On Forests
H18:00-19:30
Entrance: via Liguria 20
H18:00-19:30
Entrance: via Liguria 20
28.02.2025 H18:00-19:30
Istituto Svizzero, Via Liguria 20, Roma
To participate, register here.
Presentation of the work in progress multichannel audiovisual installation Tany fivelomana â between land and forest (working title) by Fellows Antsa Arimalala and Alexandra Baumgartner, who participated in the art&science residency On Forests. For this residency Istituto Svizzero collaborates for the first time with the Wyss Academy for Nature at the University of Bern on the topic âThe true value of forestsâ based on the initiative âDialogues with Purpose (WAD)â. This residency allowed the two artists to participate in global-level discussion on biodiversity, climate change and land use.
The multichannel audiovisual installation invites viewers into a space formed by imaginaries and testimonies collected in Madagascar and Switzerland, two places linked through global biodiversity conservation. By layering perspectives, this work in progress explores how interventions on the land give rise to fragmented realities. Hearing and not hearing voices, seeing and not seeing forestâa site takes shape through the tensions between care and control, presence and erasure. Approaching âlandâ as tany fivelomanaââland for lifeââin the sense of sustaining continuity and growth, the âforestâ expands.
Antsa Arimalala (1992), also known as Encoder Experiment, is a unique artist on the Malagasy contemporary music scene, composing and performing electronic music by using the creative software Ableton Live. He plays Synthwave, a musical and artistic genre inspired by Western culture in the 1980s. Encoder Experiment also explores the sounds of Madagascar, including sounds coming from local communities, for experimental projects. In 2023, he won the Art and Biodiversity competition for cultural projects with his Origins project, a sound exploration in the Vohimana Reserve to create an EP (extended play) album of four songs. In 2024, he is being hosted by Projet Ony, an association founded by the French artist Orelsan, to continue his sound exploration in southern Madagascar.
Alexandra Baumgartner (1991) is an artist based in Biel/Bienne. She uses various forms of storytelling while building on photography as a key tool within her research-led practice. Her latest works expand on sound, gardening, sculpture, public walks and food in response to a multifaceted world of intra-actions between plants and humans. Alexandra Baumgartner received her BA in Camera Arts from the Lucerne School of Art and she is currently studying for her MA in Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Bern. Currently Alexandra is developing Seed Carriers, a transdisciplinary audio-documentary series and exhibition format on seed diversity and seed sovereignty.

SAVE THE DATE
Sign up to this event to receive a notification email
Antsa Arimalala - Tany fivelomana, Mahalevona (2024)