The Willowman, World Expo Floriade, Venlo, Holland 2012 “I tried to hide from the 2.4 million visitors, but there was no escape” ​ Hidden in the woods on the grounds of the world expo, I built a complete cradle to cradle living environment, together with my team, where I lived and worked during six months. The challenge was to view nature in a completely new way, to reunite with the essence. The public was forced to change gear, the high- tech effects vanished and were replaced by pure simplicity in direct contact with nature. My philosophy is simple: I respect Nature and what she has to offer us, this is very often underestimated and overlooked in our modern, results driven society. ​ This is precisely why “The Willowman” project had a strong appeal to thousands of children. They are young enough to let their imagination run wild and be creative without having the constraints of society. They left me with 12,418 written wishes for Nature, during the six months of workshops. ​ Client: Limburgs Museum, Venlo, Holland Advisory body: Team Sven Stimac, Floriade, Holland 2012 Curator: Loek Sijbers Funding: Mondriaan fonds, City Council, Venlo Workshop cooperation: Rabobank, Holland Engineering office: Tecobe D. Schillebeeckx Bronze foundry: Exametal Barcelona, Spain Glass foundry: Glass house Lommel, Belgium Photo courtesy: Lemmert Photography Movie “The Willowman”: Nyan Komago Movie “Hallo wereld” : Kinderen voor kinderen