A Foreign Forest seeks to explore the deeply entangled evolutions between Humans and Nature. Denmark has a long history of industry and infrastructure impacting other than human ecologies. From a tradition of agriculture and plantations, diverging waterways and shifting landscapes to biotechnology engineering novel species, new worlds are created in entanglement with human activity, which brings up questions of what is Natural? and what is Nature? Is the notion of a ‘pure’ nature futile? And what entangled worlds will we as humans, along with other than human species co-evolve and co-create? 

“Who is the foreigner?”

Exhibited at Øland Skov where a history of cultivation and control is still evident, the works show an intersection of human and nature, the organic and industry. The title A Foreign Forest refers to the original latin root of the word forest (lat: foris) meaning outside, foreign or strange - asking who is the foreigner? Who is outside? Is this how we see a forest and the many species that live in this ecosystem, as an outsider, a foreigner? 

Curated by Tine Sommer og Ida Østergaard, Kunstpioneerne.

Kunshal Nord, Øland Skov, Brovst, 2021