Art Activates the Ancestral Between Nature and Human Nature - Evgenia Emets

This is a clip from our conversation with Evgenia Emets.

Like to know more? Find the full episode here at The art of co-existence podcast.

Hosted by: Daphne Frühmann
Editing: Axel Frühmann
Music: Mark Oomen
Instagram: @theartofcoexistence
An Ourcelium Publishers podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

You're about to listen to a short clip from a previous conversation. For the full episode, go to our podcast channel.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Well, I think I believe that forests will not really survive without communities being around them. I think we have some best examples in the world of forest standing because communities stand for the forests, whether it's indigenous people or just traditional communities living nearby their forests. And so here the idea is that if there is a community that is taking care of such a natural space for generations and generations of people, we have much more potential forest standing.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

And what is the the role that arts can play here, you think? Why yeah, why is this why is this imagination helping this process of communities taking care of forests?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I think that art can activate emotional connection between nature and human nature. It can activate something ancestral in us, something deeper, that some kind of deep memory that is embedded in our literally tissues, in our field. Understanding, not only understanding with our mind, but but uh but feeling, having those feelings activated. And also because the work that I'm doing is more about bringing people into participation, into long-term participation, I hope that through that people can also become curious to learn about the forest, to really know the plants, the animals, the ecosystem. So instead of going directly, scientific way, kind of you know, straight on and explaining things to the people, we're inviting them first to experience it, and then hopefully by touching people deeply, then we can get them to act.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah, that's wonderful. If if things would only be so simple sometimes for other for other parts as well. Um I am curious also, of course, to hear more about your project's Eternal Forest. But before we go there, maybe we can bridge this with uh you sharing a little bit from Rewilding Time, a poem that you wrote. Do you want to share something about how you came to write this and what it means to you?

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah, so Rewilding Time is a poem, it's a long poem, so I'll read a little bit from it, but it's also an artwork that is situated in a very specific ecosystem. So I worked uh a few years ago with the Botanical Garden of Porto and with several locations in the north of Portugal, such as Jerez National Park, and I was exploring a very specific rich forest ecosystem of which wolf is also a big part of. And we know that it's a priority keystone species that if we have wolf in the territory, then we have a healthy ecology. So, what I did with this poem is I connected all the different beings in the forest, such as trees, plants, animals, in a way that they all build up the forest ecosystem from beginnings until the forest is established, and showing through that poem a way of reciprocity that exists in nature. Because it is b yes, it is believed that uh in nature there's a lot of competition, which is true, but there also there is a lot of reciprocity. And I tried even to look at competitors from the point of view of reciprocity and why each being that lives in the forest is actually important for it, even if they eat each other, for example.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So well, maybe especially because they eat each other, because then they're each other's each other's life source, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Exactly. So I want to read you one tiny chapter which is called the Core Coke and the Relentness Protector Ivy. Beautiful. Go ahead. Come, Mother Boar, the earthshaker, gifted with untamed vigour. Sniff, snort, uncover the hidden treasures of past seasons, recover the flow of the land, with your thorough root link. Rewild my rhythm as your heartbeat rhymes with my resonant pulse. Come relentless protector, common ivy, with every turn of devotion, engraving into the ancient oaks, your hymns, encoding with every ascending clasp, your living bridges, stretching between pillars of sculpted time. Original gothic vaults of our imagination.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

You are listening to a short clip from a previous conversation. For the full episode, go to our podcast channel. Thank you for listening to The Art of Coexistence, a podcast produced by Aurceling Publishers, editing by Axel Frumann, music by Mark Omen, and hosted by me, Daphne Fruman. Find us on your favorite podcast app and give us a follow, like, subscribe, and or share, and we'll see you again soon.