The Geopolitics of the Forest working group meets regularly to share their research on the geopolitics of the forest across art, architecture, political science and landscape ecology. The group aim to develop a shared critical space for new collaborative artistic research projects which deal with the ethical complexities of forestry in relation to the climate crisis, to reconsider the language and aesthetics of sustainability.
The working group investigates multidisciplinary approaches to the human and nonhuman entanglements of the forest in Northern Sweden. Research questions investigate the ethical aesthetics of different kinds of woodlands and their material and geopolitical networks.
The Geopolitics of the Forest Working Group is chaired by Luis Berríos-Negrón, UmArts Research Fellow in Art and Architecture. Other members include researchers from the fields of art, architecture, forest history, political science, Sámi Research and landscape ecology.
The members Edith Marie Pasquier, Toms Kokins, Gerd Aurell and Micael Norberg is exhibiting in the exhibition EIGHT DEGREES / CONTEMPORARY ART ON THE FOREST at Bildmuseet between March 2024 and January 2025. Toms Kokins was awarded seed funding through UmArts Small Visionary Projects for his project Sweden's Timber Empire, which can be viewed in the exhibition.
Gerd Aurell was awarded a Small Visionary Project with their project Forest as Archive. In deep collaboration with scientists in forest history and ecology, she investigated places in the forest charged with human presence to produce a short film with Micael Norberg, Tankar i Hatten / Thoughts in the Hat. The film was shortlisted for the Umeå Film Festival Storporven Prize 2023, and is screened as part of the Eight Degrees Contemporary Art on the Forest exhibition at Bildmuseet. Aurell has also made a performative drawing Forest Portal, 2023, executed in the UmArts Research Studio.
