Jan Patience

From tiny acorns, mighty acorns grow. Or, as German artist, thinker, ecologist and self-styled twentieth century Shaman, Joseph Beuys, put it: "New beginnings are in the offing."

It's a simple, almost homespun notion, but one which touches people on a very basic level.

Beuys (1921-1986) was the conceptual artist with the common touch who dreamt up the idea of 'social sculptures'. These large scale art actions usually always involved ordinary folk. Beuys, who visited Scotland eight times, always knitted this notion of art as a force-for-good into all his work from the 1970s until his death in 1986.

Today and tomorrow, on a patch of slightly barren sloping land owned by the Forestry Commission near Huntly in Aberdeenshire, an action started by Beuys in 1982 will continue with the planting of a new oak forest called The Peace Wood.

Led by artist, Caroline Wendling, volunteers will help plant 49 oaks, raised from acorns taken from oak trees which Beuys began planting next to basalt columns in the German city of Kassel in 1982 as part of a social sculpture called 7000 Oaks. It was his first large-scale ecological action.

Joining in with the planting will be Beuys' old friend, 84-year-old Richard Demarco. The ever-green Edinburgh-based art impresario introduced Beuys to Scotland in 1970 when he invited him to take part in a ground-breaking exhibition of conceptual art by 35 German artists called Strategy: Get Arts.

Beuys was very struck by what he regarded as the Celtic mysticism of Scotland when Demarco took him on a visit to Rannoch Moor in the Highlands. He described it as 'the last great European wilderness' and the experience of travelling there had a lasting impact on his work. In collaboration with Danish artist, Henning Christiansen, Beuys went on to create a performance work called Celtic (Kinloch Rannoch) The Scottish Symphony, a highlight of that year's Edinburgh Festival.

Over the course of the next two days, the Huntly oak saplings, grown from Kassel acorns, will be planted alongside birch and other native white plants. Each sapling will have a small stone collected by local school children from a World War One (WW1) battlefield buried beside it. Limestone from quarries close to the Western Front will be placed beside each sapling as a nod to the four-foot high basalt columns in Beuys' original 7000 Oaks. White flags made of linen and inscribed with quotes about peace by well-known writers will fly next to each tree and slowly disintegrate as the tree takes root.

In planting this Peace Wood, Wendling, from Lorraine on the much-disputed border between France and Germany, aims to reflect on the legacy of WW1 and amity between European nations.

Caroline has been working in Huntly since last autumn, when she became artist in residence marking WW1 commemorations in the Aberdeenshire town.

The 49 saplings will be randomly placed and silver birch planted around them will provide shelter and help the oaks grow. "With 300 years for them to grow, 300 years as an adult and 300 years to die, the project has a life-span of 900 years," she says. This chimes with Beuys' view that the slowly-growing oak, with its mystical holy associations going back to the time of the Druids, was a perfect 'symbol for this planet.'

Beuys embarked on 7000 Oaks for major German contemporary art exhibition, documenta 7, in June 1982. His plan was to plant the trees over several years and change the gritty urban face of Kassel. This long-term tree-planting involved the whole community, from young to old. By the time Beuys died in 1986, he had planted 5,500 oaks. The work continued and in 1987, for the opening of documenta 8, his son, Wenzel, planted the 7,000th tree.

According to Deveron Arts director, Claudia Zeiske, who brought the Beuys acorns from Kassel three years ago, it's fitting that the planting of a Beuys-inspired wood takes place in Huntly. "Joseph Beuys' work has, to a large extent, informed the work of the organisation," she says. "He was an artist with an ardent interest in politics, in particular those relating to peace and ecology.

"Beuys came to Scotland, but due to his untimely death, never managed to fulfil his ambition to plant an oak wood here. It has been our long-term hope to make Beuys' dream come true."

Oaks & Amity. Planting a White Wood

Today and tomorrow, The Hummel Stone, Bin Forest, outside Huntly, Aberdeenshire. 9pm-5pm. Volunteers welcome.

www.deveron-arts.com/events/oak-planting/