Kavukcu has staged numerous performance art pieces throughout his career to draw attention to social issues such as terrorism, violence, waste, death, the refugee crisis, and the coronavirus pandemic.

He has focused on the sapling project for the last year, since the tree was planted under the auspices of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the newly-declared National Reforestation Day on Nov. 11, 2020. He named the sapling after his daughter and, every day, visited the plant, kissed it, and caressed it like a real child. He said that he did this to highlight the importance of trees for the environment and for future generations. 

“It is a very important task for us, especially for our children, to protect nature. Nature is one of the most important and valuable assets for the next generation, for the future, and we need to ensure that it reaches the future in a healthy way,” Kavukcu said. 

For the birthday party, he wrote “happy birthday” on the soil in quicklime and piled dirt and pinecones around the sapling as gifts. He threw quicklime into the air and laid on the ground next to his sapling, taking selfies. He invited his colleagues and students to join, and celebrate the birthdays of their own saplings. 

"We had a good day," Kavukcu said. 

Turkey has faced record-breaking forest fires in recent years, the worst of which occurred this summer. Much of government rhetoric about recovery from the fires has focused on reforestation and tree-planting, rather than sustainable, preventative measures. Evidence suggests that re-planting efforts cannot keep up with forest fires, and preventative measures and effective fire-fighting capacity are also needed.