Forest Law

Ursula Biemann (CH) and Paulo Tavares (BR)

Deep Point Cloud

Emilija Škarnulytė (LT)

Deep Point Cloud

Emilija Škarnulytė (LT)

Deep Point Cloud

Emilija Škarnulytė (LT)

Deep Point Cloud

Emilija Škarnulytė (LT)

Forest Law (2014)
Video
38' 00''
Courtesy of the artists

This collaborative project draws from research carried out by Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares in the oil-and-mining frontier of the Ecuadorian Amazon— one of the most biodiverse and mineral-rich regions on Earth. Currently, the region is under pressure from the dramatic expansion of large-scale extraction activities, and Biemann and Tavares’ research explores the multiple dimensions of the tropical forest as a physical, legal, and cosmological entity. The video emerges from dialogues between Biemann and Tavares, the camera and the forest, and –most importantly– the artists and the many people they encountered while traveling through Amazonia. The project is a commission by the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.


BIO

Ursula Biemann (b. 1955 in Zurich, Switzerland) is an artist, writer and video essayist. Her practice is strongly research oriented, frequently developing multi-layered videos that connect the micropolitics on the ground with a theoretical macro level, proposing a reflexive exploration of planetary and videographic organization. Her work has been shown at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k., the Bildmuseet Umeå, the Jeu de Paume and in the biennials of São Paulo, Sharjah, and Venice, among others. Biemann has received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Grand Award for Art and the 2018 Prix Thun for Art and Ethics. She is on the board of the academic journal Geo-Humanities.

—

Paulo Tavares (b. 1980 in Campinas, Brazil) is an architect and urbanist. His projects, texts and lectures have been published and shown at the Istanbul Design Biennial (2016) and the Sharjah Biennial (2017). He currently works as a professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Brasília, and previously taught at the Centre for Research Architecture – Goldsmiths, at Cornell University, and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. In 2017, Tavares created the agency Autonoma, a platform to explore new forms of thinking and producing the territory. He is one of the curators of the 2019 Biennial of Architecture of Chicago.

The work is presented by guest curator Gabriel Bogossian.

Forest Law (2014)
Video
38' 00''
Courtesy of the artists

This collaborative project draws from research carried out by Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares in the oil-and-mining frontier of the Ecuadorian Amazon— one of the most biodiverse and mineral-rich regions on Earth. Currently, the region is under pressure from the dramatic expansion of large-scale extraction activities, and Biemann and Tavares’ research explores the multiple dimensions of the tropical forest as a physical, legal, and cosmological entity. The video emerges from dialogues between Biemann and Tavares, the camera and the forest, and –most importantly– the artists and the many people they encountered while traveling through Amazonia. The project is a commission by the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.


BIO

Ursula Biemann (b. 1955 in Zurich, Switzerland) is an artist, writer and video essayist. Her practice is strongly research oriented, frequently developing multi-layered videos that connect the micropolitics on the ground with a theoretical macro level, proposing a reflexive exploration of planetary and videographic organization. Her work has been shown at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k., the Bildmuseet Umeå, the Jeu de Paume and in the biennials of São Paulo, Sharjah, and Venice, among others. Biemann has received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Grand Award for Art and the 2018 Prix Thun for Art and Ethics. She is on the board of the academic journal Geo-Humanities.

—

Paulo Tavares (b. 1980 in Campinas, Brazil) is an architect and urbanist. His projects, texts and lectures have been published and shown at the Istanbul Design Biennial (2016) and the Sharjah Biennial (2017). He currently works as a professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Brasília, and previously taught at the Centre for Research Architecture – Goldsmiths, at Cornell University, and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. In 2017, Tavares created the agency Autonoma, a platform to explore new forms of thinking and producing the territory. He is one of the curators of the 2019 Biennial of Architecture of Chicago.

The work is presented by guest curator Gabriel Bogossian.

Forest Law (2014)
Video
38' 00''
Courtesy of the artists

This collaborative project draws from research carried out by Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares in the oil-and-mining frontier of the Ecuadorian Amazon— one of the most biodiverse and mineral-rich regions on Earth. Currently, the region is under pressure from the dramatic expansion of large-scale extraction activities, and Biemann and Tavares’ research explores the multiple dimensions of the tropical forest as a physical, legal, and cosmological entity. The video emerges from dialogues between Biemann and Tavares, the camera and the forest, and –most importantly– the artists and the many people they encountered while traveling through Amazonia. The project is a commission by the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.


