The Carved Forest

It looks like a great tree cemetery. As I enter the venue, that negative vision starts to adopt a totally different shape: it is the shape of life. I am at 1,500 meters over sea level, on one of the Piltriquitrón Mount slopes, in El Bolsón, and I find it hard to believe how a carved forest was born from a burnt down place.

I am making reference to the 31 sculptures done on logs that did not succumb to the burning fire that lashed the mountain lenga forest in 1982. The Carved Forest is the result of the initiative of a group of artists that heard the cry of the Earth and that, with effort and dedication, organized national encounters of woodcarving in the venue, intending to expose the intimacy of the pieces of wood scattered on the ground.

The truth is that today, this unique cultural event has become an unavoidable tourist attraction and one of the sites most visited by tourists passing by the “parallel 42 degree Andean shire”.

The Heart of the Mountain

When going along the paths of the Carved Forest, I start to understand that the intense and exhausting walk that led me to the area has been worthwhile. In the silence of the mountain everything is astonishment. My spirit rejoices as I appreciate the whimsical shapes in which the pieces of wood that once looked dead have been carved.

Beyond, an unreal shape leans out from a lenga log. It is the Ypuche, by Jorge Calderón which, with its kind gesture, seems to be the protector of the forest.

I continue my way and the figures of the Duende vegetal, Todos nosotros, Sin título, Guardián del bosque and countless artistic expressions that render the rest of visitors that wander around the venue speechless, pass before my eyes.

I head towards the Casa rústica, located at the entrance to the Carved Forest.

The building, which has been inaugurated recently, was raised to provide shelter and rest to the tourists and to protect guards and guides. There, Maximiliano González, caretaker of the venue, offers mineral water and invites me to leave testimony of what I have experienced in a book that visitors sign after going through the forest.

From the venue where the Carved Forest is located, the view is amazing. I can make out the magnificence of the Valle Nuevo, the snow-capped mountain range that separates Argentina from its neighboring country – Chile-, and the angelical light-blue of Lake Puelo.

Soon, I start to understand that the place is magical. Out of nowhere, a whole space of cultural life was provided, and in the middle of that reflection, I am excited to know that a human being sometimes creates, thrills… and turns huge.