Karolina Grzywnowicz

Białowieża Forest is the last remaining primeval forest in mainland Europe. The majority of it is a natural forest, having developed without human interference. It is also the only natural site in Poland designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Formally, one sixth of the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest is designated as a national park. The remainder is subject to forest management practices. The forest has become a site of conflict between two opposing worldviews—one striving to preserve the forest for its ecological and biological value, and the other viewing it as a resource to be commercially exploited. In a global context, this dispute is part of a broader conversation about the future of our planet, one marked by dwindling natural resources.

Karolina Grzywnowicz’s work bridges these divergent perspectives, examining the value of Białowieża Forest from both local and global viewpoints. Still Life combines data from auctions hosted by the National Forest Authority—detailing the prices of the forest’s wood—with data documenting the scale of logging in the area. The contrast between the market value of the forest’s raw material and its intrinsic value as a natural heritage site is represented by a pallet made from black oak. Often referred to as Polish ebony, black oak derives its dark hue from centuries of submersion in water. Still Life uses certified wood from an oak tree that grew between 560 and 650 AD. After being felled, the wood lay submerged in water for over 1,350 years. This rare and luxurious material has been transformed into an everyday object of low value, commenting on the way the wood of Białowieża Forest is commodified.

In a broader context, Still Life is a statement about the power and ways it constructs heritage – both cultural and natural – as well as ways of managing it, the result of current demands and networks of relations and influences. It is also an attempt to draw attention to colliding discourses about relations between humans, culture, nature and technology.