CRY OF THE SOIL #4
BORDERLAND SONGS IN ANCIENT FOREST
30.05-5.06.2023
hosted by: Contact Zone, Kultura Kresu
guided by: Grażyna Chyra, Witold Roy Zalewski, Śpiewaczki z Dobrowody (Walentyna Klimowicz & Nina Jawdosiuk)
curatorial lead: Dorota Michalak, Maud Buckenmeyer
KOROWÓD (MUSICAL PROCESSION) IN KOJŁY
processional
song from Dysze
(learned through Witold Zalewski)
letiw sokolik czeres try bory /2
czeres try bory czeres czytyry /2
a w piatom lisy siw na łorisy /2
siw na łorisy z lisom goworyt /2
oj lisu lisu! jaki wysoki /2
czeres tebe leczu ne pereleczu /2
(learned through Witold Zalewski)
letiw sokolik czeres try bory /2
czeres try bory czeres czytyry /2
a w piatom lisy siw na łorisy /2
siw na łorisy z lisom goworyt /2
oj lisu lisu! jaki wysoki /2
czeres tebe leczu ne pereleczu /2
VISITING SINGERS FROM DOBROWODA
:// Oby do wiosny! (Let’s hope for spring!) — interview with Nina Jawdosiuk, Akademia Kolberga
:// Śpiewnik Dobrowodzki (Dobrowoda Songbook), eds. Julita Charytoniuk
Światy Jure Ryhore
pójdy do Boha po kluczy /2
I odomkny zymlyciu /2
I wypust’, wypust’ trawyciu /2
Prykryj zymlyciu trawoju /2
A derewo listoczkom /2
Nas mołodeńkych wynoczkom /2
Jak nastane misiac maj /2
Pożynem woły pasty w haj /2
Tam ziljeczka narwemo /2
Sobi wynoczki zowjemo /2
I na hołowku złożymo /2
I do tanoczka pójdemo /2
BIAŁOWIEŻA ANCIENT FOREST
Stepping carefully on the dark busy soil it takes not even a second
till you start to sink, deeply intertwined with the trees and politics.
In the ancient forest dead trees remain tall even for decades, while
policing absence and practicing invisibility plays out on the human
side.
Our imagination is too limited to grasp all different ways to
connect, yet we try to listen and resonate, embracing complexity
entangled in a single song, feeling the weight of a single tear.
Yes, we have heard the desire. And despair to survive.
The forest has its pulse. It is determined by oak trees, which from time to time produce more acorns at once and this affects all other organisms and the entire ecosystem. This used to happen every 10 years, but now the pulse is accelerating, it’s almost twice as fast.
Spruce trees are dying en masse due to climate change. Their roots are mostly down shallow and wide because they sap the melting snows. And there is less and less snow, the winter period is getting shorter and shorter. Spruces with less access to water have less resin and a weaker defense against bark beetles. The longevity of the trees means that they can’t adopt at a sufficient rate to current climate change – by the time they grow up at least several decades have passed so the knowledge with which they started is already outdated.
It’s frightening that in all of Europe there are only a few strictly designated places where trees can live to old age and fulfill their social role after death. Human management of the forest is destroying its ancient long-lived culture, weakening its resilience and survival strategies.
Forest culture is based on an awareness of cooperation and co-constitution between plants, the practice of seeking niches more than competition and antagonizing.
Woodpeckers put pinecones in the bark of trees – they build themselves dining rooms.
In Białowieża Forest, there is a remarkable diversity of fungi and insects, a lot of things “not yet” explored. And we are left with the hopeful thought that some things cannot be studied, no scientific research can be done on them, because human imagination is too limited. The hope that the sense of sentient Wilderness is still with us.
Being in the forest, our senses teach us different scales, intensities, temporalities and densities. The heights of the trees, the greenness of the glow, the density of the silence, the intensity of the pulsating communication, the depth.
The forest follows us as we fall asleep, followed by swarms of mosquitoes.
Some animals as they die go out to visible places. We saw three dead shrews in the middle of the path. Shrews are the only poisonous mammals, no one will eat them unless forced by hunger.
There are crosses in the forest commemorating the World War II murders. SS troops hunting people hiding in the forest. The monuments didn’t help – people forgot.
We saw a tag with Arabic writing under the gate of the reserve.
Meanwhile some Polish soldiers enter the strict reserve to go jogging and light bonfires, placing themselves above the law. They embody other worlds.
CHOREOGRAPHIES
OF
ABSENCE, WHISPERS, INVISIBILITY
Białowieża is a place where choreographies of the forest, nature conservation laws, and the geopolitical system confluence. The score is drawn with borders: those of the strict biosphere reserve, the Polish and Belarusian states, and the European Union.
They organize and restrict human movement and presence in different ways and for different purposes: protecting wildlife from human interference, enforcing Frontex policy.
Invisibility is a key quality: the armed forces and border guards tactically mask their presence, migrants and human rights defenders hide from the dangers and injustices, ecologists try to be invisible in order to tune in to the forest and wildlife.
Beneath the surface, invisible, unstoppable processes of relationship-building and the desire to stay in touch, stay alive, communicate, and support each other are taking place. A constant exchange of chemicals, waves, and electrical impulses within a forest ecosystem of high biodiversity, following the logic of niche seeking - an organization in which everyone has adequate space, sharing a common pulse, metabolizing, whispering, relying on internet and telephone connections.
Sometimes this silence is broken by screams, crying, sirens, recordings of barking dogs played from police cars – as a weapon, as a cry for help, as an expression of the need to be heard, as an expression of helplessness.
There is a
humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border since 2021.
Following Grupa Granica you can get the latest updates and support human rights activists.
Following Grupa Granica you can get the latest updates and support human rights activists.
PRACTICE:
SINGING ACROSS THE WALL
PRACTICE:
SINGING TO THE ABSENT ONE
:// Practice facilitated by Dorota Michalak & Maud Buckenmeyer