“Forest Worlds” at the Gasometer Oberhausen

(eap) Currently on display until 30 December, the “Forest Worlds” exhibition at Germany’s Gasometer Oberhausen is taking visitors into the beauty and complexity of forests. In various chapters, the exhibition highlights the diversity of forest areas, whose ecosystems are as different as the climate zones in which they are found. In addition to exhibits – including items from Museum Koenig in Bonn, the LWL Museum of Natural History in Münster and the Ruhr Museum in Essen – the exhibition is supported by impressive audiovisual and interactive installations, including what the Gasometer describes as the world’s largest indoor light sculpture.

© Photo: Thomas Wolf, Gasometer Oberhausen GmbH

“Our new exhibition ‘Forest Worlds’ is the third part of a trilogy that began with ‘The Fragile Paradise’ in 2021, followed by ‘Planet Ocean’ in 2024,” explains Jeanette Schmitz, curator and Managing Director of Gasometer Oberhausen. “What all three exhibitions have in common is the unusual combination of scientific facts and artistic realization. In this way, Forest Worlds not only documents the consequences of climate change, but also once again presents sustainable solutions and raises awareness of our planet as an ecosystem worthy of protection.”

The audiovisual installation “Global Sunrise” lets visitors experience daybreak in forests on five different continents. The sounds of nature were captured by Chris Watson, a specialist in nature sound recordings, and staged as an immersive experience by sound artist Tony Myatt. Theresa Baumgartner, Verena Bachl and Karsten Schuhl translated the morning soundscapes into a poetic illumination. Tree-like light objects form the edge of a forest, through which the first rays of sunlight gently wander. The overall work was developed by the Berlin-based studio OCEANS21.

© Photo: Thomas Wolf, Gasometer Oberhausen GmbH

Another station is the interactive exhibit “The Living Forest”, with which the Environmental Systems Research Institute shows how Earth observation and artificial intelligence can make changes in forests visible – from large-scale deforestation to stress signals at leaf level. Further insights into the Amazon Basin are offered by photographs by renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado (†), who used his camera to capture not only the rainforest, but also the indigenous societies that shape and preserve it. In the industrial atmosphere of the Gasometer, Salgado’s black-and-white images, presented as a slideshow, make the diversity as well as the vulnerability of the Amazon visible.

The dramaturgical highlight is a previously unrealized art sculpture: “The Tree” offers a special view from the visually designed root system into the treetop rising 35 metres high into the Gasometer. The installation was created by the Austrian company Ars Electronica Solutions. The rope structure, across which a total of 2.8 kilometres of LED strands extend to represent the tree’s roots, was supplied by Berliner Seilfabrik, the Berlin-based company focusing on rope play equipment. “The Tree” is musically accompanied by a composition by Rupert Huber.

Forest Worlds was curated under the direction of Jeanette Schmitz together with Thomas Wolf and Nils Sparwasser. ■