All of our lives are deeply intertwined with forests near and far. The forests maintain the water cycle, bind carbon and enrich the soil. They provide oxygen, shelter, food, warmth and for many also livelihoods. They bring peace, space and solace. However, the idea of the forest as an endlessly renewable natural resource leading to intensive forest management as well as the clearing of forests under cattle pastures, agriculture and monoculture plantations, have led to a situation where the world's forests and the species that live in them are disappearing at an accelerating rate.
The public event Forest as a Geopolitical Stage gathers together forest guardians, researchers, artists, and other stakeholders to think about – and to think with – forests, as well as to discuss forestry and its impacts. The event identifies traces of intensive and extractivist forest management in Uruguay, Brazil, Finland and Sápmi, and calls for the forestry corporations to take responsibility for environments and local communities in a world rapidly altered by climate change and loss of biodiversity. Forest as a Geopolitical Stage asks how different practices and ways of knowing, such as indigenous and ancestral knowledges, scientific research, art and activism could together contribute to the ecological and just transition of the forest sector. The 3-day event consists of talks, discussions, performances, a screening and a workshop in Stansvik forest, which is under threat of being logged. The talks and discussions are conducted in several languages: Finnish, English, Spanish and Portuguese. Spanish and Portuguese will be translated into English.
During March, new text-based works will be exhibited on the digital screens of the facade and interior of Finnish National Theatre. These artworks have been commissioned from artists who are engaged with struggles to protect lands and waters from extractivist forestry industries in the North and South. The commissioned artists are director and Sámi activist Pauliina Feodoroff, playwright and theatre director Marianella Morena and a working group: visual and performance artist and researcher of pre-colonial art and Rainforest history Anita Ekman, spiritual leader and filmmaker of the Guarani Mbya people Carlos Papá Mirim, and philosopher, educator of the Maxakali people Cristine Takuá. The artworks are poems and statements rising from the life force of forests and they are invitations to safeguard them.
The commissions, the public event as well as the theatre play Metsä Furiosa written and directed by Marianella Morena and premiering in the same week at National Theatre’s Taivassali stage, are all produced within the frame of the art and research initiative Forest as a Geopolitical Stage. The initiative collaborates across borders to show how geopolitical forces impact land use, livelihoods, cultures and social relations. It builds connections between people, communities and environments on different continents.
READ MORE ABOUT THE INITIATIVE
The Forest as a Geopolitical Stage initiative emerged at a time when a Finnish-led corporation built and opened the world’s biggest single line pulp mill in Uruguay and further increased monoculture by establishing vast new eucalyptus plantations in the country. Paradoxically, Finland is looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions and halt the loss of biodiversity within its own borders. This state of affairs repeats the dynamic, rooted in colonialism, between the global north and the global south. In Uruguay, Finland’s role in the country’s structural changes is much debated, but in Finland the public conversation focuses on local policies of logging and conservation.
The EU Biodiversity Strategy obligates Finland to protect all remaining primary and old-growth forests. The protection criteria are currently being debated. Several biodiversity researchers and environmental non-governmental organisations have expressed their concern that the decisions regarding criteria for conservation are made based on economic interests instead of ecological research and mapping data. Simultaneously the carbon sink of forests have rapidly collapsed, which has undermined Finland’s effort to meet the sinks target set by the European Union.
Less than 3% of forest in Finland is primary and old-grown forest. A large part of this forest is located in the home region of the Sámi people (Sápmi) and in their reindeer husbandry area, where there are both ecological and human rights reasons for their protection. Sápmi's land use is constantly under geopolitical pressure, which threatens the Sámi's traditional livelihoods and the sensitive ecosystems of the Arctic region.
Corporations, decision-makers and citizens must wake up to the fact that the forests cannot cater to the current rate of consumption. Forests must also be left to be and recover. Cristine Takuá, philosopher and educator of the Maxakali people, writes: “Change habits now! Out of love for all beings!” Together, we must find ways to protect forests and their ecosystems, because they are life itself. We must feel the pulse of the forest in our bodies and attune to its resonances so that we do not forget our communion with forest.
There is a video and sound installation called ’In Opera: Future Scenarios of a Young Forest Law’ exhibited in the space throughout the public event. The multi-authored opera by MAPA architects, INST and Carlos Casacuberta was first exhibited at the 18th Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2023. It explores Uruguay’s young Forestry Law, which enabled the emergence of the massive forestry industry in the country, and looks for a way from cellulose pulp production to a fairer and more inclusive wood futures with architecture with a central role.
The public event Forest as a Geopolitical Stage is open to everyone free of charge. The Cafe Willensauna’s seating is available in order of arrival. The event will be live-streamed on the theatre’s Virta channel. The play Metsä Furiosa is ticketed; you can buy tickets at the National Theatre’s ticket office or at Lippu.fi. The workshop Protective forest, protecting body requires pre-registration. Please see below.
The public event is curated by Satu Herrala, and it will be examined as an artistic component of her doctoral research at Aalto University. The entire Forest as a Geopolitical Stage initiative and Herrala’s doctoral research are funded by Kone Foundation. The event is produced by Elina Kukkonen, and it is organised in collaboration with the National Theatre’s Communities and Engagement Department. The visual design of the event and commissioned artworks are by Amy Gelera.
