For several years we tried to put a small wind turbine in the back yard, but due to quite a lot of resistance from several directions, we gave up this idea. Attractive to a wind turbine is that he's turning with the wind (by the way a derivative of solar energy.) Thanks to the Mondo-Sun tree we get now an alternative, he isn’t turning with the wind but by the sun direction. The big difference between a wind turbine and this Mondo-Sun tree is that a wind turbine has fast turning blades, the Mondo-solar tree follows rather a process of relaxation. In the morning the blades open, steady but slow, as if they put a stop to the fast-paced society in which many people live. It is like he sticks his finger to a society that sometimes seems to love to run too fast. In the evening, as the Sun has set, the blades are folding slowly but surely and certainly slow in night mode. All blades hang down waiting for dawn to follow the position of the Sun the next day. All the blades, equipped with PV solar panels, move during the day in both directions, vertically and horizontally to maximize the best positions of the blades (perpendicular to the sun) to get the best reward – which is not the case with static PV panels – and in the evening they go back to the sleep stand. In this way, the small municipality Berlaar is put on the map. The Solar House Solar 2002 and the Sun tree stand now on the way for cyclists and walkers as a point of interest. How we came to the name Sun-tree? For some people it seemed a ' sunflower ', a very large one. But Mondo wanted to put the attention of the rooted in the Earth on the one hand, and being connected with the air on the other hand. In the implementation, we see clearly the typical roots anchored in the ground. It should be noted that the Dutch language use quite a few statements about trees, such as: • the apple never falls far from the tree. • you cannot see the wood for the trees. • tall trees catch a lot of wind. • a tree that bears fruit It is also thanks to this last expression ' a tree that bears fruit ' that this metaphor is chosen. Indeed, if you still want to drive in the future, it will be solar powered. About ten years ago Mondo gave a symposium: "the Extinguished flame ", about the end of the fossil era!

The Mondo-Sun tree has several meanings:

• ' This tree bears fruit ': he delivers enough energy to drive about 15 000 km per year in a comfortable vehicle. And all that without emitting combustion gases, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur compounds, fine particles and CO2-free during use. • A tree can be seen as a connection, of Earth with Air. Without clean air there is no life. (It is perhaps time to write ' clean air ' in the Charter of the Human Rights?) • Without trees, no life. Metabolism with living beings is a fact. Are trees not permeated by the Earth? CO2 is taken up by trees and subsequently converted to oxygen that all animal life needs. • It is also a sign that a tree is renewable as building material, for thousands of years in the cycle of things. • A tree is normally something solid, sometimes it has a long life. (Some trees stay for centuries.) • A tree gives shelter to many organisms, which is obviously not what we wish in this metaphorical tree! • Clearly, the solar tree is metaphorical, symbolic. • The difference with ordinary trees is that the Mondo-Sun tree doesn’t like storms and retracts completely into its smallest form at high wind speeds.

Strength and weakness at the same time

At this last point, a normal tree cannot retract by storm like this sun- tree. And here enters the ambiguity of the solar tree, we live in a complex culture. Where we try to maintain and improve life through all sorts of techniques. As long as all goes well, technical means might be a progress. At the same time this solar tree indicates also the vulnerability of such a culture. In order to be able to follow the Sun throughout the day, there is a sequential mechanism that has the necessary complexity. It is typical for the whole of Western culture that many things become more complex. For some people though too complex. For many people,  the technical culture goes much too fast. There is also the vulnerability of systems. And in the meantime we all step in one way or another in the Evolution of Things.

Technique and aesthetics

Some people (among them the urban authorities) had the question whether such a ' masterpiece ' was aesthetically pleasing? This is a difficulty. Because aesthetics are usually signed by very personal experiences, insights and bias. Even in ancient times we knew already that tastes may be different between people. However many people are charmed by the beauty of this work of art: the Mondo-Sun tree.

Which thought is here even more behind?

