Les pièces de la forêt

As a part of the Season of Lithuania in France 2024, arc en rêve is collaborating with the architecture, art and research collective Neringa Forest Architecture (NFA) (Jurga Daubaraite, Egija Inzule and Jonas Žukauskas), to present an exhibition in the form of a playscape, an installation devoted to the many histories, practices and processes that have shaped and continue to form the Landes forest(s), in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The exhibition is an invitation to imagine this layered space as a landscape defined not only by the imperatives of economic principles and market reasoning of monoculture tree plantations but also as an environment where care for biodiversity emerges and manifests.

Presented in arc en rêve’s white gallery, the exhibition Forest Parts consist sof a set of tactile play tools made from wood samples from both privately and communally owned monoculture tree plantations, as well as from other forests with greater biodiversity. These elements are combined with industrially-processed wooden objects, reflecting the forestry practices, technologies and challenges brought by climate heating.

The Landes forest is thus be presented as a mosaic of practices linked to its management and preservation. Building on the methods developed for the Children’s Forest Pavilion (Lithuania’s contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023), which emphasised tactility and play as educational tools, the NFA collective will retrace the 200-year history of Europe’s largest artificial forest and invite the public to reflect on its possible future.

The exhibition will be accompanied by workshops and educational activities inviting school groups to discover areas that are often inaccessible as they are controlled by the timber industry. The aim of this approach is to promote the involvement of the general public – young people in particular – in discussions about the future management of woodland areas.

Opening: 28.11.2024, 6:30 pm