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Forest Encounters exhibition 

Date: 29 May–29 June 2025

Location: Out of Sight, Antwerp, Belgium

Participating artists:

Nayari Castillo & Reni Hofmüller, Marjolijn Dijkman, Polonca Lovšin, It Rains Differently with contributions by: Dušica Dražić, Monika Lang, Siniša Ilić, Ibis Ćerimagić, Jelena Vukićević

Forest Encounters, a multidisciplinary group exhibition explored diverse imaginaries, concepts, and practices related to the forest. The following questions were posed by the exhibition: What can we learn from and through the forest? What are actual and potential human encounters with the forest? How can we coexist more harmoniously with forest ecologies?

Bringing together perspectives from contemporary art, forestry, and the humanities, the exhibition approached the forest as more than a site of ecological inquiry. Rather, it was framed as a complex socio-political terrain, shaped by conflicting policies, cultural narratives, and economic interests, and also a vital, living biodiverse space.

Amid escalating climate, environmental, and political crises, the exhibition offered a critical rethinking of our relationship with the forest. Forest Encounters unfolded through artistic research projects, workshops, storytelling, and film screenings, all the while acknowledging more-than-human perspectives. Moving between real and imagined forests, it situated the forest as both a natural entity and a contested cultural landscape.

The exhibition opened during the Antwerp Art Weekend and was enriched with a diverse accompanying programme: 

• Where Dreams Bloom in Silence: Future Forests and Tasks of Reverie, performative poetry reading by Jelena Vukićević 
• Light, Language, and Botanical Imagination, 2-days workshop, led by Jelena Vukićević and Ibis Ćerimagić 
• Stratifying, live improvisation performance by Nayarí Castillo & Reni Hofmüller
• A round table organized by PAM — Platform for Audiovisual and Media Arts
• Cinema Session #2: Ruderalia, a film screening and walk with Joris De Rycke, organized in collaboration with MORPHO

The Forest Encounters exhibition and accompanying programme were organized by the Out of Sight and co-funded by the European Union (Creative Europe), Flanders – State of the Art, and the Austrian Cultural Forum Brussels.