First, the Forests

First, the Forests explores forestry and its uncharted relationships with planning and design. The exhibition reframes forestry as an activity that creates highly designed environments and examines the connections between natural resources, production processes and designed form. The exhibition highlights four modes of managing forests, each corresponding to specific geographies and phases in the evolution of modern forestry, from the production of tree inventories in 16th century Venice to advanced architectural experiments in 1960s America.

(1) Giant Fir Log, Washington, USA. From the Gilles Gagnon postcard collection, CCA, Montréal. Gift of Gilles Gagnon (2) Plum Creek grounds, production facility of America's largest forest products company, Montana, 2010 (3) Satellite image of the checkerboard forests in Montana, 2008 ©Terraserver

The exhibition, which will open in Oct. 4th, is curated by Dan Handel, architect and PhD candidate at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and recipient of the CCA’s 2011 Curatorial Opportunities Program. Handel is also the curator of Aircraft Carrier, the Israeli pavilion at the Venice Biennale, 2012.

First, the Forests runs 4 October, 2012 – 6 January, 2013
Octagonal Gallery, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal