Celebrating the opening of artist Randi Nygård’s long-term project for Volt, Skog vil seia samfunn (Forest Means Society), this event features an introduction by Volt curator Marie Nerland, a speech by Bodil Friele, head of Bergen’s Council for Public Art, and a reading by poet Eira Søyseth, who has responded to the project with her poem ‘Vi, med røttene/knudrete forbundet’ (We with the Roots/Knotted Association).
Installed in the Kronstad area of Bergen near the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Skog vil seia samfunn is inspired by Japanese ecologist and botanist Akira Miyawaki’s concept of planting a variety of native tree specimens close together to create mini forests in urban spaces. Also known as ‘pocket forests’, these micro-habitats purify the air, reduce noise, bind carbon and attract a rich diversity of wildlife and insects.
Skog vil seia samfunn, which is planted on a slope in the university grounds, consists of four steps leading up to a clearing, at the centre of which sits a round river stone. Installed on top of the stone is an organic bronze sculpture. The clearing is paved so that visitors can walk around the sculpture. In time, once the forest has grown, people will be able to ascend the steps and view the artwork in the midst of the trees.
Inspired by the powerful interactions between humans, animals and plants, the bronze sculpture depicts a tree trunk growing out of human footprints, snaking up over the stone and intertwining with various animals, before culminating in one of the mountains that surround the city of Bergen. The mountain is inverted to act as a receptacle for rainwater, accessible to birds and other wildlife. When the mountain fills up, the water will flow down through a large central eye, resting between two open hands, and out into a riverbed that is reminiscent of a bodily form – hair, perhaps, or a tongue – or ocean waves.
For the duration of the project, a programme of thematically related public events will be held with participants from a range of fields, including art, biology, cultural science and philosophy. In connection with the opening there will be a seminar at the House of Literature in Bergen on 24th of April at 18:00, where Nygård and Søyseth will be joined by cultural-studies professor Kyrre Kverndokk and philosopher Jørgen Pedersen.
