New York Times publishes “200 Years”

“… Consider a project by the Dutch artist Maarten Baas, called “200 Years.” Baas is planting a forest of tiny saplings that won’t mature until long after he dies: a work of art that won’t be finished for two centuries. If you will be dead before a waiting period concludes, you aren’t technically waiting for anything at all. Waiting becomes meaningless. Baas is making a literal mark on the future that none of us will be alive to witness. His is a complicated act of artistic selflessness and artistic hubris. But it brings to mind, perhaps, what we should be caring about — the future of the world we will leave behind. Perhaps this kind of thinking will become the trend in a post-waiting world, as we try to determine what can still make us feel.”