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FOREST LAW: Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares

Reception
Wed, Oct 3, 2018, 5:00 pm to Thu, Oct 4, 2018, 6:59 pm
Sesnon Gallery

Wednesday, Oct 3, 2018 

Location: Sesnon Gallery

The Institute of the Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery and the Center for Creative Ecologies, is proud to announce the opening reception for Forest Law, an exhibition by artist-researcher Ursula Biemann and architect Paulo Tavares.

FOREST LAW
An installation by Ursula Biemann & Paulo Tavares
Gallery Reception Wednesday, Oct. 3
5:00-7:00 PM
6:00 Remarks by T. J. Demos

art historian, professor and theorist 

FREE EVENT
PARKING in Porter lot for $5/car

https://www.geobodies.org/art-and-videos/forest-law

Forest Law, 2014, is a 38-minute video essay and book drawn from research carried out by Biemann and Tavares in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It considers the legal cases which plead for the rights of nature against the dramatic expansion of large-scale extraction activities in the region, including the trial won by the indigenous people of Sarayuku based on their cosmology of the living forest. The project creatively maps the historical, political, and ecological dimensions of these trials on behalf of the forest and the people who cultivate the forest, tracing the entanglements and frictions between the ethical and epistemic stakes these cases raise.

Situated at the transition between the Amazon floodplains and the Andean mountains, the Ecuadorian Amazon is one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth and fulfills vital functions in global climate regulation. It is also the home of indigenous nations and a land of great ethno-cultural diversity. Underlying this vast territory are immense deposits of oil, gas, and minerals. This makes it the target of many corporate extractive industries, intent on unearthing the mineral wealth despite the diasterous effects these industries have on the area and its inhabitants.