Located on the border between Poland and Belarus, the Białowieża Forest is one of the last remaining primeval forests in Europe, with large areas where natural processes are allowed to unfold freely.
In October 2026, Eléonore Valère - Lachky was in artistic residency in Białowieża. At the heart of her research lie fundamental questions: What distinguishes a managed forest from a forest left to evolve freely ? What do we gain by allowing a forest to evolve freely ? And what, if anything, do we lose ?
During her residency, she experienced the Forest on foot and by bicycle, encountering its landscapes , meadows, and bisons. She began interviewing biologists, painters, local guides, and other people whose lives and practices are closely connected to the forest, while developing a network of people with diverse perspectives and relationships to this environment.
Continuing her ongoing hybrid artistic practice combining dance and text, Eléonore is developing a new live danced documentary project that seeks to bring the forest back to the center of political attention, contribute to the perpetuation of the myth of Europe’s last primeval forest, and develop a choreographic approach around the notion of the real forest.