Forest Dark II

Along the north-eastern border area of the Dinaric Alps there are rich and dense forests of beech, fir and juniper, spread around the city of Ogulin. Like all the other forests they are magnificent super-ancient 'machines' for purifying air and water, for preventing floods and soil erosion, storing carbon, pumping water and transforming liquid to vapour, contributing to cloud formation and
precipitation. They support most of the world's biodiversity while having a symbiotic relationship with humans.

Humans, like many other living species exist because of and only in conservation with forests.

Our survival is the survival of trees.

Formafantasma, Cambio, 2020.

Along side technical performance, their specic fairy-tale beauty encouraged creation of folk tales and legends for centuries, inhabiting Ogulin's forests with giants, witches and fairies. Together with natural beauty, heritage of legends and tales became sources of inspiration for many writers, among which most famous are Tales of Long Ago by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić, who turned Ogulin into the
homeland of fairy-tales. The forests of Ogulin became places of myth and memory and so we ask ourselves:

When we look at a landscape,
do we see nature or culture?

Before it can ever be a repose for the senses,
landscape is a work of the mind. Its scenery is built up
as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock.

Landscape and Memory by Simon Schama, 1996.