THE DARK FOREST
essayistic-video-performance
Aljaž Škrlep
»They’re wild and impenetrable, they’re black and rust-red, debauched, worldly, teeming with life, diametrical, dissipated, cruel, passionate and lovable, without yesterday or tomorrow. […] The forests gobble up the horizon.«
- Max Ernst, What is A Forest?
Aljaž Škrlep is a philosopher and a member of Robida Collective. He is engaged in connectiong philosophy and literature and lately he has been interested in phenomena of more extreme aspects of art. He is inspired by obscure and commercial horror films, neglected philosophers and more or less dogmatic philosophy.
As part of First Crossings, he will present his research The Dark Forest, in which he connects the forest, philosophy and ghastly art, equipped with a montage of forest excerpts from various horror movies and some other films. By intertwining the two media, he will try to explore and question the important role that the forest plays in this neglected film genre, while placing himself in broader plant-studies that study plant-related issues and try to offer an answer to that one, the most key question: What can human beings learn from plants?
