Atelier YokYok to install winning "Treedom" centerpiece for Budapest's summer Sziget Festival

Festival-goers at Budapest's colorful Sziget Festival this August will encounter "Treedom", an enticing forest of wooden trees at the heart of the Island of Freedom. Parisian practice Atelier YokYok designed the installation, which won first prize in the festival's Art of Freedom competition. Once Treedom is constructed, it'll serve as a gathering space during the weeklong arts + music fest.

And if their name rings a bell, Atelier YokYok was also selected earlier this spring to exhibit at the Cahors June Festival in France next month.

Below are more Treedom details that the designers shared with us.

Project description:

"The Liberty Island has a new forest. A wooden, straight and bright wilderness has grown in the middle of the island. One can see it from far away before penetrating it and enjoy it from inside. Treedom is an intimate place of gathering, it gives you the opportunity of new encounters...It is more than just a meeting point, it is a place with an atmosphere, a wooden open air cathedral!"

"Treedom is an emblematic installation designed for the SZIGET festival. The aim is to gather people around a simple symbol, in this case the forest. More tha  a simple sculpture, we propose a huge installation that can be walked through, and experienced from within."

"A network of pole trees is randomly dispatched on a square grid to create a seemingly wild ensemble, with various densities and transparencies depending on the viewpoint."

"Each tree is fastened to its neighbouring ones by the branches, which emphasizes the feeling of being in a forest."

"Some benches join the trees at their bases, offering outdoor lounges. The installation  provides a slight shade during the day, but also a warm ambiance at night time, being illuminated from the canopy. Let’s go!"

All images courtesy of Atelier YokYok.