Our history and commitment
View of Pont-en-Royans
We are delighted to announce the birth of the Artborescences association.
It is a natural evolution of the Forest Art Project association created in 2016 to save the great forests. It brought together scientists and artists who have travelled this road of knowledge and sensitivity to the world.
We are continuing our adventure in a reinforced way:
We affirm the need to pass on knowledge about the complexity of our planet, the richness of life and its fragility. We know barely 10% of these mysteries (Entangled Life - Merlin SHELDRAKE). Artists and scientists have seized upon these subjects, which are the basis of our very existence. We now know their limits, and recognize our ignorance.
Artistic sensibilities invite us to look at the beauty of the world. The emotions that arise also remind us of our own mistakes.
Scientists and philosophers are clear that we need to understand and modify our way of being in the world. I'd like to quote Baptiste MORIZOT: rediscover the use of a "diplomacy of interdependence" and "appropriate consideration" towards Nature. We are aware of the resistance and are looking for new ways forward.
If we consider the opening of a new era to be highly desirable, we're undoubtedly at its birth, without knowing whether it will become a reality.
We are convinced of the urgent need to serve this page that is being written. We know that nature's long road lies ahead of us.
As Christian Ruby suggests, we're embarking on this collective work with a desire for an archipelago. In fact, we're going to work with other associations and structures along this route, in order to better inhabit the Earth.
Vincent Lajarige
Arts division
Being in the forest is an invitation to a sensitive experience, where all our senses can be awakened. This sense of wonder is the first step towards learning about biodiversity and the forest's inhabitants, and taking care of them. The multiplicity of artistic practices, visual arts and performing arts revives a gentle, close relationship with nature. They offer hope for a life more in harmony with the non-human living world.
The vocation of the Arts division is to support artistic projects that take the time to establish themselves over the long term in co-creation with trees and other species, and that are based on the discovery of environments. We believe in art that listens to the sounds of life, documents and raises questions.
Exhibitions, outdoor site-specific works, live performances - physical encounters with works of art can raise awareness of relationships within the plant world. Let's forge new alliances between art and care for trees, plants and the beings that inhabit our forests. Let's encourage fertile encounters, and put our trust in projects that emerge and evolve through exchanges with people from different professions and disciplines.
In a world in transformation, in transition, artists are sounding the alarm, enlightening us and letting us imagine a sustainable future. They reveal the state of forests and trees, their fragility and the imbalance resulting from the environmental crisis.
Paul Ardenne - Pauline Lisowski
Exhibition at Bibliothèque de l'Alcazar, Marseille ©Edyta Tolwinska
Maluwana, 2022 - Ti'iwan Couchili
Basket palm: drawing by Francis Hallé
The Bride, 2011 - Laure Molina
Bavella Chestnut - Geneviève Michon
Amazonia 1, 2020 - Rosario d'Espinay Saint-Luc
Planisphere, roots on canvas - Valérie Crenleux
Science division
Every day, dozens of animal, plant and microbial species disappear, victims of human inconsistency. Many natural ecosystems have been weakened by the combined impact of human actions and climate change. Forests are being cleared, trees are dying, wet meadows are being drained and savannahs are being burned. Thanks to advances in biology, ecology and revolutionary molecular tools, our knowledge of these natural ecosystems has been refined. However, it is urgent to amplify these studies in order to be able to anticipate their responses to future environmental changes.
Ecological crises have put science and technological innovation at the heart of current debates. A new panorama is taking shape, and the time seems right to share this knowledge with a wider public, by transmitting the enthusiasm that drives us. This scientific approach to the forest must not, however, overshadow our sensitive perception of this world, where the imaginary finds refuge. The cultural dimension of the forest and its inhabitants must be preserved. Through scientific mediation and participatory science, a renewed dialogue with society is emerging.
Artborescences is a melting pot where scientists, artists and teachers work together for a better world, respectful of the complexity of living things. Art and science share the same ambition: to explore the mystery of the world and make the invisible visible. Artists and scientists, in search of the absolute, join forces in this exploration of terra incognita. These worlds are mutually nourishing. Science offers art new perspectives and techniques, enriching artistic expression. Art, in turn, celebrates freedom and subjectivity, bringing new angles to science. This creative tension between scientific rigor and artistic freedom generates an enriching dynamic. At Artborescences, art and science open up new perspectives for understanding and apprehending the world.
Francis Martin
Białowieża Forest, Poland - Jessica Buczek
Harvesting in an agroforestry plot ©Ch. Dupraz
Underground galaxies ©Alain Gachet
La Terre et les hommes ont changés de sens, physarum-polycephalum - Valérie Crenleux
Dehesa, Spain ©Denis Asfaux
Scattered trees in the fields, Sahel, Senegal ©Louise Leroux
Bocage landscape, Aude, France ©Emmanuel Torquebiau
Agroforest in Sri Lanka: drawing by Francis Hallé
Anatomy of tree trunks and lianas: drawing by Francis Hallé
Behind the Pillat dune, fire, summer 2022
© Vincent Lajarige
Transmissions Division
Passing on knowledge and sharing emotions are essential when it comes to the living world. So it's only natural to combine scientific discoveries with the world of art. Because we can only love what we know. So it's vital and urgent to bring humans into contact with nature in all its forms, from the wildest to the most domesticated, from the earliest age. And to take the time to observe, experience, understand and create with it. In this way, we can all work together to protect it. To this end, the Transmissions department will be proposing educational resources at events organized by the association, and will be making available on the website royalty-free tools to raise public awareness of nature-related experiences.
Émilie Chanteranne
Film-debate on the documentary film "le génie des arbres" with Nancy students. Hosted by Francis Martin and Jana Dlouha from INRAE (Institut National de Recherche de l'Agriculture, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement) in Nancy, 2024
School screening of the film Il était une forêt à Montigny-les-Metz, 2023
Francis Hallé's conference on the primary forest in Cahors, 2020
Communications Division
We live in an age of massive, automatic communication, increasingly unfounded, manipulated and even falsified. It leads some of our fellow citizens to give in to fatalism despite the endemic degradation of our environment.
Artborescences offers us the opportunity to enter into resistance for the earth, for living things, for forests, and against this collective despondency.
The quality of our communication is a must.
Internally: the fluidity and sincerity of our exchanges between the different parts of the association has already been confirmed since the recent creation of Artborescences. It must continue to assert itself and develop.
Outward: in resistance networks, the quality of communication has always been vital, with the obligation to be efficient, fluid, precise, intuitive, inventive and contagious.
Through the emotions conveyed by the performing, visual, musical, theatrical and poetic arts and their mediation, we'll be disseminating and inviting people to share scientific knowledge.
Life sciences invite us to rediscover the poetry of life, its richness, complexity and fragility.
All audiences should be invited, young and old alike.
Gathering and federating initiatives, convincing and removing obstacles, marvelling and sharing: communication tools have become multiple.
Let's open doors and windows to scientific truth and artistic emotion. This can enable each and every one of us to once again play a part in our common destiny.
By working with other associations to create these spaces of truth, sharing and beauty, we invite you to build a conquering and benevolent archipelago.
Jean-Christophe Berrux
Fir grove, Lijiang-Yunnan, China - Francis Martin
Town of Pont-en-Royans ©Jean-Christophe Berrux
Guiana Forest - Edyta Tolwinska
Białowieża Forest, Poland - Jessica-Buczek
Musée de l'eau, Pont-en-Royans ©Jean-Christophe Berrux