-This first issue of * as a journal, focuses on Forest. Forest as a constructed space unavoidably reliant on human actions, no longer nature, but infrastructure; an environment of natural systems governed, exploited, and regulated by human interventions, technologies, industries, institutions and agencies. How can cultural practices enhance the optics through which society senses a forest?
The former natural habitats that defined the Baltic region (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) – the forests and wetlands – were terraformed to become silviculture plantations, arable land and urban structures through waves of colonisation. Most of the recent attempts to break away from linear infrastructural dependencies that were conceived in the years of Soviet central planning into rhizomatic networks of interdependencies of the European Project are reflected in material flows, policies, territories and continuities of practices shaped by the overlay of these two modernities. Subsequent investments in the timber industry, technological advances, the restructuring of forestry and scientific institutions, the deregulation across national borders and the global climate disaster insist on an urgent need for cultural practices to re-assemble images and concepts in order to reconstitute an understanding of the forest as a vital and central infrastructure.
During the winter and spring Covid-19 lockdown of 2020 and 2021 we worked with the Neringa Forest Architecture programme (curated together with Egija Inzule), residents at Nida Art Colony , as well as a diverse group of others dispersed across wide geographies to translate the forest into a journal. The diverse ecologies of voices echo each other and form an assembly of photography, cartography, design, research, artistic work into a publication that may be conceptually compared to an optical device dedicated to reflect on the ways to be in, and with a forest.
Following his visit to Nida, Preila and Juodkrantė last year Jochen Lempert responded with a selection of Neringa forest photographs. Jonas Žakaitis conversed with Nene Tsuboi and Tuomas Toivonen about their Kulttuurisauna routines, the synthesis of sound, and culture in relation to natural systems. Sofia Lemos unfolded the sonicity of labour and forests on the move, reflecting upon the histories of timber rafting down the river Daugava in her writing about Currents; a large scale art installation and performance piece by Lina Lapelytė and Mantas Petraitis. We interviewed Cooking Sections (Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe) about dispossession that becomes increasingly common through the protection of natural environments and the right of trees not to be offsetted by prescribing them a value to compensate for the guilt of CO2 emissions made far away. Gabrielė Grigorjeva wrote about the conceptualisation of forest time, its definitions and spatial categorisation. Jonathan Lovekin and David Grandorge contributed photographs from their series Infra depicting Baltic forests and wetlands carved out for peat extraction, stacked in piles of logs and shredded into biomass. Signe Pelne explained the mechanisms of biofuel, carbon sequestration and subsidisation. Mindaugas Survila and Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė discussed how the meanings of forest are formed through their respective documentary film editing processes. With her baby, Agata Marzecova walked the forests around Nida contemplating the diverse landscapes and ecologies of care. Amelia Groom discussed the ‘symbiogenesis’ of lichens to reflect relationality in the artwork and soundtrack Songs From The Compost by Eglė Budvytytė. Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė revealed her creative process in synthesising lichen architectonics in her digitally generated architectural images. We conversed with Laura Garbštienė and Onutė Grigaitė about ways of being and living in woodlands, weaving and dyeing with plants, reading the roots of a plant, and the concealed relationships we are losing due to extensive logging and those we might save if we can learn about species by responsibly exploring forest habitats currently closed due to environmental protection regulations. Rasa Juškevičiūtė photographed and Kotryna Lingienė wrote about the studio and translation of timber into exquisite furniture by Jonas Prapuolenis whose career spanned the larger part of twentieth century and became a design classic. Monika Janulevičiūtė carved intricate furniture pieces while reflecting on the simplest and modest yet authentic typologies of resourceful furnitures found in photographs of homes advertised on real estate websites. Together with Egija Inzule we wrote about the timber cycle that became the basis to initiate the Neringa Forest Architecture research and artistic residency programme at NAC we are curating together. To reflect the topic of this issue, Graphic designer Gailė Pranckūnaitė created a special typographical layer as intervention into the set template of the Journal. Virginija Januškevičiūtė introduced the photographer Algirdas Šeškus’ return to painting – for which he painted a forest.
* Initiated by the Lithuanian Culture Institute, each issue of this biannual magazine encourages the co-creation and research of topics valuable to both local and global readers, and features a different focus word in its title, relating to the topic chosen by the invited curators/editors of that issue.
FOREST AS A JOURNAL available here for download
Website: www.asajournal.lt; distributor: Antenne Books
Guest Editors: Jurga Daubaraitė and Jonas Žukauskas
Contributors: Jochen Lempert, Jonas Žakaitis, Nene Tsuboi, Tuomas Toivonen, Sofia Lemos, Lina Lapelytė, Mantas Petraitis, Cooking Sections (Daniel Fernández Pascual, Alon Schwabe), Gabrielė Grigorjeva, Jonathan Lovekin, David Grandorge, Signe Pelne, Mindaugas Survila, Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Agata Marzecova, Amelia Groom, Eglė Budvytytė, Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė, Laura Garbštienė, Onutė Grigaitė, Rasa Juškevičiūtė, Kotryna Lingienė, Jonas Prapuolenis, Monika Janulevičiūtė, Egija Inzule, Gailė Pranckūnaitė, Virginija Januškevičiūtė, Algirdas Šeškus
Graphic design: Gailė Pranckūnaitė
* as a Journal editorial board: Vaiva Grainytė, Adomas Narkevičius, Rūta Statulevičiūtė-Kaučikienė; Editor: Kotryna Lingienė
Translators: Darius Sužiedelis (pp. 40-53, pp. 74-79); English language editor Gemma Lloyd; Scientific editor Silvija Šaudytė-Manton (pp. 40-53, pp. 100-109)
Size: 144 pages; Edition: 500; Language: English
ISSN: 2783-5685
2021