During Antwerp Art Weekend, Out of Sight opens Forest Encounters, a multidisciplinary group exhibition exploring diverse imaginaries, concepts, and practices related to the forest. Central to the exhibition are the questions: What can we learn from and through the forest? What are the actual and potential human encounters with it? How can we coexist more harmoniously with forest ecologies?
Bringing together perspectives from contemporary art, forestry, and the humanities, Forest Encounters approaches the forest as more than a site of ecological inquiry. It is framed as a complex socio-political terrain, shaped by conflicting policies, cultural narratives, and economic interests, while also remaining a vital, living biodiverse space.
Amid escalating climate, environmental, and political crises, the exhibition invites a critical rethinking of our relationship with forests. Acknowledging more than human perspective, Forest Encounters unfolds through artistic research projects, workshops, storytelling, and film screenings. Moving between real and imagined forests, it situates the forest as both a natural entity and a contested cultural landscape.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: FOREST ENCOUNTERS Parallel Programme ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
>> THURSDAY, 29 May
19:00-22:00 | Opening, in presence of the artists
20:00-20:30 | Where dreams bloom in silence: Future Forests and Tasks of Reverie, Jelena Vukićević (performative poetry reading)
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>> FRIDAY, 30 May
12:00-15:00 | Light, Language and Botanical Imagination — 2 days workshop (Day 1)
Read more… // RSVP via link
18:30-19:00 | Stratifying, Nayarí Castillo and Reni Hofmüller (live improvisation performance)
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>> SATURDAY, 31 May
12:00-15:00 | Light, Language and Botanical Imagination — 2 days workshop (Day 2)
Read more… // RSVP via link
>> THURSDAY, 19 June
10:00-13:00 | PAM p.m. 11 — Platform for audiovisual and Media arts encounter
Read more… // RSVP via link
>> THURSDAY, 26 June
19:00-21:00 | Cinema Session #2: Ruderalia — Film screening and walk with Joris De Rycke
Read more… // Realised in collaboration with MORPHO
The Forest Encounters exhibition and parallel programme are part of the Forest Encounters project (2023–2025), co-funded by the European Union (Creative Europe), Flanders – State of the Art, and the Austrian Cultural Forum Brussels. // Partner organisations: Association Igor Zabel for Culture and Theory (Slovenia), Graz University of Technology – Faculty of Architecture, Institute of Spatial Design (Austria), Out of Sight (Belgium)
