The exhibition A FOREST brings together artists mobilised directly or indirectly by the plant world and their method of organisation in complex systems, called ecosystems.

Trees, plants, moss, lichens: all so much more sophisticated than we thought for a long time, these beings have developed many growth, reproduction, survival and multiplication strategies. These strategies involve abilities to interact that are capable of being assimilated into specific forms of language.

Awareness of the extent of the sophistication of plant beings (more broadly living) is today helping to overturn the definition of the boundaries between humans and non-humans, nature and culture, animate and inanimate. This update in the knowledge and representation of plants is found in various forms in the work of the artists brought together in A FOREST.

Resembling a temporary biotope, these works call into question concepts, forms and mediums that form the basis for our relationship to plants. ISELP is offering a programme of 12 conferences and meetings led by artists, art historians and environmental professionals. They delve deeper into the dimensions of A FOREST, such as ecofeminism, the notion of the ecosystem, the lives of plants.

Pep Vidal installs every last flower from a Barcelona florist to observe their mechanisms of existence. “I’ve bought an entire flower shop and I bring them to my studio.
The initial idea is measuring changes and interactions between plants (systems),
but at the moment I don’t have a clue about the way of this project (long term).” Pep Vidal

Artists: Maria Thereza Alves, Danièle Aron, Félicia Atkinson, Céile Beau, Lise Duclaux, Diana Duplakova, Olga Kisseleva, Yogan Muller, Pep Vidal