Forest Encounters Exhibition in Antwerp
It Rains Differently [2023-, film, multimedia installation]
Concept and direction: Dušica Dražić • Original scenario: Tanja Šljivar, Dušica Dražić, Mirjana Dragosavljević
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
Date: 29 May–29 June 2025
Location: Out of Sight, Somersstraat 31, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
Opening: 29 May 2025, 19:00
Opening hours of the exhibition: Thursday–Friday, 14:00–19:00; Saturday–Sunday, 12:00–18:00
FREE entry
Mushrooms at the End of the World [2023, objects overgrown with mushrooms, collage]
Concept: Polonca Lovšin
During Antwerp Art Weekend, Out of Sight opens Forest Encounters, a multidisciplinary group exhibition exploring diverse imaginaries, concepts, and practices related to the forest. The following questions are 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, Forest Encounters approaches the forest as more than a site of ecological inquiry. Rather, it is 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 invites a critical rethinking of our relationship with the forest. Forest Encounters unfolds through artistic research projects, workshops, storytelling, and film screenings, all the while acknowledging more-than-human perspectives. Moving between real and imagined forests, it situates the forest as both a natural entity and a contested cultural landscape.
Accompanying programme to the exhibition
>> Thursday, 29 May
19:00–22:00 | Opening, in presence of the artists
20:00–20:30 | Where Dreams Bloom in Silence: Future Forests and Tasks of Reverie, Jelena Vukićević (performative poetry reading)
>> Friday, 30 May
12:00–15:00 | Light, Language, and Botanical Imagination (2-days workshop / Day 1)
RSVP via link
18:30–19:00 | Stratifying, Nayarí Castillo and Reni Hofmüller (live improvisation performance)
>> Saturday, 31 May
12:00–15:00 | Light, Language, and Botanical Imagination (2-days workshop / Day 2)
RSVP via link
>> Thursday, 19 June
10:00–13:00 | PAM — Platform for Audiovisual and Media Arts Encounter
RSVP via link
>> Thursday, 26 June
19:00–21:00 | Cinema Session #2: Ruderalia — Film screening and walk with Joris De Rycke
More on the programme on out-of-sight.be and in the brochure.
Based on the original scenario It Rains Differently, written by Tanja Šljivar, Mirjana Dragosavljević, and Dušica Dražić, and drawing on historical reforestation protocols, Monika Lang illustrated six flags. Each morning, a new flag was carried by volunteers as they entered the landscape they were about to reforest. It was then planted on a steep hillside, marking the day’s final goal. Serving both as a signal and a symbol, the flags guided the collective effort across the vast landscape of the Pešter plateau.
Siniša Ilić presents a series of documentary drawings in the form of a storyboard, tracing the reforestation process and the making of the film.
Pine Seedlings by Ibis Ćerimagić are cyanotype prints made on the final day of the reforestation week, developed on site in the Uvac River.
Between the Lines [2024, film projection (4K) with sculptural sound installation, 30’ (loop), variable dimensions]
Concept: Marjolijn Dijkman
Stratifying [2025, audiovisual and text based installation and live improvisation performance]
Sound, composition, installation: Reni Hofmüller • Installation, text: Nayarí Castillo
The Forest Encounters exhibition and accompanying programme are organized by the Out of Sight and are part of the Forest Encounters project, co-funded by the European Union (Creative Europe), Flanders – State of the Art, and the Austrian Cultural Forum Brussels.