Assembly of Trees is an installation and series of workshops focusing on the intrinsic value of the forest and was presented at the Oerol Festival 2022 on Terschelling. The project led to the manifesto The Forest Speaks, the fundamentals of the forest. Installation
Assembly of Trees holds the middle ground between a parliament, stand, and shelter. A confluence of forest, trees, wood production, and people. An entrance of stacked planks with accompanying audio, via QR-code, leads the audience along a path through the forest to the installation. Arriving at the installation, the audience is invited to take sit in the Assembly and listen to the essay Tot het bos (To the forest) by Jente Hoogeveen. The essay centers around the question: what does it mean when the non-human environment, in this case the forest of Terschelling, is central to thinking, experiencing, and doing? Assembly of Trees was designed and built according to the circular production principle. Local sawmill Islandwoods lent over 60 logs and over 120 planks for the occasion. Upon completion, the material returned to be further processed in the regular wood production process.



Workshops
Five workshops took place at the installation during the 2022 Oerol festival. The outcomes led to the manifesto The Forests Speaks, fundamentals of the forest. Chihiro Geuzebroek, Raki Ap, Jessica den Outer, Remi Hougee, and Koen Arts invited the public to experience the forest in and around the installation Assembly of Trees in a new way and to reflect on the relationship between man and nature. Five workshops focused on the following themes: the rights-for-nature movement, local forest management, the concept of rewilding, and nature inclusion and social equity in the fight against climate change.

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Manifesto
The workshops provided verbal and non-verbal input to the creation of the manifesto The Forests Speaks, fundamentals of the forest. Dorine van Norren wrote the manifesto with Raki Ap, Chihiro Geuzebroek, Jessica den Outer, Remi Hougee, and Koen Arts following their workshops in the installation Assembly of Trees. The manifesto is the introduction of a new basic attitude based on the intrinsic values of the forest.
The manifesto can be read and downloaded here.


Assembly of Trees is the outcome of the stage germination and part of the multi-year research project StagingWood in which Elmo Vermijs is working with a growing coalition along the life cycle of forest -germination, growth, decay, and death- in search of other attitudes between humans and forest.
For more information, see: www.stagingwood.org