Let's see here the goal of Mondo vzw: ' promoting an integrative cosmological worldview, ' seems to be heavy. It concerns more than a philosophical concept? It does require some explanation. The integrative suggests to involve as much knowledge domains as possible, not excluding domains if they contribute to this cosmological worldview. Let’s keep our relationship to the solar system to which the earth belongs. A worldview is as glasses through which we watch the world; the worldview determines the human behavior for a large part. Will ' filo-sophia ' what means ' love of wisdom ' in ancient Greek, the concept, the worldview ' translated ', to be converted in the everyday life. All too often there is an abstract philosophical frame of mind where one in vain looking for a challenge. This is not so with Mondo vzw where the daily used energy by solar irradiation is captured, as  a conversion of a philosophical idea in a practical realization. ' Cosmic level ' in everyday life, what can it be? Actually we can find that easy if we consider that without Sun – a cosmic celestial body – there wouldn’t be life on Earth. Many of our contemporaries are unfortunately so alienated from the Earth and the cosmos in which they live, that they are not aware of it. In a further transformation in contemporary terms, one could argue that the use of solar cells, PV panels –PV stands for "photovoltaic" – that generate electricity, actually are a connection with the cosmic. A connection with a star, particularly the Sun: a connection to a solar system of which planet Earth is a part of it. (Another example is the solar water heater that create domestic hot water by converting solar light into usable heat, instead of wasting fossil raw materials.) Even stronger is the installation of a PV-tracking system. It becomes a heliotrope system. The energy to track the sun position comes from the Sun: the tracking system is driven directly by the Sun, a cosmic celestial body! That seems like Living with the Sun. (Not to be compared with ' tanning beds ' where usually the sun doesn’t appear.) With the project "a new paradigm about living and mobility ' Mondo vzw has installed a heliotrope system. Heliotrope is the phenomenon in which some plant species turn their flowers and/or leaves to the Sun during the day, from the East to the West. At sunrise, the flower or the leaf points to the East. Some plant species focus their leaves at the beginning of the morning perpendicular to the Sun: the sunflower, Marigold, plants of the genus heliotropism. This phenomenon was already known by the ancient Greeks, including Aristotle. (Heliotrope is a genus of flowering plants in the Borage family. It contains 250 to 300 species. The ancient Greek helios meaning Sun and trope means turning. Wikipedia) By analogy with this heliotrope plants, evolved to be able to absorb as much Sun as possible, a ' PV-solar tracking system '  follows the Sun from the East to the West all day. Many ten thousands of PV installations, which locally convert solar energy, are statically placed. A sun following system, on the other hand, could – depending on the location on the globe – lead to a surplus of up to 40%. Project-wide target remains: living in harmony with nature as much as possible; biomimicry is applicable here. How artful is a technical work of art? The intention is to perform this construction that way that it’s technically and artistically a work of art: a Sun-tree. This fits in a contemporary definition of art. Art in the sense of what shows to people another worldview than the familiar one that could possibly appeal to a different view to the surrounding reality. Following the inauguration of the solar tree, Sir Frans Demedts (artist, architect, philosopher, Mondo-Member, which is also concerned with integrative and holistic thinking) was asked what art is according to him: "When I followed Artistic Humanities (and architecture) in St.-Lucas Ghent, I have often wondered what we suggest by the concept of ' art '? Anyway, one should first of all make a distinction between decoration and art. What is used as decor and creating atmosphere, is not regarded as fine art. The concepts within the art world , ugly and beautiful are not the same as in e.g. architecture, where people must feel good. In the Visual Arts, it is important to touch the spectator with his work. It must have something to do with a form of social criticism; the way we are on the world. Both the aesthetic and the craft may be placed at the service of the intended goal, but can never be a goal itself. "

What is a final objective of Mondo vzw with realization of this project?

Mondo vzw, with as realization Solar 2002, aims at installing of this solar tree, several goals: 1. turning a philosophical concept into an everyday reality 2. putting the Sun-energy switch to a higher level 3. on an artistically responsible way integrating a technical construction in a green environment 4. handling a heliotrope way as in nature: biomimicry 5. providing energy to a contemporary electric vehicle (EV), for about 15 000 km per year, 6. showing through a work of art that driving is possible without emitting harmful gases 7. the heliotrope Sun-tree-a work of art- planting in the Earth, he refers to the power and the joy of the Sun, because without the Sun there is no life on Earth 8. Uniting nature and culture, which is difficult to balance in our current culture. (It will be in the coming decades a continuing quest to reach the right balance.)

Conclusion

By this functional work of art, the Mondo-Sun tree, we aim to promote an integrative cosmological worldview. The way of abstraction to the concrete through life with the Sun. Also this work of art gives, like any other work of art, criticism to the surrounding culture. The only chance to survive individual mobility is not on fossil raw materials but on solar energy. Endlessly. No more exhaustion of raw materials. If an automobile is a metaphor for freedom, it is limited, like any freedom and as such is an ' absolute freedom ' contradiction in terms. This makes that the mobility problem of traffic jams will not be resolved of course. Further and more extensive information about this can be found in the coming book: ' Living with the Sun. Philosophy and practical ethics About Living and mobility ', a Mondo-Edition.