Meeting in the Forest is an online exhibition created by Jennifer İpekel, Merve İşeri, Goia Mujalli, Katy Pinke, Eda Şarman. The exhibition was intended to be held at Pablo’s Birthday Gallery in New York throughout the summer of 2020. Given the circumstances surrounding Covid-19, we decided to host the gathering via an online space as an extension of Pablo’s Birthday—until we are able to be together again. As a group we gather around themes of interconnectedness and interdependency. Our first collaboration was a celebration of rivers—a performance piece called Tide Between Us.

With Meeting in the Forest, we bring our individual works together in a collaboratively built online space. Responding to concerns that have arisen out of the Covid-19 outbreak, we hope to revive feelings of unity and solidarity—with an invitation to meet in the forest, as a literal and metaphorical place. Jung’s “forest” represents a collective unconscious. Beneath the surface of reality, he writes, there is a shared forest: “A million separate paths lead into one terrain. Instead of dreaming our private dreams, we are tapping into an elemental experience. This verges on mysticism and magic.”

Meeting in the Forest dives beneath the waves, looking for our shared depths. How can our union wake us up in this living dream, helping us to see more lucidly?