The Promise is a 1-1 copy of a symbolic Cypress tree, planted by Theodor Herzl on his only visit to Palestine in 1898. In 1915, this tree was burned in an act of Turkish nationalism, and eventually cut after failed rescue attempts. During the 1948 war, the stump was kept safe by soldiers and chauffeured in armored vehicles before being returned to its original location and placed in a cage. Littwitz spent years convincing authorities to replace the cage and managing to create a 3D scan during the time it took for them to do so.
There is a subtle historical twist that deepens the work. Herzl believed he was planting a cedar, a symbol of strength, but it was actually a cypress, a tree linked to mourning across the Mediterranean. That misunderstanding creates a tension between idealism and reality that the artist allows to surface without forcing a conclusion. The sculpture also touches on displacement. The original stump cannot move, but the bronze allows its form and its layered history to travel. It becomes a portable place of reflection shaped by distance rather than politics. The title reinforces this. The Promise invites the viewer to consider how promises change over time, who carries them forward, and what remains of them. It creates space for contemplation rather than argument. The work was commissioned by Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen for an eponymous solo exhibition in 2017, and created at Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen.