Experience the Forest of Sources – Stories of Forests

From 1 April 2018, visitors to the Ohrada hunting lodge will once again be able to visit an exhibition presenting a forest and forestry in an untraditional and very attractive form. It is being prepared by the Forests of the Czech Republic organisation on the South-Bohemian premises of the National Museum of Agriculture.

Let us tell you a story...

The adventure forestry exhibition at Ohrada tells a story of forestry through guides, exhibits and artistic installations. It takes us back to the past but, at the same time, captures the current landscape and the essential phenomenon of water for foresters and forests. Through the exhibition, visitors can also take a look into two significant South-Bohemian preserves – Poněšice and Stará obora. 

From Stories of Trees and People to Stories of Forests

The Forest of Sources – Stories of Forests exhibition is the latest of a range of adventure and educational exhibitions prepared by the educational and artistic association “MamaPapa”. Following the successful exhibition “The Forest – Stories of Trees and People” and its loose continuation “Recykles” (Recycling the Forest) in the museum’s main building in Prague, the installation is again being transferred to South Bohemia, the region of forests, meadows, rivers and ponds, and has been tailored for the location. In an adventurous and, at the same time, educational way, it accompanies visitors through the branch of forestry in a place where the gamekeeper was once also the museum curator. Visitors will not only note forests, but also water whose path within and outside of the forest is mapped, and with the use of items from the museum’s collections, it also reminds visitors of the lost phenomenon of rafting.

Become a Part of the Story

The exhibition tells stories of forests in a traditional form together with virtual effects, exhibits and interactive projections, and mechanical devices which allow a person to take control. Visitors can choose their path through the exhibition: past or present. The installations of the MamaPapa association are unique, primarily because they are inseparably linked with the character of the narrator, who devotes himself to people for the length of their stay, guides them, involves them in the plot, and gradually reveals more and more recesses of intricate human stories and laws of nature. 

Creators

This adventure and educational exhibition was created by a team of artists, who have joined forces to celebrate forestry and specific places within the forests around Hluboká nad Vltavou. As well as scenographer Tomáš Žižka, musician Vladimír Václavek, artists Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen from New York, the creators also invited artist Jakub Nepraš and creator of microverses Ivan Peri to collaborate. A further team member, forester Václav Kinský reveals the circumstances under which this interesting exhibition came into being. “As well as our own creative team, we also approached geologist and writer Václav Cílek, who we consult about our activities. In this case, we discovered a specific landscape around Hluboká nad Vltavou, a world of nature preserves, which is administered by Forests of the Czech Republic, and the river Vltava under varying perspectives on forestry collectively. And then the figure of Václav Špatný – gamekeeper and first curator of the local museum is at present complemented by Václav Cílek himself. Visitors can meet both of them in a minute-long puppet show, which we are preparing together with director Radek Beran, creator of the film “Malý pán” (The Little Man).

The exhibition at the Ohrada hunting lodge is only available during the season accompanied by a narrator – guide.