Void Arts Centre are excited to invite you to The Wishing Forest, a project initiated by Stéphane V. Bottéro in collaboration with Boris Raux, Maud Louise-Marie, George McLaughlin and Prehen Wood, Rachel Duffy and the Playtrail, Roy and Kathryn Nelson at Killymuck, Philip Allen and Ruth McCartney. 

The Wishing Forest is a long-term socio-ecological art project which aims to instigate a collective rethinking of how local institutions can collaborate on life-nurturing commitments that benefit more-than-human communities.

Titled after a poem by Seamus Heaney, The Wishing Forest seeks to repurpose modern institutional tools, such as the tradition of artwork acquisitions by public art collections, in order to restore biodiverse woodlands. In doing so, the project thinks through ways in which forestry can be redefined as an artistic process in its own right.

The Wishing Forest, in its long-term nature, has comprised a period of research with local researchers, ecologists and activists. During this process, we learnt about small woodlands being grown in the north of Ireland, and the multiple ways in which the public are invited into these sites which shelter biodiverse habitats whilst being spaces used for creative, educational and well-being purposes.

This iteration of The Wishing Forest at Void operates as a public launch of the project, acting as a gathering space for actors, a poetic and speculative reflection and a platform for sharing knowledge, process and research, highlighting the many hands involved in this work.

Stéphane’s solo exhibition The Wishing Forest is supported by Fluxus and Arts Council Northern Ireland.