Eternal Forest poetry Manifesto is at the center of Eternal Forest Sanctuary project. It is written in poetry form in English and Portuguese, it flows as an incantation,  with repetition and circular forms. 

Eternal Forest poetry manifesto accompanies every experience and every initiation of every Eternal Forest Sanctuary, following the tradition of oral transmission. It is originally being read by the artist time and time again during Eternal Forest experiences, but also recited collectively as a community performance by people who are present at the initiation of the Sanctuaries. 

The Manifesto is translated into Portuguese and will be translated in any language where an Eternal Forest Sanctuary is established. 



Eternal Forest Manifesto

The art project ‘SAY MY NAME AND I WILL TELL YOU MY STORY’ explores memories, narratives and stories of Eucalyptus trees, from their indigenous wisdom and meanings, to their use in contemporary Western society. 

This collaborative ongoing project between curator Inês Valle and artist Evgenia Emets, opens with an art installation at Espaço Espelho d'Água in Belém, Lisbon. A rich education programme invites audiences to a series of online conversations. 

The CERA PROJECT, presents newly commissioned work by artist Evgenia Emets, curated by Inês Valle, inspired by research in trees and forests. Evgenia Emets explores the link between nature’s biodiversity and human language and culture, narratives around colonisation and decolonisation of nature. This work is rooted in the relationship the artist has developed with the Eucalyptus family during her life in Portugal.  

https://www.ceraproject.com/eucalyptus and http://www.evgeniaemets.vision/p/news.html 

Say My Name and I Will Tell You My Story

An Eternal Forest Sanctuary is a space for art, humans and biodiversity. A space designed in deep time, restoring our psyche, healing our sacred bond with nature, through storytelling and long-term care for a forest by its local community.
 
Eternal Forest Sanctuaries are created through art and poetry experiences, landscape design, and collaborative forest-ecology-art interventions.

This work is placed within a wider context of artistic practice, which explores the human relationship with nature, through the prism of time and our perception of it. 

Through works of visual poetry, artist’s books, calligraphy, performance, film, and large-scale ecological art, Eternal Forest invites us to experience sacred depth of nature and think about deep-time.

Eternal Forest Experience - has been launched at the Bienal de Coruche and is in the process of becoming a permanent art and poetry walk with preservation of local biodiversity and protection of forest, under custodianship of Municipality of Coruche, in Portugal (pictured in the photos) and engagement of local community.

The experience is based around Eternal Forest poetry Manifesto, which is at the center of Eternal Forest Sanctuary project. It is written in poetry form in English and Portuguese, it flows as an incantation,  with repetition and circular forms. 

Eternal Forest poetry manifesto accompanies every experience and every initiation of every Eternal Forest Sanctuary, following the tradition of oral transmission. It is originally being read by the artist time and time again during Eternal Forest experiences, but also recited collectively as a community performance by people who are present at the initiation of the Sanctuaries. 

The project includes a dedicated space in the forest, a series of visual artworks, Eternal Forest Manifesto poetry piece and film, an artist book, which invites the local community to create an Eternal Forest Sanctuary together, and Eternal Forest Experience in the actual forest - along with poetry walk and an Eternal Forest Sanctuary map. 

Eternal Forest explores the human relationship with forests, biodiversity and the sacred. Looking at a timeline beyond human life - a hundred, a thousand, 10,000 years, how can art be created at this timescale? 

An ongoing art project Eternal Forest Sanctuaries is the vision to create 1000 Eternal Forest Sanctuaries across the World, protected for 1000 years. Each sanctuary a gift of ancient trees and biodiversity to future generations. An expression of hope, love and care for those who will come after us. Let us be remembered as the generations which created 1000 sanctuaries, changing humanity's relationship to nature forever. 

Eternal Forest project was born in Portugal, as my response to globally pervasive deforestation, loss of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, with intention to contribute to rewilding our psyche and our planet. Inviting deep-time thinking, Eternal Forest asks the question: ‘how can we create spaces for deep connection with nature through art and ecology?’


Eternal Forest Sanctuary

I plant the word
The word of people
With the blood of the tree
The tree of Forest

‘I plant the word’, 
4 panels each 68x82 cm, total dimension 170x140 cm, Ink, water on paper


Eternal Forest explores the human relationship with forests, biodiversity and the sacred. Looking at a timeline beyond human life - a hundred, a thousand, 10,000 years, how can art be created at this timescale? 

