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
~ Unfortunately, it is not possible to attend the symposium without prior registration, as the number of participants is limited. If you would like to attend, please register by 20 June 2026.
~ ADULT REGISTRATION
~ CHILDREN'S REGISTRATION
Pastures are places where diverse communities of organisms meet — places with some of the highest levels of biodiversity. These communities carry a long history of interactions among grasses, clover, herbs, fungi, so-called non-living entities, ruminants, insects and other invertebrates, amphibians, birds, mammalian predators, so-called wildlife, and people with various interests (pastoralism, agriculture, conservation, hunting). The relationships formed here are even more diverse — ranging from habitat-based, nutritional, interspecies, symbiotic, commensal, parasitic, and predatory to speculative. Through grazing, open landscapes have been maintained on Earth for millions of years — a sufficiently long period to create a rich library of narratives in which the voices of many storytellers intertwine, not only human ones, of course.
In her text Walking on Alpine Grass…, Elisabeth Tauber introduces us to her anthropological research in which grasses do not become objects of observation, but subjects of co-investigation that can “speak” for themselves, just like other interlocutors. Direct experience with them becomes part of the resulting report. Likewise, the symposium will lead us directly onto the pasture, where we will be able to tell stories, listen, and otherwise perceive events and phenomena both near and distant.
Through interdisciplinary and non-disciplinary formats of lectures, storytelling, art, performances, and participatory workshops led by artists, shepherds, scientists, and others, we will draw closer to grasses, soil, herbs, grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles, wagtails, sheep, goats, people, shrubs, trees… One of the events will be the collective investigation “The Case of the Missing Herd”, where we will interrogate most of the socialities that shape or influence the pasture.
The symposium 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, ecology, related scientific disciplines, and storytelling. It supports interdisciplinary artistic research, the activities of community-based initiatives, and the search for both theoretical and practical approaches to environmental protection and sustainable practices of international collaboration in the fields of art and crafts.
This year’s edition focuses on pastoralism as a sustainable agricultural and cultural practice that supports biodiversity, shared cultural heritage, rural cultures, and more-than-human solidarity. The symposium reflects on regenerative relationships between humans and landscape while highlighting the living legacy of transhumance and pastoral cultures as important models of ecological resilience and interspecies collective care.
Children’s Forest Group
Artist and somatic trainer Barbara Gamper has been invited to develop a program with the younger audience in mind. In dialogue with Eva Koťátková and her textile fish, created during her 2025 Pastoral Twilight residency in Italy, Barbara will guide children through Becoming Fish, Becoming Ocean—a series of exercises attuned to the breathing of more-than-human beings. Taking the fish as a point of departure, the program opens a collective exploration of how organs such as the heart and lungs pulse, expand, and contract in their own rhythms. Participants will be invited to inhabit these dynamics through small, shared choreographies. The Children’s Forest Group will conclude the symposium with a parade featuring the textile fish through the forests and meadows of Orlické Mountains.
Forest Kitchen
Forest Kitchen provides full meal service during the symposium. The kitchen is curated and led by the local ecological kitchen Beseda Bio – David Rajchl and Renata Wilkus – in collaboration with the artist and permaculture practitioner mario framis pujol, one of the Pastoral Twilight artists-in-residence at Woods in 2025. Forest Kitchen sources vegetables, fruits, and herbs, some of which are cultivated on the land at Woods, as well as from local organic farms, including Farma Oucmanice and the Protected Workplace Žamberk – Albertinum, which is run by Sdružení Neratov and is known for employing people with intellectual disabilities.
Participants
Merve Bektas (designer and researcher, Wollelab, Italy), Michaela Casková (artist and nomadic gardener and forager, Finland/Czechia), Barbara Gamper (artist and somatic practitioner, Italy/Germany), Lise Hovesen (artist and shepherdess, Denmark), Eva Koťátková (artist, Czechia), Darja Lukjanenko (artist, Czechia/Ukraine), 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), Gediminas Venckus (birdwatcher, Lithuania), Milda Urbšytė (artist and member of Verpėjos member, Lithuania), David Rajchl and Renata Wilkus (ecological kitchen Beseda Bio, Czechia), among others.
*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 Ethnos. Journal of Anthropology in 2024.
Organisational team
Curated by Pastvina group (anto_nie, Edith Jeřábková, Denisa Langrová, Ruta Putramentaite, Alex Sihelsk*, Kateřina Žák Konvalinová) 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 led by local ecological kitchen Beseda Bio – Renata Wilkus and David Rajchl in collaboration with mario framis pujol and Michaela and Petra Wilkus
Production: Tereza Měsícová, Karolína Mikesková, Veronika Šilarová
Technical Production: Jan Hradil
Graphic design: Róbert Púček, Ľubica Segečová
Simultaneous translation: Jiřina Holkupová, Ina Maertens
Vegetables and herbs from local sources: Protected Workplace Žamberk – Albertinum, Farma Oucmanice
Photography: Markéta Choma
Video: Dominika Goralska, Jan Hradil
Cooperation and special thanks: Nadia Dimitrova, Václav Girsa, Štěpánka Havlová, Anna Mašková, Julie Pechová, Jana Šoltová, Mirek Verbík, Pavlína Verbíková, Monika Jirasová Weberová, Bára Zapletalová, Hero Clan, The Emblem Prague Hotel, Hands on Press
The Pastoral Twilight project is co-funded by the European Union, under the Creative Europe programme. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
The project is also supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Pardubice Region.
