A full-day program focusing on the rights of nature, peace with the earth and a specific forest’s local situation and history. Artists Malin Arnell and Åsa Elzén take us on a bus journey to the public artwork, also a forest, upon which their participation in the Experimental Field exhibition is based. The work Forest Calling – A Never-ending Contaminated Collaboration or Dancing is a Form of Forest Knowledge is the point of departure for the excursion, which also relates to the themes of the Experimental Field: how art can explore future scenarios for new lifestyles, relationships to other species, the earth and between people.

For a period of 50 years, artists Arnell and Elzén lease a forest of 3.7 hectares located at the Fogelstad Manor Estate in Julita, as a first step to taking the forest out of production in the infinite future. Read more about the work Forest Calling – A Never-ending Contaminated Collaboration or Dancing is a Form of Forest Knowledge here. On 9 September, we will travel by bus from Accelerator to visit the public artwork. The excursion includes socialising and conversations with and through the forest together with the artists and invited guests.

Book tickets here.

Visitor information:

Tickets are 150 SEK. Lunch and snacks are included in the ticket fee. The event starts at 8:45 and ends at 18:15.

The day will be spent outdoors so visitors are encouraged to dress adress appropriately for the weather.

If possible, please bring headphones and a smart phone.

Accelerator has implemented measures to prevent transmission of Covid-19 in accordance with current restrictions and our activities are adapted to comply with the recommendations of the responsible authorities.

Contributors

Malin Arnell
Malin Arnell holds a Ph.D in Choreography and works as an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator within a participatory, performative, ecological and socially engaged art field. Arnell processes materialities of objects, language, time and bodies with the help of spatial and architectural interventions, choreographic structures and educational models. In In Each Other’s Company, Arnell and artist Mar Fjell map out needs and opportunities in order to establish sustainable and long-term artistic commitments for queer and trans bodies.

Åsa Elzén
Artist Åsa Elzén lives and works in Näshulta, Sörmland. Elzén’s practice is transdisciplinary and often manifests through installation, text, textile, video, performance and participatory situations. She engages in the notion of ”the fallow” in relation to temporality, memory, environmental destruction, queer feminist- and more-than-human historiography. For some time, she has focused on the legacy of the Fogelstad Group and their practice revolving around ecology and resilience.

Pia Björnstrand
Lawyer Pia Björstrand is passionate about life on earth and especially the forest. The spokesperson for Klimataktion (Climate Action), Björstrand is involved in the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Omställningsrörelsen (The Transition Movement) and Naturens Rättigheter (The Rights of Nature) and is a board member of Naturarvet (The Natural Heritage) and the chair of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation in Nyköping/Oxelösund. Pia Björstrand has also founded the groups #Lawyersforfuture and Swedish Earth Right Lawyers.

Ola Engelmark
Ola Engelmark is an Associate Professor of Forest Ecology, an entrepreneur, an award-winning writer on old-growth forests, new business ideas and sustainable forestry. Engelmark would like to see a vision for multi-use forestry and a forestry ethic that will provide diverse forests for coming generations.

Anna Karin Hammar
Born in 1951 in Norra Rörum in Skåne, Anna Karin Hammar is a priest in the Church of Sweden. Hammar has worked at the World Council of Churches and on the Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women project with special focus on women’s contributions to justice, peace and the integrity of creation, and is a co-director of The Church’s Peace with Earth group in northern Roslagen. She is also the author of the book “Att finna Gud i en snigel – om tro, hopp och naturens rättigheter” (Finding God in a Snail: On Faith, Hope and the Rights of Nature), the doctoral thesis “Skapelsens mysterium, Skapelsens sakrament” (The Mystery of Creation, the Sacrament of Creation) and the article “Att be med björken – reflektioner om kön och bön” (Praying with the Birch: Reflections on Gender and Prayer).

MYCKET
In 2020, the art and architecture group MYCKET initiated the artistic research project “Trollsyn i hjärtmarkerna” (Troll Perception in the Heartlands) in collaboration with the Linnaeus University. The research project draws inspiration from folk tales of trolls and other mythological creatures, setting out from the posthuman research field, critical indigenous theory and queerfeminism. The intention is to relate to a time when people lived closer to nature and revive forgotten methods and approaches of which we are as yet unaware.

Kulturföreningen Fogelstad
A cultural association founded in September 1995 in Katrineholm, Sweden, Kulturföreningen Fogelstad endeavours to draw attention to the unique cultural heritage of the Kvinnliga Medborgarskolan vid Fogelstad (the Fogelstad Citizen School for Women) and to continuously develop Fogelstad-inspired activities. The association wishes to create opportunities primarily for women of diverse backgrounds to meet to talk, share experiences and inquiry into urgent human and social issues.

Insamlingsstiftelsen Fogelstad
A foundation founded in 2019 as part of a larger initiative tasked with acquiring the Lilla Ulfåsa, the school building of Kvinnliga Medborgarskolans (the Fogelstad Citizen School for Women). The foundation acquired the school building in June 2020. At Lilla Ulfåsa, the foundation will carry out activities related to contemporary challenges, in the spirit of the Fogelstad Group.