Overview of the project
Enforested Memory Map is a multidisciplinary, inclusive, community-based initiative where want to focus on the impact of human actions, in particular historical events and human interventions, on the Białowieza Forest, as a space of coexistence and network of relationships between the human and non-human world. By saying that, we aim to amplify and highlight the agency and existence of Białowieza Forest and research the collective memory of historical and contemporary events carried by communities inhabiting the forest. Particularly, we aim to examine the impact of totalitarian and oppressive ideologies/policies, focusing on the period starting with the German occupation and their control in the region during World War II (WWII) until the current times and the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. We want to pay special attention to the topics such as uprootedness, forced displacement, discrimination, and annihilation that human and non-human actors suffered from the German aggression as well as a result of contemporary, discrimination-based, radical policies implemented in the forest.
We treat the Forest as a legitamte actor - agent
Voices From The Forest - performative sonic sculpture in the Forest tissue
Voices from the Forest is a forest performance, a collective experience/sensory ritual, prepared in the process of gathering life experiences and cooperation with a unique ecosystem - the Białowieża Forest. Based on the collective and individual experiences of the people creating the performance, as well as collected data (people's accounts; oral traditions, archival materials, literature, mythology - studies/legends, research in the fields of biology, anthropology, archaeology, and historiography of the area), as well as embodied knowledge - that which comes directly from the memory of the body, the subconscious, intuition, genetic algorithms, i.e. from the bodies of our ancestors – we offer an incantation/polyphony that aims to map and ultimately reconnect the emotional, spiritual, and physical tissue of the Forest, which has been torn apart by various, repeatedly recurring disturbances.
We seek knowledge and technology for healing wounds directly within it, whose extraordinary regenerative abilities come from the uninterrupted continuity of the ecosystem, biodiversity resources, and the cyclical nature of birth and death. We invoke the voices of beings that have appeared and disappeared in the forest over the centuries: trees, animals, plants, and people. In the polyphony of human cultures, as among the cultures of bacteria, fungi, and entire ecosystems, the basis for survival, but also for flowering/fruiting and successful growth, is collaboration; cooperation based on adaptation, exchange of resources, skills, and living space. Trees do not remove scars; they overgrow them with new, healthy tissue, but if you cut through the trunk, you can precisely read the history of all traumas and disturbances. It is a kind of memory map. We will try to tell this story by letting voices enter and pass through the collective forest body.
The project took place in the Podlasie region (Białowieza Forest) between March and December 2023.
It was divided into sections of work/engagement:
1. research/collecting data on the forest migratory history/displacements of human and nonhuman actors
2. workshops/panel talks/lectures - we organized open group meetings, inviting local scientists, researchers, historians, and cultural practitioners to public dialogue and sharing perspectives and expertise on forest history as well as the current environmental and political situation.
3. performative pieces and audiobook
performance/działania performatywne
panel discussions/panele dyskusyjne
spacery leśne/forest walks
collaboration/współpraca
workshops/lectures/wykłady
