The Tree as Diagram: Reflections on Representation and the Impossibility of Being Forest

Abstract

The following text aims to reflect on the role of representation in understanding and perceiving
nature. Drawing from the artistic practice of Agencia de Borde art collective, it seeks to inquire into the problematic categorisation of life and how the categories of the nature/culture binary are represented and experienced through the figurations established by the tree as an image
and cultural subject. By examining the collective's practice and reflective processes related to the "Forests of Fire" project, as well as analysing two works —The collection "Postcards," from the National Library of Chile's photographic archive, and "Contact Diagram," inspired by the situated experience in the conservation park named Bosque Pehuen in southern Chile— we delve into the possibilities of reflecting on the representation of interspecies relationships among trees, the forest, and its inhabitants. To achieve this, the notions of sentipensar, extra visual, and intra-action will be explored, establishing a theoretical framework that allows us to reflect on how the different figurations of the forest are appropriated, transitioning from a representational image to a relational one. In doing so, we propose another possibility for understanding how we inhabit in, with and from the territories.