Seminar 3: 27 - 29 March 2025

Time in Cyprus is dedicated to tracing forest inscriptions while working on ways how ideas addressed during previous confluences become part of this and further journeys. This confluence includes meetings with researcher and architect Stavros Papavassiliou and artist Stelios Kallinikou together forming an introduction to Nicosia, Cyprus, and the wider geography touching upon questions addressed in this COOP and seeing these from their perspectives. The study group will go on a journey to encounter and visit different geographical, biological, sociopolitical and historic conditions starting from Nicosia driving through the copper mine up into the mountains and the forest, and descending on the other side down to the Salt lake on the coast facing westward. First two days include presentations and interventions prepared by the study group participants, highlighting their view on the cases, developing their language and materialising their perspectives.  

Cyprus may be understood as an inland island, where the mountains were colonised slower than the coasts and plains—resilience lies inland, in the forest. The second day’s sectional journey will reflect various aspects of this claim. Starting from Nicosia, to drive along the Green Line, looking down into a copper mine, then continue upward to cross the mountains and see diverse forest sites. Later, to descend on the other side to the salt lake before reaching the west-facing sea coast with a sunset to conclude the section through the island. After nightfall, to return to Nicosia via a faster coastal route.

Third day will be dedicated to editing process and conversations to bring together cases and narratives addressed earlier in the Nida and the current Cyprus confluence to form a stratigraphy of materials– the bedrock for further editing processes, assemblage and refinement  of shared work in preparation for the next confluence in Middleburg where the work leading to the summit will be edited. 

Thursday 27 March

MORNING
Welcome

11:00 Meeting with Stavros Papavassiliou who will introduce the Study Group to their research on “technocratic applications of remote sensing technologies in authoritarian political ecologies, through spatial investigations of contemporary and historical instrumentalisations of forest fires in Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.”

AFTERNOON
Moufflon bookshop - Presentation/intervention 1

A walk through Nicosia led by artist Stelios Kallinikou leading first into the Nicosia Municipal Gardens, located behind the parliament house and next to the Green Line which is a location of their long term work titled Nymphaeaceae. During the walk Stelios will talk about their practice and allow the Study Group to enter stratigraphies of Cyprus through their “sequences of imagery, flowing into interlaced dialogues, whilst crossing different themes such as, politics, colonialism, the environment, technology, spirituality, and the power of images.”

During the walk somewhere in proximity to the Green Line - Presentation/intervention 2

EVENING 
Presentation/intervention 3
Conversations in preparation to the travel on the next day

Friday 28 March 

MORNING
Departure from Nicosia at 9:00 - TBC

– Skouriotissa mine: Presentation/intervention 4

Mine has been in operation since at least 2000 BCE, with ancient civilizations such as the Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Romans, and Byzantines extracting copper. The name Cyprus itself is believed to be derived from the Greek word for copper (Kyprios). It was mined continuously since, currently it is mined in some reduced capacity. After the conflict the mine remains Cyprus territory with a UN base nearby. 

However, it is a very large site and it is unclear if we can visit it thoroughly. We could try to approach it from the UN base side to find a view overlooking it.

– The Forestry College of Cyprus: Presentation/intervention 5

The college was founded and has been operating since 1951. Here is the description and history of this institution. 

– Berengaria Hotel in Prodromos: Presentation/intervention 6

The hotel is named after Queen Berengaria of Navarre, wife of King Richard the Lionheart, who is said to have married him in Cyprus in the 12th century. Once a prestigious destination hosting royals, politicians, and celebrities, it offered views over forests and mountains. Now seemingly abandoned, it remains in the village with elements of colonial architecture. The stop could provide an opportunity to reflect on the colonial legacy within the context of the surrounding forested landscape.

AFTERNOON

– Troodos Botanical Garden “A.G. Leventis”: Presentation/intervention 7

Garden located in an area that was affected by asbestos mining (Amiantos Mine). Since its closure in the 1980s, efforts have been made to restore the natural environment. Visit spring (March–May) for wildflowers. 

– Plantations between Assomatos and Akrotiri marsh: Presentation/intervention 8

Citrus plantations now occupy the wetlands that were drained in the 1930s (British territory). Nearby, Morir Soñando Garden, where electronic musician and artist Emiddio Vasquez has his land with the sculptures (Cyprus territory). 

– Limassol Salt Lake: or Akrotiri Salt Lake, Presentation/intervention 9

Home to thousands of migratory birds, including flamingos in winter, the lake is part of the British Sovereign Base Area (SBA) of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which was retained by Britain after Cyprus gained independence in 1960.

