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is an extension of the web project Sylva, wherein the forest metaphor acts as a correlation of human transcendence in the terrain of cultural memory. In mythic terms, the forest is a place where one can be confused or get lost or where, conversely, one can find asylum or agency, and the way home again. For the three collaborators the ‘forest’ provided an imaginative domain with many paths to follow and explore. It animated a special discussion and vantage point about nature and its representations through which each of the collaborator’s points of view have been developed and facilitated through the use of the web in a private process of exchange. The recently released public version of the web site will greatly differ from its original state, which was more book-like in its presentation. The project was graciously supported by The Thing server in New York, from July 97 until winter 98. Context To pursue this dialogue, the tapes have been chosen to reflect varied points of view about nature, and more specifically the theme of landscape. A shifting multiplicity is at the core of the landscape concept which points to the blurring of strict delimited territories of the notion of ‘nature’ itself. On one hand, nature is understood as an independent set of values and authenticity (pre-discursive nature, nevertheless presently contaminated) and on the other hand, in its opposition to culture, is perceived as a political, institutionalized construct. Whereas the landscape has often been perceived in an idealized way, separate in and of itself, there is an essential key to breaking down the projection mechanisms which prevent a more unified experience with nature. In other words: “(...), it is not clear that by becoming more mystical or religious about nature one necessarily overcomes the damaging forms of separation or loss of concern which have been the consequence of a secular and instrumental rationality. What is really needed, one might argue, is not so much new forms of awe and reverence of nature, but rather to extend to it some of more painful forms of concern we have for ourselves. The sense of rupture and distance which has been encouraged by secular rationality may be better overcome, not by worshipping this nature that is ‘other’ to humanity, but through a process of re-sensitization to our combined separation from it and dependence upon it.” Kate Soper, “Nature/’nature’“ in FutureNatural, edited by G. Robertson, M. Mash and others, Routledge London, 1996, p.32. The works presented here put forth a renewed focus and interpretation of nature in relation to one’s inherently mobile and ephemeral position in the world as a whole. They signal a need for change in the portrayal of the environment, to rethink a dominant westernized anthropomorphic-centered view which invariably perpetrates dualistic and mutually exclusive perceptions. Nevertheless, the selection of tapes calls to acknowledge the interdependent existence of nature, culture and capital, to consider a perception which is trained by the aesthetical validation systems of (our) history. What becomes of the idea of a cultivated, tamed landscape of beauty that calls for preservation? Or the reality, in a global economy, of industrialized and developing societies that act destructively against nature to acquire better human standards of living? Or the socio-biological determinations of science which would need to be debated publicly? This questioning does not however deny the impending limits of our disastrous exploitation of natural resources. Our respective and collective responsibility concerning ecological sustainability needs to be acted upon beyond the filters of cultural interpretation.

Marcel Schwierin, Germany, 16 mm, experimental, 1994, 24 min. Und was sucht man da oben? - Sich selbst! - Und sonst nichts?- Und Sie, was suchen Sie hier oben in der Natur? - Das Schöne! And what does one search for up there? - Oneself! - And nothing else? - And you, what are you searching for up here in the open air? - Beauty! ‘Heimatfilme (sentimental regional films) of the twenties and amateur home-movies become a search for traces of a past that I didn’t experience, but seemingly influenced me more than my own. A melodramatic self image out of found material.’ (M.S.) In a series of 10 tableaux, Schwierin juxtaposes three sets of found footage. Interspersed throughout the work, the sequences include an anonymous couple’s film library which Schwierin purchased at a flea market (complete with the documentation of a marriage, the construction of the new garage, to their regular nature excursions), early mountain movies partly with Leni Riefenstahl as the main actress, as well as her own personal director work when she filmed Aryan athletes for the 1936 Olympics. In a type of historical comment on filmmaking and the specificity of German cinema, Schwierin weaves together an impressive survey of the experience of nature as sublime and all powerful. The inclusion of the 1960-70 family found footage here reveals how the successful construction of imagery, the aesthetical determination of values by reproducing media, shapes a collective memory. A painful realization mirroring the filmmaker’s dispersed psyche of rejection and fascination. Marcel Schwierin, born 1965, lives and works in Berlin (Germany).

