About Crosscuts 2024

Om Skogen  (About the forest) documents the many destructive consequences of the large-scale forestry industry in Sweden, with the loss of old growth forests and its vital biodiversity and wildlife habitats. In the documentary we meet biologists, ecologists, reindeer herders, NGOs and foresters, who through their knowledge and experiences provide us a greater understanding of the irreplaceable values and beauty in our forests and illustrates how forestry must and can be done differently. Directed by Peter Magnusson.

Followed by a conversation with:  

Daniel Urey, process leader at Färgfabriken  

Ewa Cederstam , producer of “Om Skogen”, producer and director at Helion film . 

Robert Gioielli , director of the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory and associate professor in environmental history at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment.

Venue: Lövholmsbrinken 1, 117 43 Stockholm 

Register for the event here !

In More of Everything (2021) we meet several prominent scientists and experts that help us examine the claims that the forest industry is spreading about the Swedish forestry model and the bioeconomy. In times of climate change, the forest industry claims to hold the magic wand: Wood. Wood is to be used for everything from energy, disposable articles in cardboard and paper, packaging and makeup, to fuel, for an ever-expanding transport sector. Can there really be more of everything?  

Followed by a conversation with:  

Lisa Röstlund , investigative journalist in DN and author of Skogslandet . 

Tor Tuorda , photographer and activist.

Alexander Olsson, researcher at Södertörns högskola, researching on forest policies within the SPARC project. 

This session is moderated by Adam Wickberg , researcher at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment at KTH. He researches the role of technology in human's relationship with climate and environment in its historical, social and political dimensions. 

Il Vento Solo non Púo by artists Elisa Pône  and Lise Bardou  – a human-made artificial forest, that intersects a unique natural, built, cultural and religious heritage in the centre of Portugal. The video shows the many organic elements and the built infrastructure of the forest, from multiple perspectives, and scales.

Fuuu... (Sopro) Tááá: Marãny by artist Letícia Larin  is a montage structured by the message that a leader and shaman of the Guarani tribe wants to convey. The message is about breath as a key spiritual tenet of the tribe and also concerns the destruction of the forest. 

"Caution: Men at Work" by the Swedish art and activist group LAJA  ( Lena Ignestam , Ann Engqvist , Johanna Norrbo  and Anna Bokström ) is a satirical mockumentary about the Swedish forestry industry, addressing an urgent need to expose its harmful practices. Despite the industry’s claims of being a world leader in sustainability, there’s nothing green or sustainable about Swedish forestry. Although the film is a satire grounded in Swedish conditions and references, Laja Produktion hopes it will resonate with international audiences as well.

Darkness Matters by filmmaker, artist and educator Costanza Julia Bani  – is a work-in-progress of a multimedia project dealing with the reappropriation of the night sky. In her piece, the audience is invited to an exercise in resilience, patience and meditation. An ideal movement from one altitudinal zonation to the other guides the observer from olive groves to forests, alpine meadows and mountain profiles by night to rediscover fireflies and the nocturnal vault with its Milky Way. At Crosscuts we will see a short preview of Bani's piece that will premiere at Navet week 2024, organized by Navet KTH Centre for Research in Art, Technology and Design . 

Followed by a conversation with:

Elisa Pône , french artist based in Lisbon, Portugal 

Rita Barreira , PhD candidate in Artistic Studies - Art and Mediations at NOVA-FCSH

Lena Ignestam  & Anna Bokström , artists in the LAJA art collective

Costanza Julia Bani,  Assistant Professor of Film and Media Production at Stockholm University of the Arts 

This session is moderated by Nuno Marques , former postdoctoral researcher at the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory, who works with epistemological contributions of ecopoetry to the environmental humanities. 

The works cross Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Portugal: Skogar in Umeå, the north of Sweden, in Sanna Nilsson ’s drawings, jewelry and poetry; Florestas in Letícia Larín’ s drawings of forest spirits from a trance with Amazonian wood, and in the manifesto of Sumaúma , the journalist platform from the Amazon; Bosques in the poems from poets of the Southern Cone ; and Matas in Rita Barreira ’s essay about Mata do Bussaco in Portugal. The result is a polyphonic publication that values plurality and difference against monoculture.

The publication will be presented at the Ecopoetics session at Crosscuts 2024, and there will be some free copies for people to take. A free online version will be made available soon. 

Den Inre Skogen  (60 minutes) explores the forest as a playground for art, mythology and fantasies, and as a mirror of human's own inner self. In “Den Inre Skogen” we get to follow artists and activists that in various ways try to re-establish the relationship to the wild around us. They share how their relationship to forests have impacted their lives and inspired their artwork. With artist Lars Lerin, artist Britta Marakatt-Labba, author Helena Granström, composer Eirik Havnes, artist Helene Schmitz and the ecologist and nature rights educator Pella Thiel. Directed by Thomas Jackson.

Followed by a conversation with: 

Pella Thiel , ecologist and nature rights educator 

Lotten Gustafsson Reinius , researcher at Stockholm University on our relationships with forests

Malin Lobell , artist, co-founder of the art platform "p(Art of the Biomass" , and part of the 2021 project "Skogen mellom oss"  (the forest between us). 

This session is moderated by Lize-Marie Van Der Watt , Head of Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment at KTH. Her research is on the histories of the Antarctic and Arctic, with a focus on the intersection between the environment, science, cultural heritage and critical geopolitics.