COMING SOON: The Forests Trial, 07.10.24

Photo: Tor Lindstrand (AI)

“The Forests Trial” is a transdisciplinary performance and research of a speculative trial, inviting the audience as jury to represent nature, and to judge the resposible for ecocide in two cases of study: the mercury pollution in Lemvig by Cheminova factory since 1953 and the mercury pollution in the Amazonia of Venezuela by the illegal mining after the governmental law 'Miners Arc' in 2016.

It is a pre-enactment of a 'fictional' trial on stage, that criminalizes those responsible for natures destruction. The dramaturgy of the courtroom is to try to collect-evaluate evidence by re-enacting the crime committed. We, instead, are looking into the future, developing a pre-enactment: to enact before things takes place, using fiction to imagine another form of representation, through this public assembly.

As jury or witness representing the 2363 endangers species in the world, the audience is invited to prepare for the trial reading about the species listed in the book “The Forests Imaginary Trial – 374 Grieving Poems” (read >>>>) and choosing which of them you wish to represent. From April 2024 you could also access a new online 'Matrix' in which this list of species will be listed, replacing the name into an image (drawing) if you wish - to get more familiar with them. Its possible to come without preparation. COMING SOON in this wepage.

Book available at Charlottenborg Kunsthal bookstore or email: saragebran@yahoo.com

Possible trial's scenarios:

The performers present testimonies from Lemvig and Venezuela (video, images and sound), and historic context to the discussion. They are moderators of the conversation with the audience, and challenge the performance space through fictional creative proposals (movements, lights, video and sound-installation).
The lawyer mediates, proposing what is possible between the current legal system and a new futuristic (fictional) system of legality in which all of nature is already a subject of legal rights (personhood).

Artists invited: Ida Larsen, Marie-Louise Stentebjerg, Tor Lindstrand, George Koutsuris, and Sara Gebran.

Lawyer: Alessandro Pelizzon.

Consulting anthropologists: Francisco Javier Velasco, Stine Krøjle.

Testimonies from Lemvig & Amazonia areas in Venezuela, to be display later on.

Support: The Danish Arts Council.

Collaborators: Metropolis Festival. Trevor Davis (Teaterøen). Forsøgststionen residency.