The Forest Experience was a two-year art project that received funding from the Central Ostrobothnia Cultural Foundation in 2021. The project focused on creating community-based art walks in Europe’s burned forests: spaces marked by loss, renewal, and the quiet resilience of nature. Through these immersive journeys, participants were invited to reflect on the relationship between humans and damaged landscapes, and on how walking itself can become a form of artistic expression.

Alongside dozens of workshops exploring the aesthetics of walking, the project resulted in four exhibitions held in Kalajoki, Teijo, Oulu, and Kuopio. These exhibitions shared the sensory, poetic, and documentary traces gathered in the charred forests, offering viewers a contemplative encounter with both destruction and rebirth.

During the project, meaningful collaborations emerged with visual and video artist Marja Haapakangas and wisdom researcher Jenni Spännäri, each bringing their own unique perspectives to the artistic and philosophical dimensions of the work.

The project also opened new technical pathways for Sanna-Mari: painting with fire, natural charcoal and wood carving became important methods, ways of working that echoed the materials, stories, and transformations witnessed in the field.

The Forest Experience stands as a testament to art’s ability to walk with the world’s wounds and invite others to walk alongside.