Background of Eternal Forest Art project
There are two distinct cycles in Eternal Forest project: project completed in 2018 and in 2019. These artworks were developed in two art residencies, in Gois – Raizvanguarda (2018) and Coruche – Bienal de Coruche (2019) as part of ongoing artistic research on the intersection of art and ecology.
- Eternal Forest Manifesto (2019)
- Art film Eternal Forest Manifesto (10 min loop, 2019)
- Artist’s book Eternal Forest Manifesto (2019)
- Visual works (2018)
- Artist’s book Eternal Forest (2018)
- Art film Eternal Forest (41 min, 2018)
Eternal Forest Manifesto
Eternal Forest poetry Manifesto is at the center of Eternal Forest Sanctuary project. It is a 22 meters handwritten scroll, in English and Portuguese, it flows as an incantation.
Eternal Forest poetry Manifesto accompanies every experience and every initiation of every Eternal Forest Sanctuary, as an oral tradition. Evgenia reads it during Eternal Forest experiences and collectively with communities during the initiation of the Sanctuaries.
The Manifesto has been translated into Portuguese, where the first Sanctuary has been established (on 260-hectare land of Municipality of Coruche). It will be also translated into any language when new Eternal Forest Sanctuaries emerge around the World.
Eternal Forest Manifesto, scroll, fabric, ink, 22 m, Bienal de Coruche, 2019
Eternal Forest Manifesto art film
The following art film was made for the Bienal de Coruche and is filmed in the place of the future Eternal Forest Sanctuary at Herdade dos Concelhos, Coruche.
Artist’s book Eternal Forest Manifesto
Eternal Forest Manifesto is a handmade book with poetry in 3 languages: English, Portuguese and Russian, and is part of the Eternal Forest Sanctuary project commissioned by the Bienal de Coruche in 2019. It contains printed poetry and handwritten calligraphic works, inspired by the poetry on the subject of forest time, the language of the forest, ecological thinking and cultural memory of nature.
The artist’s book also contains a printed copy of the original Eternal Forest poetry Manifesto in English and Portuguese. The photographs of cork oak trees which have been debarked, with the numbers of years of the harvesting of cork written on them, are used to signify various chapters of the book.
The book is part of a site-specific project and contains texts, an invitation to the community of Coruche, to enter the circle of guardians of Eternal Forest Sanctuary in Coruche – a sanctuary for biodiversity, humans and art at Herdade dos Concelhos. It also comes with Eternal Forest Sanctuary Map – the map of Eternal Forest Experience, the performance developed specifically as part of the design of Eternal Forest Sanctuary on this land.
The book is hand made in two copies – one copy stays with the Museu Municipal de Coruche and another with the artist.
Eternal Forest Manifesto artist’s book, wood, hand binding, 2 copies, handmade, Bienal de Coruche, 2019
Eternal Forest visual works, 2018
A series of calligraphic works, based on poems in the Eternal Forest artist’s book, inspired by the conversations with the members of the community of the villages of Gois, Portugal. All the works are produced on paper from the abandoned paper factory in Gois, containing also watermarks from that factory.
Although Eternal Forest project is not explicitly talking about water, on the very fundamental level water ‘runs’ through the project as a red line. The water from that stream was used for all the calligraphic drawings of the project.
The technique I experimented with – both in the visual works and in the book, is creating lines with water of various thickness, with more or less water in them, and then writing directly on the wet paper with ink. Visual calligraphic poetry becomes semi- or completely abstract, transforming writing into painting, concrete language into abstract.
Eternal Forest Map, 6 panels Each 68×82 cm (without frames), total dimension 250×140 cm (with frames), Ink, water on paper, 2018
I plant the word’, 4 panels each 68×82 cm, total dimension 170×140 cm with frames, Ink, water on paper
4 artworks from the series ‘Forest Codex’ Each 68×82 cm, Ink, water on paper, 2018
From the series ‘One word for the forest. Casa’ Each 68×82 cm Ink, water on paper, 2018
Each artwork represents one word: Casa, Amor, Verde, Equilibrio, Saudade, etc.
Eternal Forest film, 2018
The ‘Eternal Forest’ art film created in 2018 rethinks and transforms a community’s relationship with its forests, through the voices of people living in Goís, Arganil and Lousã, the areas which suffered unprecedented fires in 2017. There is an urgency to capture the voice of those who are rarely given the opportunity to express their opinions directly without filters.
In the film, local people talk about their experience of the forest in their lives. They share stories of the aesthetic and spiritual, ecological and socio-economic effects of monoculture landscapes. They bemoan the absence of natural forests. Yet an unbroken connection with a ‘feeling’ of a forest appears. The poem ‘Sacred Tree’ – part of the cycle of Eternal Forest poetry also forms the visual and sonic narrative of this art film.
Eternal Forest 2018 film has been shown in over 50 screenings in the UK and Portugal, including UCL, Portuguese Embassy, King’s College London, Evolving the Forest, Dartington, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Cinemateca Portuguesa.
Eternal Forest film, 2018, screenshot, 41 min, Gois, Portugal
Trailer of the film Eternal Forest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H65Iy3RHOi4&t=0s
Eternal Forest artist’s book
Ink, vintage paper, hand binding, 6 copies, handmade, 2018
Poetry written in English and Portuguese, typed on a machine without ink, a blind embossing seen only in special light conditions. The book is hand-sewn, it has an imaginary detachable ‘no borders map of the ‘Eternal Forest’ and visual poetry calligraphy throughout the book. Made fully on paper from the abandoned paper factory in Gois.
In the collection of the British Library and the Gulbenkian Art Library
Eternal Forest artist’s book and film presentation, King’s College Chapel, London, 2019