Grass Socialities
The 6th annual interdisciplinary forest symposium
As part of the project Pastoral Twilight: Initiatives for rural cultures
Meadow and forest land in the Orlické Mountains, Czech Republic
17–19 July 2026
*The symposium programme will be announced soon.
The symposium is an intersectional outdoor cultural event bringing together interdisciplinary lectures, storytelling, art, performances, and participatory workshops led by artists, pastoralists, and other experts in meadows and forests. It also includes the Forest Children Group and the sustainable Forest Kitchen.
The event concludes the two-year international project Pastoral Twilight: Initiatives for Rural Cultures, a collaboration between the art organizations ARE: Woods (Czechia), BAU (Italy), and Verpėjos (Lithuania). Pastoral Twilight operates at the intersection of contemporary art, agriculture, and ecology. It supports interdisciplinary artistic explorations and bottom-up (community-based) initiatives in search of theoretical and practical findings that contribute to environmental protection, sustainable practices, and transnational art and craft co-creation addressing the human relationship with the natural environment.
This year’s edition explores pastoralism as a sustainable agricultural and cultural practice that supports biodiversity, shared heritage, and more-than-human solidarity. The symposium reflects on regenerative relationships with the land and highlights the living legacy of transhumance and pastoral cultures as important models for ecological resilience and collective care.
Participants
Merve Bektas (designer and researcher, Feral Wool project, Italy), Barbara Gamper (artist and somatic practitioner, Italy/Germany), Lise Hovesen (artist and shepherdess, Denmark), Eva Koťátková (artist, Czechia), Pastvina group (anto_nie, Edith Jeřábková, Denisa Langrová, Ruta Putramentaite, Alex Sihelsk*, Kateřina Žák Konvalinová, Czechia), mario framis pujol (artist and permacultural gardener, Spain), Elisabeth Tauber (professor and sociocultural anthropologist, Italy), Ugnė Venckė (artist and member of Verpėjos member, Lithuania), David Rajchl and Renata Wilkus (ecological kitchen Beseda Bio, Czechia), Ivan Yatsko (shepherd, Synevyr community, Ukraine), among others.
The symposium is curated by Pastvina group and Tereza Porybná (ARE: Woods), Lisa Mazza and Simone Mair (BAU) and Laura Garbštienė (Verpėjos)
Children’s Forest Group is curated by Barbara Gamper and Eva Koťátková
Forest Kitchen is curated by mario framis pujol in collaboration with local ecological central kitchen Beseda Bio.
**The symposium’s title, Grass Socialities, is borrowed from Elisabeth Tauber’s article Walking on Alpine Grass: Grass Socialities and Their Global Connections. Perspectives from the Alpine Anthropocene, published in the journal Ethnos in 2024.
