NEW THEATRE INSTITUTE OF LATVIA

contemporary performing arts in Latvia and abroad

From October 2022 to March 2023, The New Theatre Institute of Latvia organizes the project “Forest School”, in which, through an online field work cycle (6 online discussion sessions), curator Bek Berger and artists Rebeka Birch, Daniel Peltz and Sissi Westerberg, together with artists, scientists and environmental activists of other countries, are going to explore the forests of their countries, discuss the different ecosystems of the forest and their importance in the society of the specific country.

Each session will be hosted from a forest location, inviting plants, creatures, soil and rocks, into the discussions with us. Working in a commons structure or an ‘everyman’s rights’ structure, the forest school ultimately aims to open up to different disciplines within art and research; researchers in biology, botany, lichenology, carbon, agricultural history, social science, but also to other forest professionals and enthusiasts, for example forestry services, or commercial forestry, as well as wildlife rangers, hunters, mushroom collectors, cabin dwellers and natural dye plant gatherers. We will use the networking period to meet with and start working relationships with these collaborators.

A forest in our context is not a wild space, but a place where humans and other species mingle; where humanity has intervened to talk about history and ecology out of its own prism. The artists and scientists represented by the “Forest School” will develop a strategy to work responsively and ethically on issues related to nature in order to transfer these skills to other interested disciplines. During the network period the founding practitioners will test these strategies through workshopping together online in various forest locations. We welcome anyone, from any discipline, who is interested in shared forested futures, to join us in these discussions.

The second Forest School session was held on November 8th 13:00–14:30 (EEST), 12:00–13:30 (CET). Watch it here:

To join the next sessions, use this link: ej.uz/mezaskola

Forest school’s creators:
Rebecca Birch (NO) is an artist working with entanglements of people and their local landscapes, her long-term research project Lichen Covered Stick traced histories of human-lichen encounters. She is currently Visiting Scholar at Oslo School of Environmental Humanities.
Bek Berger (LV) is an artist and the artistic director of the New Theatre Institute of Latvia. In her personal practice she has been working across German, Italian and Latvian forests and peatlands researching mechanisms to create art for non-humans.
Daniel Peltz (SE) is an artist, co-founder of Rejmyre Art Lab and Professor of Site and Situation
Specific Practices at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki.
Sissi Westerberg (SE) is an artist, co-founder of Rejmyre Art Lab and Senior Lecturer at Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design in Sweden

The event is implemented by the project “ACT: Art, Climate, Transition”. Supported by the EU program “Creative Europe” and the Nordic-Baltic mobility program “Culture”.

“ACT: Art. Climate. Transition” is co-financed by the EU’s programme “Creative Europe”. ACT is a European cooperation project on ecology, climate change and social transition. In an era of climate breakdown, mass extinction and growing inequalities we join our forces in a project on hope: connecting broad perspectives with specific, localised possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act. ACT is a project initiated by 10 cultural operators from 10 European countries, working in the field of performing and visual arts. More about the project read at artclimatetransition.eu.

  

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