BIO

Ursula Biemann (b. 1955 in Zurich, Switzerland) is an artist, writer and video essayist. Her practice is strongly research oriented, frequently developing multi-layered videos that connect the micropolitics on the ground with a theoretical macro level, proposing a reflexive exploration of planetary and videographic organization. Her work has been shown at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k., the Bildmuseet Umeå, the Jeu de Paume and in the biennials of São Paulo, Sharjah, and Venice, among others. Biemann has received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Grand Award for Art and the 2018 Prix Thun for Art and Ethics. She is on the board of the academic journal Geo-Humanities.

—

Paulo Tavares (b. 1980 in Campinas, Brazil) is an architect and urbanist. His projects, texts and lectures have been published and shown at the Istanbul Design Biennial (2016) and the Sharjah Biennial (2017). He currently works as a professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Brasília, and previously taught at the Centre for Research Architecture – Goldsmiths, at Cornell University, and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. In 2017, Tavares created the agency Autonoma, a platform to explore new forms of thinking and producing the territory. He is one of the curators of the 2019 Biennial of Architecture of Chicago.

The work is presented by guest curator Gabriel Bogossian.

Forest Law (2014)
Video
38' 00''
Courtesy of the artists

This collaborative project draws from research carried out by Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares in the oil-and-mining frontier of the Ecuadorian Amazon— one of the most biodiverse and mineral-rich regions on Earth. Currently, the region is under pressure from the dramatic expansion of large-scale extraction activities, and Biemann and Tavares’ research explores the multiple dimensions of the tropical forest as a physical, legal, and cosmological entity. The video emerges from dialogues between Biemann and Tavares, the camera and the forest, and –most importantly– the artists and the many people they encountered while traveling through Amazonia. The project is a commission by the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.


BIO

Ursula Biemann (b. 1955 in Zurich, Switzerland) is an artist, writer and video essayist. Her practice is strongly research oriented, frequently developing multi-layered videos that connect the micropolitics on the ground with a theoretical macro level, proposing a reflexive exploration of planetary and videographic organization. Her work has been shown at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k., the Bildmuseet Umeå, the Jeu de Paume and in the biennials of São Paulo, Sharjah, and Venice, among others. Biemann has received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Grand Award for Art and the 2018 Prix Thun for Art and Ethics. She is on the board of the academic journal Geo-Humanities.

—

Paulo Tavares (b. 1980 in Campinas, Brazil) is an architect and urbanist. His projects, texts and lectures have been published and shown at the Istanbul Design Biennial (2016) and the Sharjah Biennial (2017). He currently works as a professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Brasília, and previously taught at the Centre for Research Architecture – Goldsmiths, at Cornell University, and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. In 2017, Tavares created the agency Autonoma, a platform to explore new forms of thinking and producing the territory. He is one of the curators of the 2019 Biennial of Architecture of Chicago.

The work is presented by guest curator Gabriel Bogossian.

Forest Law (2014)
Video
38' 00''
Courtesy of the artists

This collaborative project draws from research carried out by Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares in the oil-and-mining frontier of the Ecuadorian Amazon— one of the most biodiverse and mineral-rich regions on Earth. Currently, the region is under pressure from the dramatic expansion of large-scale extraction activities, and Biemann and Tavares’ research explores the multiple dimensions of the tropical forest as a physical, legal, and cosmological entity. The video emerges from dialogues between Biemann and Tavares, the camera and the forest, and –most importantly– the artists and the many people they encountered while traveling through Amazonia. The project is a commission by the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.


BIO

Ursula Biemann (b. 1955 in Zurich, Switzerland) is an artist, writer and video essayist. Her practice is strongly research oriented, frequently developing multi-layered videos that connect the micropolitics on the ground with a theoretical macro level, proposing a reflexive exploration of planetary and videographic organization. Her work has been shown at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k., the Bildmuseet Umeå, the Jeu de Paume and in the biennials of São Paulo, Sharjah, and Venice, among others. Biemann has received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Grand Award for Art and the 2018 Prix Thun for Art and Ethics. She is on the board of the academic journal Geo-Humanities.

—

Paulo Tavares (b. 1980 in Campinas, Brazil) is an architect and urbanist. His projects, texts and lectures have been published and shown at the Istanbul Design Biennial (2016) and the Sharjah Biennial (2017). He currently works as a professor at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Brasília, and previously taught at the Centre for Research Architecture – Goldsmiths, at Cornell University, and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. In 2017, Tavares created the agency Autonoma, a platform to explore new forms of thinking and producing the territory. He is one of the curators of the 2019 Biennial of Architecture of Chicago.

The work is presented by guest curator Gabriel Bogossian.