The Dragon Tree of Icod de los Vinos, in Tenerife, is the oldest specimen of Dracaena Drago, which is preserved in the Atlantic archipelago, a tree 16 m high with a 20 m circumference at the base. An endemic species of the Canary Islands, with a slow growth, the dragon tree has a strong symbolism since, in the past, it was considered the protector of the islands, but, at the beginning of the 1980s, the one who needed protection was precisely the dragon tree. Visitors - about 1 million a year - flocked to visit it, and the intense activity that tourism brought around it put its life in danger. It was necessary to stop the visits and find solutions so that the drago tree did not die of success.
When scientific congresses began to talk about "biodiversity" and "renaturation of urban environments", but they were not yet mainstream concepts, the entry of a team of three young architects - Felipe Artengo, Fernando Menis and José María Rodríguez Pastrana - proposed a slow process of ecological restoration, which won the international public design competition called for this site located in the small town of Icod de los Vinos, at the insistence of a number of biologists and botanists concerned about the health of the Dragon Tree. What happened next is that the Dragon Tree Park has become one of the most important interventions in the Canary Islands in terms of the conservation and restoration of the biodiversity of a space, a ravine in this case.
Twenty-five years have passed since the Drago and its new park reopened in 1998. Even more time has passed since the process of restoring the natural conditions of this mythical tree, which was in danger at the dawn of democracy in Spain, began. The Dragon Tree Park project put nature, a unique tree, at the center. Today this decision may seem the most logical, it may seem like a decision full of common sense, but in the `80s when tourism in the Canary Islands was booming, the project was perceived as impossible and insane, since it proposed the elimination of the road that passed nearby, an essential general route in the north of the island, very busy with locals and tourists.
The Laboratory, a research space led by the architect Fernando Menis, celebrates the 25th anniversary since the reopening of the Dragon Tree Park, and the recovery of its biodiversity, with the exhibition "The Dragon Tree Park 1998-2023: 25 years embracing the mythical thousand-year-old Dragon Tree in Icod de los Vinos, on Tenerife island". The exhibition is organized within the 'Islands of The World' project (called in its previous 12 editions 'Islas del Futuro'), which aims to promote Canarian biodiversity and put cultural and nature tourism back at the center. Thus, culture, landscape, art and nature are the research lines on which a much broader and more transversal work is based. It is supported by: Canarias Aporta, Proexca, Foundation CajaCanarias, Cabildo de Tenerife, Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, ICEX Next, Turismo de Canarias and the Canarian Institute for Cultural Development.
The exhibition, consisting of current and historical images that explain the project and its evolution, can be visited between February 10 and April 28, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, c/ Gómez Landero, 19, Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The exhibition is scheduled to travel and be shown in Icod de los Vinos later this year.
Title
The Dragon Tree Park 1998-2023: 25 years embracing the mythical thousand-year-old Dragon Tree in Icod de los Vinos, on Tenerife islandType
ExhibitionWebsite
Organizers
El Laboratorio de Tenerife and Fernando MenisFrom
February 10, 2023 11:00 AMUntil
April 28, 2023 02:00 PMVenue
El Laboratorio de TenerifeAddress