Drawing together short films by artists, interspersed with perspectives from researchers, Thinking like a forest imagines the forest as a psychic space with its own will, desires and dreams. It follows in the footsteps of Aldo Leopold’s call to ‘think like a mountain’, or appreciate the profound interconnectedness of all the elements in ecosystems (including ourselves). The film program will explore what happens when the human mind merges with the forest mind and in turn how our visions of nature reflect cultural beliefs and our own personal identities.

This screening event accompanies the exhibition Guided by the Stars of the Southern Hemisphere by Elsa Salonen, which brings together two recent installations produced in global artist residencies, in order to focus on local animist traditions in Indonesia and the use of medicinal plants in Colombia.

Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jordan Off the Trail (still) 2015, HDV, colour with sound, 9:44mins. Courtesy the artists

Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jordan

Filmed in former US military barracks, and in the long-abandoned homes and circular library of Gary Snyder and Zen philosopher Alan Watts, Off the Trail (2015) follows a soldier from another era as he performs a series of actions and rituals, wandering dreamlike through a rolling Californian landscape of fog-shrouded hills, coastal defences and dense woodland valleys.

Salomé Lamas with Christoph Both-Asmus A TORRE (THE TOWER) (still) (Based on the original idea of THE TREE WALKER) 2015, b&w, stereo (without dialogues), PT, DE, MD 8:00 mins. Courtesy the artists

Salomé Lamas with Christoph Both-Asmus

In A TORRE (THE TOWER) (2015)  the protagonist, Kolja, experiments with merging his body (human) with the tree (nature), venturing into a border zone between the earth and the sky. Maybe his actions are due to his purity of spirit, to the grandeur of the idiots, or the foolishness of the mystics; or is it all this together? Maybe it is a symptom of the enlightened – or simply an elaborated suicide.

Martin Lampprecht Je n'ai jamais quitté la forêt (still) 2013, HDV, colour with sound, 25:24 mins. Courtesy the artist

Martin Lampprecht 

A young woman haunted by dark woods. Or: dark woods, haunted by a young woman. Filmed in the French Cévennes mountains the film Je n'ai jamais quitté la forêt (2013) evokes a precise landscape, being at the same time a semi-autobiographic game of hide and seek between documentary and fiction.

Eakalak Maleetipawan A Moment in a Rainforest (still) 2010, colour with sound, 14:10mins. Courtesy the artist

Eakalak Maleetipawan 

In A Moment in a Rainforest (2010), a soldier enters the rainforest where he encounters a tiger ghost and his past self unfolds. “The best experience of making this film was to be naked in deep forest and if you never did, you must try it.” Eakalak Maleetipawan

Lauren Reid Magnetic Realm (still) 2016, colour with sound, 15:00mins. Courtesy Lauren Reid.

Lauren Reid

Magnetic Realm (2016) is a video essay that pays homage to the forests of Thailand as shown in art and film. It traces different conceptions of the forest through the stories told within it from mythical tales to historical events and morality lessons.

Toby Tatum The Subterraneans (still) 2011, HDV, colour, with sound, 4:37mins. Original soundtrack by British Sea Power's Abi Fry. Courtesy the artist

Toby Tatum 

The Subterraneans (2011) presents a series of visions relayed through a heightened consciousness. These views frame the shadowy recesses that offer access to the underworld and draw us closer to the presences that lurk beyond these thresholds.