amaptocare is a large-scale public art work, in the form of a participative sponsored tree-planting project in Ballymun on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland.

Over 630 trees from a choice of 15 mostly native varieties were sponsored, most by locals and other Dubliners, and 620 were planted by 2006. amaptocare was the largest and longest-running of the arts projects funded as part of the massive regeneration of Ballymun, on which over 1.5 billion euro was spent.

As part of the Ballymun Renewal Scheme, which had a planned public sector spend of hundreds of millions of euro, and total plans exceeding 2.5 billion euro,[1] a combined percent for art programme was deployed through the Breaking Ground arts organisation established under the oversight of Dublin City Council's Ballymun Regeneration Limited.

[3] Gerz, German-born, Paris-resident, and with dozens of public and participative art projects completed, had visited Ballymun in 2002, and had noticed the lack of trees, commenting "My first reaction was, this is a 'no-fly zone' for birds.

He further explained that he saw "the trees as breaking up the public and civic space of Ballymun", which he feared would otherwise be streamlined and anodyne, and that "It's nice to interrupt a little bit the monotony of the computer drawings.

Most donations were individual but a few were declared for families, at least one for a community of nuns, and at least one for the band Aslan, whose members came from Ballymun and nearby Finglas, and who used to rehearse in a local parish hall, and one for Joe Doyle of The Frames.

[9] The sponsorship-participative aspect of the project has been summarised as the "idea that if residents purchased trees they would care more about their environment and that series of single acts would create long term values change in the area.

At this meeting Gerz explored the concept of the project and worked with the sponsor to develop a short text answering the question "If this tree could speak, what would it say for me?"

[9] 620 trees were planted on a wide range of streets between 2004 and 2006, by Coillte, Ballymun Regeneration and the city council, and the plaques installed adjacent to each, 32 cm from the ground.

Residents and donors complained about a lack of information on the subject and project progress since the main tree-planting, and Ballymun Regeneration promised to hold meetings on update plans in the near term.

Resentment toward the project stemmed from the fact it was perceived as patronizing and misunderstood the level at which residents had always demonstrated their ‘caring’ and sense of responsibility during 3 decades of civic neglect.

"[22] Marion Hohlfeldt remarked that Gerz was giving residents of an area which had been the focus of a "bad news" approach the opportunity to narrate their own history, to be, as Gerz put it, "new elites" and that the project was multi-layered, and had changed the atmosphere within the district during regeneration[23] - and a local artist involved in the scheme, John Duffy, described it as "providing a space for the donor, offering a way in which they can make a mark for themselves."