What If I Were a Tree? Outdoor Scientific Trail
ccdMalvina, new in 2026
In Brief
What If I Were a Tree? is a scientific trail presented at ccdMalvina (Malvina Creation and Presentation Center, Saint-Malo, Estrie) as part of the 2026 season. Through interpretive panels installed in the site’s kitchen garden, this trail explores surprising biological similarities between trees and humans. The trail is free and outdoors, open on the public event dates listed on our website.
Trees and Humans: Unexpected Kinships
We tend to think of trees and humans as belonging to separate worlds. Yet recent scientific discoveries reveal surprising similarities in the way they function biologically.
Like humans, trees breathe, communicate, defend themselves against threats, develop cooperative relationships with other organisms, and constantly adapt to their environment. They possess complex systems of circulation, exchange, and signaling that allow them to perceive and respond to changes around them.
Without a brain or nervous system, trees nonetheless display sophisticated forms of biological intelligence. Connected through their roots and underground fungal networks, they exchange nutrients, water, and information in ways that contribute to the resilience of forest ecosystems.
These discoveries invite us to rethink our place within the living world. Rather than opposing humans and nature, they reveal a web of interdependence in which every being participates in a vast network of relationships.
What can trees teach us about cooperation, adaptation, and our own ways of inhabiting the world?
Credits
Concept, Research and Interpretation: Isabelle Van Grimde
Inspired by research developed through the Wild Intelligences work in progress
Produced by: Van Grimde Corps Secrets / ccdMalvina
About ccdMalvina
Located on the site of the former village of Malvina (Saint-Malo, Estrie, Québec), founded in 1862, ccdMalvina is the research, creation and presentation centre of Van Grimde Corps Secrets.
About 40 minutes from Sherbrooke and 2h15 from Montréal, the site offers each summer a free outdoor program: immersive trails exploring heritage, contemporary creation, ecology and technology, as well as performances, participatory workshops, talks, artist residencies and festive events throughout the summer season.