Forest Documents - A Reading Room Immersed Within an Old Growth Forest

Описание: The session presents elements of a new video art installation, forest documents, by artist and professor emerita Leila Sujir in collaboration with the research group and press she leads, Elastic Spaces.
Panelists from Elastic Spaces, including Sujir, will discuss their new publication by Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones entitled Chronicles of the Forest along with a selection of other publications including some produced by the group’s members over the last decade: oral histories, publications on old-growth forests, deforestation, sustainability, and documents coming out of the Fairy Creek protests in BC.

About the speakers:

Leila Sujir is an artist and professor emerita at Concordia University in the Intermedia (Video, Performance, Electronic Arts) area of the Studio Arts Department in the Faculty of Fine Arts, and member of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre. She has just completed, with Technical Director and editor Jorge Zavagno, the video component of a new art installation. forest documents includes a temporary library called The Reading Room (2025) and was developed in collaboration with John Latour. Sujir developed the body of artwork, Forest!, with Technical Director Jorge Zavagno over the last 9 years, in conjunction with research coming out of Elastic Spaces team on the Walbran old-growth forests near Port Renfrew on the west coast of Canada. The other two artworks Sujir made on the Walbran old-growth forest include: Forest Breath (2018) and Aerial (2019).

John Latour is the Teaching & Research Librarian - Fine Arts at Concordia University. He is the editor of Chronicles of the Forest, a collaborator with the Reading Room project, and a practicing visual artist.

Sarah Turner is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment and Co-Director of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre. Her research focuses on the behavioural ecology of nonhuman primates and other animals, and especially on how behaviour is influenced by human-induced environmental change.

Jorge Zavagno has been the Technical Director of Elastic Spaces since 2016. Jorge completed an MA at Concordia in 2023 on ethical dilemmas in documentary film making.

This event is brought to you by the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability, the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, and the Department of Design and Computation Arts in collaboration with 4TH SPACE, with the support of the Office of the Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Impact; the School of Community and Public Affairs and First Peoples Studies; the Science College; and the Departments of Communication Studies; Geography, Planning and Environment; and Political Science at Concordia University.

This event will contribute to the Sustainability in Research section of Concordia's Sustainability Action Plan by increasing the visibility of sustainability research at Concordia.