Cocuration of exhibition.
The Arboreal Collective, in collaboration with Lab for Animation Research, Department of Fine Arts, Cyprus University of Technology presented their first project entitled The Forest at the NeMe Arts Centre.
THE FOREST
Exploring the anatomy of selfhood through nature and
technology may at first glance seem contradictory due to a
long-standing narrative within contemporary culture that
often focalises a regressive relationship between science, the
natural world, and people. Taking this as a point of departure,
The Forest proposes a collaborative space that reimagines this
relationship via an altered, modern, more hospitable lens that
invites intimate expansion through healing.
Redressing imbalances on a cellular level is in some respects
akin to the slow art movement philosophy, which calls for
audiences to develop a more mindful relationship with art
(https://www.artdex.com/slow-art-movement-how-the-artworld-
relearns-art-appreciation/). In this vein, the project
invited contributions by Cypriot and international artists
that suggest gradual changes in these perspectives via an
exhibition, educational talks, and interactive workshops.
As a comparative study of people and trees, this exhibition
continues to explore humanity and its complexities within the
context of nature. Utilising new technologies such as artificial
intelligence alongside a long-standing love of trees to create
these conceptual transplantations, the project holds space for
vital experiments to be made between the oldest and newest
living beings.
Recent scientific inquiry is aligning itself with a longestablished
belief in the sophisticated communication network,
with which trees engage to sustain and nurture each other. As
social beings, they behave collectively and protectively. Trees
have a language, family, sensory capacities, live in symbiosis
with other species and climatic influences, and can count and
remember. This vital discovery of plant intelligence could
provide some answers to many of today’s environmental
challenges. As a means of exploring the nurturing potential
between humanity, nature and technology, this exhibition gives
equal weight to all three by interweaving the narratives they
convey through a primitive/scientific discourse that comes at a
crucial time in which we all need saving.
Dr Frosoulla Koftero