A Walk in the Forest:
Transversal Listening to Białowieża (2025)

A Walk in the Forest is a series of audiovisual works and texts exploring the past, present, and future of Białowieża Forest (or Puszcza Białowieska in Polish), Europe’s oldest and last remaining primeval forest. Today located at the border of Poland and Belarus, Białowieża's deep history stretches back to the early Holocene, approximately 12,000 years ago. Despite numerous human interventions, especially during the twentieth century, the area remains significantly biodiverse, with a wide range of tree ages, multiple layers of vegetation, and an abundance of dead wood.

In recent years, however, human interventions have intensified. Białowieża and its soundscapes have become both host and witness to an irreconcilable political standoff between two states—an impasse etched into the forest’s ancient body by the forces of modern history and geopolitics. This conflict is materially expressed through the construction of a physical border: a steel wall equipped with high-tech surveillance systems that cuts through the forest, disrupting existing relationships and generating new environmental, social, and political entanglements.

This project attends to the soundscapes of Białowieża in a transversal way, seeking connections and disconnections between its diverse histories and actors. Through this multiscalar reading, Białowieża—with its unparalleled specificity—emerges as emblematic of our global condition, shaped by intersecting environmental, humanitarian, and existential crises. Through the concept of 'deterrent listening' the work places particular emphasis on how various forms of sonic and listening techniques and technologies are deployed to establish and maintain borders and to deter migrants from crossing them.

The project has been presented as a performative keynote lecture at Beyond Listening symposium of CENSE (Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies) in Budapest in November 2023. It also resulted in two essays. One essay was published in the 4th issue of Testing Ground, a design research journal focused on research, experimentation and design of landscapes, cities and territories. The second essay was published in the 7th issue of ECOES, Sonic Acts' magazine dedicated to the art in the age of pollution.