Programme and schedule
March 8th at Cafe Willensauna and National Theatre's Virta channel
10.00-10.15 Opening remarks and introducing the Forest as a Geopolitical Stage initiative
Satu Herrala (curator and doctoral researcher, Aalto University) and Jussi Lehtonen (actor and director of Communities and Engagement Department, Finnish National Theatre)
10.15-12.00 Panel discussion on the impact and responsibilities of forest corporations in the global environment
Sini Harkki (Programme Director, Greenpeace Norden), Markus Kröger (Professor of Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki), Sami Lundgren (Vice President, Responsibility, UPM) and Jan Saijets (Doctor of Technology, the representative of the Sámi Parliament at the Forest Council at The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Finland)
Moderator: Mari Pantsar (Change Leader, Kone Foundation Metsän puolella initiative)
Language: Finnish
12.00-13.00 Lunch (self-funded)
13.00-14.30 Metsä Furiosa performance on the Taivassali Stage
Written and directed by Marianella Morena
Language: Finnish, Spanish, English (translated into Finnish, subtitles in English and Spanish)
The tickets are sold at the National Theatre's ticket office and online at Lippu.fi
A break in the live-streaming
15.00-16.30 (In)visible Forestry Politics in Uruguay
Sofía Aquino (activist and artist, Our voice Uruguay Movement), Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes (Associate Professor in Management and Organisation, Hanken School of Economics), Janette Kotivirta (activist and doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki), Daniel Pena (sociologist and researcher, University of the Republic, Montevideo) and Sofía Taranto (social and environmental activist, Charrúa Nation Council and Coordinación por el agua)
Language: English and Spanish (translated into English and Spanish)
16.30-17.00 Break
17.00-18.00 Revolution forgot us but nature did not
Performative artist-talk with Marianella Morena (playwright and theatre director)
Moderator: Giovanna Esposito-Yussif (curator)
Language: Spanish (translated into English)
March 9th at Cafe Willensauna and National Theatre's Virta channel
10.00-10.10 Opening remarks
Satu Herrala (curator and doctoral researcher, Aalto University)
Language: Finnish and English
10.10-11.00 Ecological transition of the forest sector and art’s role
Antti Majava (expert, BIOS Research Unit)
Language: Finnish
11.00-12.00 Havumetsän lapset: dialogue about documentary film and activism
Ida Korhonen (environmental activist) and Virpi Suutari (film director)
Language: Finnish
12.00-13.00 Lunch (self-funded)
13.00-14.00 From Atonement to Matriarchy – what forms can land protection take
Pauliina Feodoroff (director and Sámi activist)
Language: English
14.00-15.00 Nhe’ery: Where spirits bathe
Anita Ekman (visual and performance artist and researcher of pre-colonial art and Rainforest history), Carlos Papá Mirim (spiritual leader and filmmaker of the Guarani Mbya people), Cristine Takuá (philosopher, educator of the Maxakali people)
Language: Portuguese, translation to English
15.00-15.30 Dialogue
Pauliina Feodoroff, Anita Ekman, Carlos Papá Mirim and Cristine Takuá
Language: Portuguese and English, translation
15.30-16.00 Break
Live stream at Virta channel ends
16.00-17.20 MATA film screening
Faced with the encroachment of eucalyptus plantations, a farmer and an indigenous community stand in resistance and reveal the impact of monoculture on the environment, in contrast to traditional ways of life. A documentary film by Fábio Nascimento and Ingrid Fadnes.
Language: Portuguese, subtitles in English
17.20-17.50 Q & A
Ingrid Fadnes (journalist, film director)
Language: English
17.50-18.00 Closing remarks
Satu Herrala (curator and doctoral researcher, Aalto University)
Language: Finnish and English
19.00 Metsä Furiosa performance on the Taivassali Stage
Written and directed by Marianella Morena
Language: Finnish, Spanish, English (translated into Finnish, subtitles in English and Spanish)
The tickets are sold at the National Theatre's ticket office and online at Lippu.fi
March 10th at 13–16 in Stansvik forest
A workshop: Protective forest, protecting body – About Stansvik forest and embodied relation to a place
The workshop will invite the participants to familiarise themselves with the ecosystem of the Stansvik forest and the Suojellaan Stansvik movement’s struggle to stop the logging in the forest, as well as to practice bodily exercises on attuning and moving with the forest, being cared by it and caring in return.
Sign up by March 7th at metsageopolitiikannayttamona@gmail.com
Facilitated by Ida Korhonen (environmental activist) and Pääsky Miettinen (performance artist, dance teacher and active citizen)
Accessibility: Accessible entrance to Cafe Willensauna through the National Theatre’s ticket office, Läntinen teatterikuja 1 D. There is an accessible toilet in the cafe.
The Finnish National Theatre’s Communities and Engagement Department works to ensure that the theatre’s commitment to diversity is present in all aspects of its operations, both on stage and among the audience. Our team creates artistic processes within a variety of communities, takes performances and workshops into otherwise closed institutions, maintains the activities of the FNT’s Youth Theatre and organizes a wide range of open discussions. Our goal is to make the Finnish National Theatre a place where people from all walks of life feel genuinely welcome.