Alexander Hahn, USA/Switzerland, video, experimental, 1991, 16 min. Prologue - In the 10th century A.D. the theory arose that our cosmos is but an imitation of God’s authentic creation - a counterfeit reality conjured up by Satan. I will speak now of these matters. Dirt Site is a ghostly fragmented vision of a world seen from the edge of the human condition. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, a reptile dawn, the piece speaks of bleakness and despair in a world where the destroyed urban environment is a reflection of the labyrinth of our human mind. Images of abandoned houses and somber industrial landscapes are dissolved into imprints of dirt, mud, dust and water. Without apparent visual cuts, image flows into image creating a blurry watery symphony of metamorphosis. Here, beauty and horror live side by side and intertwined in an end of the universe fable in which a trio of disembodied voices stalk a post-industrial dead zone, looking back at what went wrong. But yet at the amorphous zero point which carries all possibilities of a new beginning liquid might tend to turn solid again. Alexander Hahn, born 1954, lives and works in New York (USA) and Zurich (Switzerland).

Richard Desjardins et Robert Monderie, Québec, video, documentary, 1999, 70 min. A critical essay about the critical condition of the boreal forest of Québec. While the official discourse maintains that the resource will continuously regenerate itself, appalling ecological results due to an absence of conservation planning, as well as unrestrained yet legislated profit schemes between government and industry prove otherwise. A personal and historical document portraying an accelerating situation which, if unrequited, will be disastrous for all life forms. Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie, both born 1948, live and work in Montréal, Québec.

Tony Hill, United-Kingdom, video, experimental, 1997, 25 min. One can be surprised to watch a gardening show in the primetime Friday evening slot on British television. This somewhat anecdotal reckoning makes you aware of the important presence of the (manicured) landscape in contemporary English daily life. In his video, Hill looks at this landscape in ways other than ‘eye view’, he brings nature close to touch in a sometimes erotic display, through the suggestive performances of a man and woman attempting contact and communication with nature and within themselves. While recalling formally the insitu work of Andy Goldsworthy, innovative use of timelapse and simple layering techniques relay a multifaceted point of view, reinforced by the use of a rig-mounted mobile camera. With this apparatus, we are propelled into curvilinear space which is tremendously more engaging. Presence and openess increases, a sensual meditation arises that sets out to challenge perceptual habits without being drawn into the seductive trap of the picturesque. Tony Hill, born 1946, works and lives in Derby (UK).

Office National du Film / Crawley Films Limitée, Canada, 16 mm, documentary, 1944, 31 min. The four seasons in one of Canada’s many wildlife sanctuaries - Gatineau Park. A period-related visual discourse of perpetual abundance, the film ends with scenes of hard-working yet joyful loggers and lumberjacks pillaging trees of dimensions of which the like will never be seen again... F.R. (Budge) Crawley (1911-1987) and Judith Crawley (1914-1986), a pioneer couple in the Canadian film industry, worked on contrat with the NFB during WWII, after which they founded Crawley Films Limited, one of the most important production companies in post-war Canada.

Gianni Toti, France, video, experimentale, 1997, 53 min. 18 sec. Toti has succeeded in constructing a computer-generated environment which could be qualified as utopic. By creating a synthetic geography, a completely artificial reality, it refers to the (violent) colonization of Peru and by extension Latin America, and can be seen in a formal association with abstraction as a vehicle for social change as put forth by the Constructivists. Every single line, animation, mapping, three-dimensional space and virtual camera movement, text and imaging processes engage the viewer’s perception in a constantly restructured vision. Toti pays hommage to José Carlos Mariategui, one the greatest political thinkers of Latin America, and the tape ends with the Zapatistas’ present struggle to recover their land; their life-force. A fiery visual VidéoPoèmOpéra for reclaiming history. Gianni Toti, born 1921, works and lives in Rome (Italy).