The Forest Encounters book
The Forest Encounters book is freely accessible online. Download the book as a free PDF from this link.
The book is available also in print form and can be in some weeks purchased online for €20 plus shipping.
Edited by Urška Jurman and Mateja Kurir
Contributors
Giovanni Aloi, Daniela Brasil and Nayarí Castillo, T. J. Demos, Marjolijn Dijkman, Dušica Dražić, Katharina Flich, Maja Fowkes and Reuben Fowkes, Lea Hartmeyer, Urška Jurman, Agata A. Konczal, Miha Krofel, Ana Kučan, Mateja Kurir, Polonca Lovšin, Felicita Medved, Teo Hrvoje Oršanič, Borut Peterlin, Bojana Piškur, Titta C. Raccagni, Zoe Jo Rae, Alex Schuurbiers
Design and layout by Rafaela Dražić
The Forest Encounters book invites you into the forest and its many meanings. It brings together voices from different disciplines, geographies, and cultures. Artists, foresters, art historians, philosophers, anthropologists, wildlife researchers, landscape architects, and writers all participate in this collective reflection on the diverse meanings, challenges, and perspectives related to the forest.
The goal of the Forest Encounters European cooperation project (2023–25), of which this book is the final publication, was to examine the forest and the human relationship to it through art, science, and the humanities. The project and the book approach the forest as a site of interconnection and also as a space of conflict where environmental concerns confront diverse political, social, and economic pressures.
In the book, we reflect on the following questions: What can we learn with and through the forest? How can we face the challenges of forest management in the era of climate and biodiversity crises? What do stories of forest disasters reveal about contemporary society? How has artistic engagement with forests evolved? How to improve the coexistence of humans and other species? What kind of forest do we wish for and what kind of forest do we need for the future? What do we need to make that happen?
The forest is a living demonstration that strength arises from diversity and resilience from interconnection. Thus, the book invites you to explore the forest as a space with which we can learn otherwise.
Read more about the book at this link.
Published by the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory, Ljubljana
Co-published by the Archive Books, Berlin
Ljubljana and Berlin, 2025
Co-funded by the European Union, Creative Europe Program