Welcome to attend the fourth edition of Stockholm’s environmental humanities festival for film and text, Crosscuts.
For the 2024 edition of Crosscuts we are exploring “Forests.” These are complex ecologies, and places of social and cultural meaning for many historic and contemporary societies. But they are also sites of production and extraction, especially in Sweden and other Nordic countries, where timber monocultures are expanding, not contracting. We want to highlight the challenges forests face, but also what they mean to us, not just as carbon sinks or as sites of biodiversity, but also as environments where our relationships with the more-than-human world have often been at their most complex and enchanting.
We have two nights of film and discussion scheduled at KTH. Plus we are excited to partner with Färgfabriken, one of Stockholm’s premier exhibition spaces for contemporary art and architecture. As part of their 2024 Architecture Trienniale they will be hosting a film screening and discussion that will serve as our opening night.
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.
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.
Screening of “More of Everything” (59 minutes) followed by a conversation. The film is in English shown with Swedish subtitles.
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?
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.
Thursday 7 November, 2024
15.30-17.30 Ecopoetics session
A session that delves into relations between art and activism that deals with forests. We will screen three short films, followed by panel with several of the contributors.
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 activist group LAJA (Lena Ignestam, Ann Engqvist, Johanna Norrbo and Anna Bokström) is a satirical news report. The film humorously presents the act of chopping down trees in Stockholm’s Kungsträdgården park. Through this satire, the film critiques our reactions to environmental destruction—highlighting how people’s concern varies depending on whether the damage is immediate and visible or distant and abstract. It also offers a witty commentary on the role of forests and trees in our aesthetics and values.
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.
17.30-18.00 Break
Thursday 7 November, 2024
18.00-20.00 Den Inre Skogen
Screening of the film Den Inre Skogen (Inner Woods) followed by a panel discussion. The film is in Swedish shown with English subtitles.
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
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.
