Thinking Forest is an initiative of artist Gerbrand Burger and it is realized by the Thinking Forest Foundation.
On Saturday, April 12, we are organizing Thinking Forest: En Plein Air, in collaboration with artist Wapke Feenstra (Myvillages). This afternoon in part responds to the book Apprendre à Voir (Leren Kijken) by art historian Estelle Zhong Mengual—a plea for slow, careful observation to deepen our relationship with nature. For this occasion, we will gather to do plein-air drawing at Welna.
Schedule
12:30 - 13:30 Gathering with picnic
13:30 - 13:45 Introduction (in conversation with Wapke Feenstra and Inez Dekker of Myvillages)
13:45 - 14:15 Walk to watering hole
14:15 - 15:30 Plein air drawing
15:30 - 16:00 Walk back
16:00 - 16:30 Discussion with forest ranger, reflecting on what you observed while drawing
16:30 - 16:45 Wrap-up
This year, Thinking Forest’s programming focuses on (rethinking) human-animal relationships. During this afternoon, we will specifically search for traces of animal influence at Welna and study them by capturing them in drawings. By pausing to consider animal presence, behavior, and interactions, we explore the interplay between human and more-than-human beings at Welna, focusing on how different perspectives can lead to radically different perceptions. The session takes place in a wooded area, where you’ll have time to connect with the surroundings and record your observations.
About Wapke Feenstra
Wapke Feenstra is a founder of Myvillages, a collective that has been exploring rural culture for 25 years. In various multidisciplinary collaborations, she has created spaces worldwide to question the cultural hegemonies of Eurocentrism and urbanism. The associated ecological challenges call for relearning how to see the landscapes around us. In 2012, Wapke began plein-air drawing in groups along the Schelde River near the village of Vlassenbroek. Drawing is a way to connect with the landscape—it’s about tracing your surroundings with your eyes in the moment. The motto is: “How we see the rural is how we want to relate to it.” Emancipating the urban gaze begins with rethinking our relationship with nature—not to define that relationship, but to question it together, creating space for shifts in perspective and critiquing dominant knowledge.
Since 2020, Wapke has worked in the newly established Rural School of Economics with rural sociologist Inez Dekker on "Cow and Landscape." The work was exhibited at the Rijksmuseum Twenthe and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, featuring drawings of cows and meadow plants.
Registration
We warmly invite you to join us for this program. Drawing materials will be provided, but feel free to bring your own if you have them. To register, please email mail@thinkingforestfoundation.org. Kindly let us know how many people you will bring.
Alice Bonnot, Nina Backman, Germaine Kruip and Siebe Tettero, Landgoed Welna, 2024
We're looking back at a very special meetup: Growing Roots (as art economy), during the summer solstice at Landgoed Welna.
Alice Bonnot mapped out various strategies of public and private art institutions towards a sustainable future. Her insightful talk led up to an intimate and open conversation about the dilemma’s of collecting in the face of climate change, the possiblity of museums without walls and art works that don’t need preservation, the power of silence in meeting one another, and much more.
Photography: Matthijs Immink
Gerbrand Burger, Landgoed Welna, 2024
Artist and founder of Thinking Forest Foundation, Gerbrand Burger, was artist in residence at Landgoed Welna from January - March 2024, and created the sculptural installation On a Trajectory Through a Maze Of Trajectories. The title refers to a text by anthropologist Tim Ingold, who writes how objects and materials as separate, finished entities don’t really exist; all materials are continually becoming, sometimes in correspondence with human makers, on their trajectories through a maze of trajectories.
Photography: Petra Katanic