The world where forests are appreciated as living beings for their beauty, deep connection, biodiversity and peace!
Today, old-growth forests are few; many people have never experienced the awe of being in the presence of a 1,000-year-old being. This vision makes this experience possible for those who come after us. It is an invitation to become part of history, by co-creating a new kind of ecological artwork – establishing an Eternal Forest Sanctuary for 1,000 years.
Eternal Forest multidisciplinary art project by Evgenia Emets and Eternal Forest Global Team explores the human relationship with forests, biodiversity, time and the sacred. Looking at a timeline beyond human life – a hundred, a thousand, 10,000 years, how can art be created at this timescale?
Eternal Forest is the vision to create 1000 Eternal Forest Sanctuaries across the World and to protect them for 1000 years. Each sanctuary – a gift of ancient trees and biodiversity to future generations. An expression of hope, love and care for those who will come after us.
Let us be remembered as the generations which created 1000 forest sanctuaries, changing humanity’s relationship to nature forever!
It is an invitation to become part of history, by co-creating a new kind of ecological artwork – establishing an Eternal Forest Sanctuary for 1,000 years anywhere on Planet Earth.
Eternal Forest Sanctuary is a sacred space, the intersection of art, nature protection, and community working together with a long-term mindset. Eternal Forest offers us a deeper connection with nature. Creating an Eternal Forest Sanctuary contributes to improving the biosphere in our region, making a long-lasting impact for the generations ahead.
Eternal Forest Sanctuary is a forest designed as art in collaboration with nature to boost biodiversity. Eternal Forest is created, supported and protected by the local community. The local community is the Guardian of its Eternal Forest Sanctuary. Each Sanctuary encourages quiet and contemplative activities: various ‘forest’ practices, such as children’s play and forest school, forest bathing, meditation, mindful walks, ecopsychology, deep ecology, plant spirit medicine, community gatherings and celebrations of nature’s cycles, inspiration and art, while helping the forest to grow.
Eternal Forest Sanctuary invites us to think, dream and imagine together what a place could be in 1,000 years, growing a deep forest, to experience a deeper sense of time. Eternal Forest will require our protection. 1000 years is many human generations – forest time is different from ours. Therefore, this is an offering, a gift of an old-growth biodiverse forest to future generations.
Why?
We live in a critical time when the level of destruction of wildlife has made us witness the degradation and collapse of ecosystems around the globe due to the loss of biodiversity.
Allowing biodiversity to thrive will support our survival and thriving as a human species.
Being aware of the deep impact of nature’s beauty and biodiversity on our senses, we want to create natural forest spaces, through art and creativity, which could positively contribute to local biodiversity while supporting our health and well-being, the spaces for us to recover and restore, to open our senses and connect our life with that of the forest.
With our lifestyles and culture, we feel disconnected from nature, other non-human beings, and our communities. Eternal Forest creates a space and time, which helps us reconnect with our inner, quiet centres in a fast-changing and tumultuous world. Reconnecting helps us to find our purpose as individuals and our role as humans.
We live in an interconnected and interdependent world. At the moment we are experiencing the fragility of the ecosystem which inevitably reflects on our society. What if our generations had a role in restoring balance and bringing harmony to our planet, our home?
How?
Eternal Forest proposes to establish an area of forest as an artwork and a sanctuary to benefit both humans and nature. We believe that art and artists can play a leading role in inspiring people to feel our belonging to nature, understand the intangible value of the forest, open a deeper perspective on the forest ecosystem and join people together to co-create with nature.
We will listen and observe the land to see what her dream is, and what she needs to flourish. The forests have evolved over millions of years and we must acknowledge the intelligence that every land holds. The invitation is to spend a full cycle of one year experiencing the land through contemplation, observation and organised circles with community and specialists, to then be able to support the regenerative process.
Every Eternal Forest Sanctuary will be a protected space supporting biodiversity and wild nature over long time. Every sanctuary will be protected by a legal framework to ensure its purpose as a non-productive land, that serves the ecosystem itself and regeneration of the biodiverse forest.
The design and creation of Eternal Forest are an ongoing multidisciplinary collaborative work between artists, scientists, forest experts, ecosystem restoration and reforestation specialists, in co-creation with nature – to help understand the cycles of nature, and the effect of climate change on the forest ecosystem and biodiversity.
Community plays a key role in being the guardians of the forest, creating a legacy for the coming generations through an emerging culture of living in harmony with nature. We believe that if this culture is established, Eternal Forests will last for 1000 years and more.
