MALIN ANRELL, ÅSA ELZÉN

North of Umeå, Malin Arnell and Åsa Elzén came across a large pile of waste wood intended for generating district heating. They came up with the idea of taking some of the pile out of production and as a first step placing it in the exhibition space at Bildmuseet before returning it to the forest. Taking it from an industrial cycle focused on human needs and returning it to the life cycle of the forest’s swarming life.

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In May 2024 the pile was placed in a forest by Kullar & Klang in Vännforsbäck. The sculpture and the text is a part of the project Forest Calling – A Never-ending Contaminated Collaboration or Dancing is a Form of Forest Knowledge. Extension: Waste wood (2024) presented in the exhibition Eight Degrees / Contemporary Art on the Forest at Bildmuseet, Umeå university.

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Malin Arnell and Åsa Elzén have collaborated since 2008. In addition to the Forest Calling project, they have also worked together as part of YES! Association/Föreningen JA! (2008–2018). Arnell is based in Stockholm and Berlin. They investigate collective processes within a performative sphere. The artistic practice is anchored in a queer feminist and posthumanist stance for an expanded ecological sensitivity. Arnell was awarded her PhD at Stockholm University of the Arts in 2016. Elzén is based in Näshulta, Södermanland. In her work, she explores the concept of ‘the fallow’ in relation to temporality, the climate crisis, declining biodiversity, and queer feminist and more-than-human historiography.