Transformative Territories:
Inter-Species Refuge.
The Project.
Based on transformative artistic practices explored in the Transformative Territories project, we are collaboratively creating a space for inter-species refuge, regenerative and alternative agricultural practices, exploration of queer ecology and regenerative pastoralism to benefit local fauna, flora and community, and a safe space to promote holistic health and care for human and non-human species. This Living Lab will see the intersection of science, art and social practice, for research and adaptation to local climate change impacts.
Partners.
Parti Poetique - Zone Sensible (France)
Tavros (Greece)
Inland Campo Adentro (Spain)
Instituto Terra e Memória (Portugal)
COAL (France)
Centre des Politiques de la Terre (France)
Artists & Collaborators.
Yeva Kupchenko (Ukraine)
Lwrds Duniam (Perú)
Jakub Tulinger (Czech Republic)
Gilles Yann (Czech Republic/Switzerland)
Fuad Alymani (Palestine)
Františka Tulingerová (Czech Republic)
Natália Kalná (Czech Republic/USA)
Project design.
Gabriela Benish-Kalná (Czech Republic/USA)
Partnerships.
The first stage of Inter-Species Refuge is part of the Creative Europe project, collaborating with leading European players in the field of art, ecology and territories: Parti Poetique (France), Locus Athens (Greece), Campo Adentro (ESP), ITM (Portugal), under COAL (France) and in conjunction with institutional partners and associated scientists including the French laboratory LADYSS-CNRS.
Publications.
Database of local and migrating edible species and medicinal plants.
Barbara Benish, ArtMill: A Story of Sustainable Creativity, New Village Press, 2025
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Events and Dates.
January 2024:
Beginning of program
July 27th, 2024:
Open Studios, Presentation of Inter-Species Refuge Project, Lectures
Summer 2025:
OUT:HERE - Queer Šumava workshop, exploring inter-species relationality and possibilities of healing and coexistence.
8. - 10.11. 2025:
Final Transformative Territories event, Tree planting on the Inter-Species Refuge site
Creative Assembly, 2025.
Participants.
lwrds duniam
Natália Kalná
Jan Fabián
Patrick Degeorges
Gabriela Benish-Kalná
Václav Mach
Anjan Salzer
Dario Callerame
Al Godwin
Kaitlyn Wallace
Gilles Yann
15. – 16. 8. 2025, ArtMill Center for Regenerative Arts, Miřenice, Czech Republic
ArtDialog’s Creative Assembly at ArtMill Center for Regenerative Arts was divided into two parts. On August 15th we gathered with participants of the Inter-Species Refuge project to spend two days on-site exploring transformative artistic practices and research questions of the larger Transformative Territories program.
Our director Gabriela Benish-Kalná introduced progress of the 2-year project, presented the larger site analysis, agroforestry study, site design and newly planted food forest and discussed methodologies ArtDialog utilizes in this program as well as their larger mission and vision, such as Holding Space, Ethical Relationality, or community organizing in artistic practices.
We were joined by Patrick Degeorges, a member of the Scientific Committee of the Transformative Territories program, who led participants through a Constellation practice. On the site of the Inter-Species Refuge, we gathered to explore one of ArtDialog’s research questions “How can we support the Birch trees in their transition through climate change?” We proposed creating more motion on the site of the project, in line with the tree planting events to be held this Fall, and the new addition of beehives in the Spring.
Our Artist-in-Residence lwrds duniam presented their artistic practice of Ancestral Weaving and the work they had made for the project during their month-long residency at ArtMill. Their project Khipucamayoc: weaver of arboreal entanglements brought together traditional Andean practices into conversation with forest ecosystems, creating large-scale, site-specific Khipu installations woven directly into trees, branches, and the landscape. Participants were invited to join this practice, learning about indigenous histories and their connection to the Inter-Species Refuge site.
On the 16th of August participants were asked to immerse themselves in the interactive piece created by Gilles Yann and Anjan Salzer for the opening of the Transformative Territories project in 2024. The ISR SF work is an entanglement of questions, which have been woven together with answers, drawings, writings and further questions by over a hundred visitors at ArtMill over the past year. As part of the Creative Assembly we spent an hour with this piece, reading past notes and spending time with ArtMill’s research question, explored over the 2-year program.
During the Transdisciplinary Roundtable participants discussed the process and emerging answers to the research question:
“How can transformative artistic practice act as a bridge between the ecological and social to impact cultural understanding of interspecies cohabitation?”
“...with joy. Hope-based communication must be practiced over apocalyptic doomsday scenarios to show what is to thrive.” (Natália Benish-Kalná)
“Art can capture the immediate moment of this long ecological transformation.”
“An artist can be a mediator of territory.” (Jan Fabián)
“The capacity of the artist is to work across disciplines to foster resilience/robustness, hold space and amplify the needs of the environment, human and more-than-human. The practitioner is a wearer of many hats, a weaver of worldviews and solutions.” (Gabriela Benish-Kalná)
“Art is showing rather than speaking, it is an embodied experience that transcends languages and can bypass the brain.” (Al Godwin)
“We create an artistic experience of relatability, a point of reference, a starting point for communicating.” (Kaitlin Wallace)
“Our work is to remind people that nature has never been a separate thing, to shift the perspective that we, humans, are in the home of more-than-human inhabitants.” (lwrds duniam)
Opening Exhibition, 2024.
July 27th, 2024.
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Opening and introduction of Inter-Species Refuge Project as part of the annual Open Mill Day
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Presentation of artworks by Creative Assembly participants
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Open Studios and tours of the historic Red Mill
Artists.
Fuad Alymani
Natália Kalná
Kateryna Khramtsova
Václav Mach
Sean Roy Parker
Anjan Salzer
Adam Sochorec
Gilles Yann
Curator.
Gabriela Benish-Kalná
Botanical Research Team.
Inter-Species Refuge project begins with the planting of a food forest, located on the edge of one of the largest monocropping fields in the area, highlighting the necessity for species to find refuge on their journey across the depleted agricultural desert. The hill and its meadows will become a space to explore regenerative pastorialism and agroforestry practices, while new hedgerows will be brought back into the land to support biodiversity. Relearning ancient practices of land stewardship and water sequestration will form the center of ArtMill’s educational Site 1, open to the public and connected to our 'Houseboat' artist residency space, where different artistic projects will take place.
Headed by Natália Kalná, the Botanical Research Team is creating of a database of current local edible species and medicinal plants used traditionally in this region. In collaboration with scientists, a study of their adaptation patterns will be published on a publicly accessible online platform and in book form. An agroforestry study, design of the site, created with Františka Tullingerová, with drone mapping of plant health and topography, provided by Adam Sochorec of Slavic Media, will aid in the transformation of the Inter-Species Refuge, alongside exploration and research of agroecology, regenerative pastorialism, food forests, and regenerative projects to implement predictions of species climate adaptation and human need for refuge - creating a blueprint for land adaptation and transformative artistic practices.
