Further to the original concept, the teams will co-refine a citizen’s participatory focus with measurable social impact and existing legalities in biodiversity. The artist requires a month residency per site (India & South Africa confirmed) Teams: South America: Curator, Lorena Guillen Vaschetti; Scientist, Mauricio Bonifacino. India: Curator, Riyas Komu; Scientists, Jayashree Ratnam & Mahesh Sankaran. South Africa: Artist (project lead): Hannelie Coetzee; Scientist, Sally Archibald. Australia/global: Caroline Lehman (Scientist), Lenore Manderson (Medical Anthropologist).
A cluster of trees with 10% cover is supposedly a forest according to the IPF Definition, 1997, whether it be indigenous trees or plantations. Foresters see an assembly of trees as a forest for resource extraction. Conservation orientated productively planted forests are interrogated through this artwork which is set in ancient grasslands. Our soils are depleted. How do we think sustainably about forestry and conservation in the same soil? Why whitewash a forest into one cluster if our futures are so diverse? Grand global plans to save the world by planting trees stems from a temperate ‘northern’ forest knowledge base. Diversification of forests and the relation to grasslands is as necessary as broadening minority voices. The work interrogates a deep ancient ecologic logic from the soil’s vantage point, an immersive artwork as a blatant unifier in the time of pandemics and a warming world.