Sea coast

EVENING 

Saturday 29 March 

MORNING

Recollection from Nida

Overlooking the walks, conversations, and materials from the previous confluences in Nida, COOP participants present cases to bring forward in the collaborative study that represent observations and responses as a retroactive resource.

AFTERNOON

Editing, editing, editing

The afternoon is dedicated to bringing materials together and engaging in shared editing process;

In parallel Mid-term evaluations F2F are held

EVENING 

Reflections towards summit

Seminar 2: 14 - 17 January 2025

Particle Sensing
For the second meeting in Nida, the COOP investigates smallest particle compositions and traces within forests to interpret environmental and sociopolitical inscriptions. This session intertwines field encounters with student-led exercises, testing the dynamics of collaborative work while engaging with the study focus. 

The session highlights three key sites where traces on molecular scale reveal layered histories: the paraffin-polluted coastline at Nida, encountered during a walk led by researchers Léa Perraudin and Iva Rešetar; the Aukštumala Raised Mire, where ecological and extractivist histories converge at a granular level also Rusnė, a town on the Skirvytė river that marks a second encounter with the Russian border; and the Red Forest surrounding the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant - introduces a broader reflection on multi-decadal radiation exposure as an enduring forest inscriptions. 

The sites brought into focus reflect the entanglements of ecological processes, industrial histories, and political borders, offering varied perspectives on the molecular archive embedded within (de-)forested landscapes, where environmental and geopolitical transformations are inscribed on the smallest scales. The programme incorporates pre-prepared exercises proposed and guided by student groups, interweaving these articulations of participants’ practices with the session’s focus on optics to sense inscriptions on molecular scale. By delving into the often-invisible particle traces left by natural processes and human intervention, the session encourages participants to approach the forest as a living document that records transformations at the smallest scale, leaving impact across broader temporal and spatial dimensions.

TUESDAY, 14 JANUARY
MORNING
Welcome, Audit Reflections, Confluence plan
Exercise by Sanna, Dimitris, Nanna Part 1 

AFTERNOON 
Walking Along Paraffin Pollution at Nida Coastline with Léa Perraudin and Iva Rešetar

EVENING 
Reading / Film screening

WEDNESDAY, 15 JANUARY 

MORNING + AFTERNOON
Visit of Aukštumala Raised Mire and Rusnė, a town on the Russian border, marked by the Skirvytė river
Exercise by Erik, Stellar, Magdalena

EVENING 
Reading / Discussion

THURSDAY, 16 JANUARY 

MORNING
Exercise by IIja, Sophie and Foad

AFTERNOON
Nuclear inscriptions at the Red Forest surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant 

Conversation with Oleksiy Radinsky and screening of his documentary film "Chornobyl 22”

Presentation by Yuliia Prokopuk and Maksym Netsvetov on their research of radioactive contamination of wood

EVENING 
Film Screening

FRIDAY, 17 JANUARY 

MORNING
Exercise by Sanna, Dimitris, Nanna Part 2 

AFTERNOON 
Collaborative Editing

EVENING 
Preparing for Nicosia

Seminar 1: 10 - 12 December 2024

The first confluence of the COOP study group FOREST INSCRIPTIONS is an introduction to each other's practices and an opening of a year’s shared trajectory of a study and a collaborative work that will draw and reflect on two specific sites – Nida and Nicosia. These entanglements of wider geographies are locations where the decisive geopolitical processes may be sensed through reflections and investigations of their environments while dwelling on the notions of forest as construct and forest as witness. 

The meeting unfolds through sharing each other’s practices through presentations prepared individually prior to the meeting in the form of an Atlas – an arrangement of items in one image. Each participant of the study prepares an Atlas composed of several elements that represent their practice and tools they work with in reflection to the COOP’s study focus on FOREST INSCRIPTIONS. The Atlas includes images, sound, video or other formats brought together in a 15 min presentation to offer a multitude of entries into ones’ work opening it to others. 

TUESDAY 10

MORNING
Welcome 

AFTERNOON 
Walk in the forests of Neringa

EVENING
Setup for the year, formats and plans

WEDNESDAY 11

MORNING
Walk in the forests of Neringa

AFTERNOON 
ATLAS presentations and discussions

EVENING 
Film screening and discussion

THURSDAY 12

MORNING
Walk in the forests of Neringa

AFTERNOON 
Walk in the forests of Neringa 

EVENING 
Setup for the year