Association for International Forest Art eV

The St. Corona am Wechsel Forest Park is a partner project of the Association for International Forest Art.

So we are not an individual project, but part of a forest art path structure that has existed for 20 years with 200 artists from 39 countries and over 300 works of art. The forest art park should radiate into the region. It is intended to enrich the entire region, because new creative paths are being taken here to combine art and nature in rural areas and make them accessible to people again.

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How it all started

In the beginning there was the idea of bringing art and people together where everything is created, in nature.

She is beauty and inspiration. This inspiration is evident in the art that the Verein für Internationale Waldkunst offers its visitors.

Since 2002, the International Forest Art Path Biennale has been taking place over a distance of 2.6 km in the forest district of Darmstadt. It is accessible free of charge. In 2022 the association will be 20 years old. Waldkunst creates sustainable works of art in the great outdoors with site-specific, process-oriented and interactive installations and performances.

The association operates the International Forest Art Center (IWZ) with a gallery, art garden, artist residency and forest art education. So far, 14 forest art trails and 8 conferences have taken place in Darmstadt, Wisconsin (USA), Lushan and Chengdu (China) and Abidjan Green Art (CI).

200 international artists from 39 countries created 307 works of art. The forest art trail in St. Corona am Wechsel (A) will take place for the first time in 2022. There are 35 works of art on the forest art path in Darmstadt and 30 in the IWZ.

Forest art directly engages visitors of all ages. You can observe the working processes of the artists and get in touch with them during the 3-week symposium. An extensive program with guided tours, performances, theatre, music and a children´s program brings interested parties and artists into contact all year round. In addition to the forest art trail, the association runs the children´s construction trailer in the forest with free Sunday workshops.

The association works with different formats, the Global Nomadic Art Project has been running at the Biennale since 2017 and carries out nature art projects with international artists in the region of the UNESCO Global Geopark Bergstraße-Odenwald. In addition, 18 BankART projects have been created since 2008, and since 2002 the association has been cooperating with the Center for Art and Nature eV at the performative art meeting point.

From the beginning, the association has developed its own forest art pedagogy especially for the forest art trail. In 2011/2012, together with the Fraport Environmental Foundation, the "Intercultural Forest Art Education" was carried out as a sustainable and participatory project for school classes with a high migration background. The first children´s forest art trail was created, which has been renewed again and again since then. In 2022 the "Young Forest Art Path" will be created in cooperation with the Lichtenber School andartistic, the Kulturfonds Frankfurt Rhein Main.

We regularly draw up a children´s location map, conduct children´s camps, support the KinderKunstGalerie in the forest art center together with the Lichtenbergschule and have been offering workshops on the children´s construction trailer every Sunday from May to September since 2019. We have been involved in the Darmstadt Environmental Diploma since the beginning and have also been involved in the "Junior Route" (Route for Industrial Culture) for four years. We feel committed to ESD.

Sustainable art is a keyword for our work on the forest art trail. The natural cycles, climate change, changes in the forest and especially the local forest dieback play a role in the selection of our topics for the forest art trails and conferences.

We are always in contact with our cooperation partners Hessen Forst Darmstadt and the UNESCO Global Geopark Bergstraße-Odenwald.

Other partners are the Schader Foundation, the Messel Pit UNESCO World Heritage Site, the International Music Institute Darmstadt (IMD), the Mathildenhöhe and international partners such as the University of Madison, Wisconsin or Yatoo Nature Art in Korea and the Vienna University of Technology.