Green Academy Seminar Series - Episode 7

Thinking like a Beaver: An Artistic Guide to Mountain Forests — with Anna Siekierska

22 May, 2025 18:00 CET - online

What connects the mountains with the lowlands? Rivers. Their tangle is like a circulatory and excretory system. It nourishes what is barren, irrigates what has dried up, flushes out accumulated deposits, dissolves pollutants, dilutes fertiliser and sewage concentrates. At the same time, the state of water reflects how people treat the land.

This includes old mountain forests that act as sponges soaking up even heavy rainfalls. One devastating consequence of damaged forests are river floods such as the ones in Bircza village (2023) and the Kłodzko Valley (2024), both located at the foot of mountain ranges along Poland’s southern border. Where the residents need a sponge, there is only a sieve.

In response, Warsaw-based artist Anna Siekierska recently set out to create a guide to maintaining and restoring mountain forests that balance the water system. An advocate of cooperation and the sharing of knowledge and skills, she invited both forest activists and local residents to contribute their field expertise. Anna also draws knowledge from careful observation of the environment. In particular, she tries to learn from beavers – the best engineers in the field of water retention. Combining country lore, activism, ecological education, and technical instructions for restoring water retention, the guide encourages people to get to know mountain forests, peat bogs, and beavers.

Anna will introduce us to her book project and its process of co-creation, including a number of field trips told and illustrated in its pages. We will discuss her role as an artist-activist, how the guide relates to her other work, and why she loves sheep.

Anna Siekierska is a sculptor and cyclist, a faculty member at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and an activist for the protection of old forests. She has co-authored numerous installations in public space, socially engaged projects, and activities that raise awareness of the lives of other beings, centred around the complex network of relationships between people and the more-than-human world. She has shown her works in the most important art institutions in Poland and in many places abroad (Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Republic of Kosovo, Romania, Ukraine). Anna spends a lot of time in various thickets and swamps. She likes swimming, hiking, gardening, and seasonally eating tomatoes.

The episodes of the Green Academy are hosted by ecologist, philosopher, and writer Philipp P. Thapa.

Organised by Pro Progressione (proprogressione.com) in collaboration with the Sustainable Europe Research Institute Germany (SERI.de).

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About Green Academy

Pro Progressione's Green Pillar emphasizes the integration of artistic practices with the more-than-human environment. We lead and collaborate on various projects, focusing on sustainability and connecting artists with critical environmental issues.

Although these events are directly linked to projects such as The Big Green, we aim to provide an open platform for the cultural and creative sectors, inviting our partners to join the Academy. Following our 2024 pilot phase, we plan to organize five more lectures next year. These events are open to registered participants and offer not only learning experiences but also the opportunity to form a community of professionals dedicated to environmentally conscious art.

If you would like to attend, you can register here: https://forms.gle/5pQ3ZHh5rX2ANqtq9
(After registration, we'll send you the Zoom link some days before the event)

You can read more about the Green Academy here: www.proprogressione.com/en/projects/green-academy

The Big Green project behind Green Academy is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.