a wood restorer/conservator – will travel 5,600 km from Aachen to Tehran in 2025/26 with wooden bicycles and a 2 m high gym wheel in a trailer. On the way there, we will plant a tree every 6.5 kilometres - an ancient Persian measure of length (parsang) and the distance of 1,000 rolls of the gym wheel.
In 8 months, we will plant 888 trees. For each tree, we are looking for a sponsor who will make it possible to buy the tree and a local tree seedling guardian who will look after the tree for a certain period of time.
You too can support us on our journey. For every donation of EUR 88, we plant a tree. The tree species are selected according to the local soil and environmental conditions with local partners and tree nurseries. Our project will be divided into two sections of four months each, so that we can plant the trees in the spring and autumn months to ensure the seedlings grow.
Each tree receives a wooden sign with the name of the tree sponsor, the tree seedling guardian, information about the tree and the project and is documented on the TreeEast website. This will create an avenue of trees as well as a network of people and trees. Any additional donations will be used to create and plant a classic Persian garden - a bustan - in Iran.
Through this multifaceted project, we would like to draw further attention to the issues of climate change, ecology and sustainability, and build bridges between countries, people and cultures. It is important to us not just to plant trees, but also to plant ideas and develop proactive networks that are both local and global.