An ongoing art project Eternal Forest Sanctuaries is the vision to create 1000 Eternal Forest Sanctuaries across the World, protected for 1000 years. Each sanctuary a gift of ancient trees and biodiversity to future generations. An expression of hope, love and care for those who will come after us. Let us be remembered as the generations which created 1000 sanctuaries, changing humanity's relationship to nature forever. 

Eternal Forest project was born in Portugal, as my response to globally pervasive deforestation, loss of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, with intention to contribute to rewilding our psyche and our planet. Inviting deep-time thinking, Eternal Forest asks the question: ‘how can we create spaces for deep connection with nature through art and ecology?’


I plant the word, from Eternal Forest Project

Eternal Forest Manifesto artist’s book reflects the process of emerging Eternal Forest Sanctuary project, with text and poetry written in the process of envisioning this work in 3 languages - Russian, Portuguese and English, and calligraphy for each poem written on fabric, and photographs capturing signs of human time on trees. 

One copy of the book is kept at the library of the Museu de Coruche, Portugal (commissioner of Bienal de Coruche, where project was developed) - available for everyone to connect the project and read it in detail. 




Eternal Forest Manifesto artist's book

4 artworks from the series ‘Forest Codex’ from Eternal Forest Project
Each 68x82 cm
Ink, water on paper, 2018

Eternal Forest explores the human relationship with forests, biodiversity and the sacred. Looking at a timeline beyond human life - a hundred, a thousand, 10,000 years, how can art be created at this timescale? 

An ongoing art project Eternal Forest Sanctuaries is the vision to create 1000 Eternal Forest Sanctuaries across the World, protected for 1000 years. Each sanctuary a gift of ancient trees and biodiversity to future generations. An expression of hope, love and care for those who will come after us. Let us be remembered as the generations which created 1000 sanctuaries, changing humanity's relationship to nature forever. 

Eternal Forest project was born in Portugal, as my response to globally pervasive deforestation, loss of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, with intention to contribute to rewilding our psyche and our planet. Inviting deep-time thinking, Eternal Forest asks the question: ‘how can we create spaces for deep connection with nature through art and ecology?’




Forest Codex, Eternal Forest Project

Eternal Forest Map, 6 panels Each 68x82 cm (without frames), total dimension 250x140 cm (with frames), Ink, water on paper, 2018


Eternal Forest explores the human relationship with forests, biodiversity and the sacred. Looking at a timeline beyond human life - a hundred, a thousand, 10,000 years, how can art be created at this timescale? 

An ongoing art project Eternal Forest Sanctuaries is the vision to create 1000 Eternal Forest Sanctuaries across the World, protected for 1000 years. Each sanctuary a gift of ancient trees and biodiversity to future generations. An expression of hope, love and care for those who will come after us. Let us be remembered as the generations which created 1000 sanctuaries, changing humanity's relationship to nature forever. 

Eternal Forest project was born in Portugal, as my response to globally pervasive deforestation, loss of biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, with intention to contribute to rewilding our psyche and our planet. Inviting deep-time thinking, Eternal Forest asks the question: ‘how can we create spaces for deep connection with nature through art and ecology?’




Eternal Forest Map

Eternal Forest artist book is a book of poetry in English and Portuguese, typed on a machine without ink, a blind embossing seen only in special light conditions. 

The book is hand-sewn, it has an imaginary detachable 'no-borders' map of the 'Eternal Forest' and visual poetry calligraphy throughout the book. Made fully on paper from the abandoned paper factory in Gois. 

Eternal Forest artist’s book, ink, vintage paper, hand binding, 6 copies, handmade, 2018

In the collection of the British Library and the Gulbenkian Art Library


Eternal Forest artist's book

The Eternal Forest 2018 art film, part of multidisciplinary ongoing art project Eternal Forest, was made in Portugal in Gois, local people talk about their experience of the forest in their lives. They share stories of the aesthetic and spiritual, ecological and socio-economic effects of monoculture landscapes. They bemoan the absence of natural forests. Yet an unbroken connection with a ‘feeling’ of a forest appears. 

The poem ‘Sacred Tree’ - part of the cycle of Eternal Forest poetry also forms visual and sonic narrative of this art film. 

Eternal Forest 2018 film has been shown in over 50 screenings in the UK and Portugal, including UCL, Portuguese Embassy, King’s College London, Evolving the Forest, Dartington, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Cinemateca Portuguesa. 



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