‘relating forests’ is a transnational collaboration between TheatreFragile (Germany), Cultures Eco Actives (France) and NOBA (Norway), three European art institutions. Dedicated to the urgency of reshaping humanity’s relationship with the more-than-human-world in the face of climate change and the planet’s biodiversity loss, the artists integrate traditional European rituals and myths with contemporary artistic and scientific approaches to create a new awareness of ecological challenges and overcome anthropocentric perspectives.
The project is co-funded by the European Union as part of Creative Europe.
European Tour
The project; created by a diverse artistic team of storytellers, mask theatre makers, sound artists, choreographers and outdoor educators from Germany, France and Norway, sets out on a journey through European forests the summer of 2025. Premiering in the French region of Chateauroux Les-Alpes in May with workshops for local children; the team continues to Germany’s Detmold area in July, with interactive workshops in mask theatre, voice and field recordings. The project culminates in the forests of Ås, Norway in October 2025 where the team will explore narratives of native storytelling through wandering, listening, and present their findings. Travel is reduced to a minimum and preference is given to trains or buses.
Audience Interaction
Engaging with local audiences is key for the project. The artists are creating a variety of workshops for diverse audience members at each location. The workshops will be experiential, experimental and responsive, encouraging interdisciplinary and intercultural exchanges in different outdoor settings.
The artists would like to host a diverse group of audiences and are keen on getting a sense of what they experience in these settings. The project team will facilitate tools along the way so that audiences can discuss their thoughts and ideas about their experiences.
Through transformative experiences, the hope is that the project can assist in rethinking and resensitize human-forest relationships and narratives. The artists wants to open up people’s ideas to what we perceive or experience a forest or a landscape to be.
Credits ‘relating forests’ Norway
Concept: Rebekka Sæter, Solveig Arnesen (NOBA) in collaboration with Marianne Cornil, Luzie
Ackers / TheatreFragile and Anne-Claire Dromzee and Anne Bouchon (CEA)
Artistic Director: Rebekka Sæter
Visual Identity & Graphic Design: Raquel Marques
Technical Management & Support: Geir Eilertsen
Press & Marketing: Elina Gobeti
About the partners
Theatre Fragile (GER)explores critical societal issues through performative art, creating performances in public spaces that transform complex discourses about flight and exile, ageing, climate change, deforestation or environmental challenges into accessible, poetic visual experiences. Since 2006, the company has developed ten productions that have been performed across Germany and Europe, consistently pushing the boundaries of artistic expression by engaging directly with communities and experts from diverse fields. Recent works such as “Are You Ready?”, “How you call into the forest…” and the current creation “STILL” delve deeply into the emotional landscapes of environmental change, using different dramaturgical forms such as immersive forest parcours and multi-perspective narratives to explore human connections with natural ecosystems.
Cultures Eco Actives (FRA) experiments, studies, develops, promotes, and generates the awakening and strengthening of environmental awareness through art, cultural cooperation projects, experiments, and field studies in collaboration with its members. Cultures Eco Actives supports environmental responsibility, encourages reconnection with nature and landscapes, and investigates cultural contexts.
Funding
‘relating forests’ is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union and European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
