The EDEN Project

Credits: EDEN Project (2023) research residency was a collaboration between FORM Dance Projects, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, and MARCS Institute for Brain Behaviour and Development.

The EDEN-Parramatta artist-in-residence program was a collaboration between FORM Dance Projects, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, and MARCS.

The acronym, EDEN stands for Ethical Durable Ecology Nature. This residency was facilitated by Dr Julie-Anne Long, in collaboration with Eora-based choreographers Vicki Van Hout, Raghav Handa, Ryuichi Fujimura, Rhiannon Newton, and Cloé Fournier. Documentation was by videographer Sam James, and Darug Custodian Chris Tobin was the cultural advisor.

During this residency, choreographers explored and developed work inspired by Manuel Esperon’s research on time, morphology, memory, and resilience in trees and forests. Van Hout explains that this creative initiative was “seeded by visual artist and mathematician, Olga Kisseleva, at the Sorbonne University in Paris, the EDEN research project involves the mapping of data related to selected trees from around the world, including the Australian Wollemi pine.” Please read Vicki Van Hout’s blog for more on her reflection on the residency.