The Lack of Forest in the Garden
To close the second day of the Nobody Reads This: Art Book Fair, on Saturday 23 May 2026 at 7:00 pm, we invite everyone to a musical performative reading in the park in front of Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. The event accompanies the Warsaw premiere of The Lack of the Forest by Martyna Miller.
Published by Pamoja Press, the book is a report from the artist’s recent years living in a region affected by the devastating storm that destroyed forests in 2017 and radically transformed the landscape.
Structured for voices, wind, singing, electronics, electric guitar, and a battered saxophone, the event unfolds as a score affirming life amidst global ruins. Four performers — including the author and the translator — position themselves beside a glacial erratic, a stone carried by the ice sheet that has endured into the era of the climate crisis. Read excerpts from the book, sound, and the park setting evoke the post-hurricane landscapes of The Lack of Forest. In seeking to approach the experience of losing a landscape, the performers continue to find within that loss the possibility of relational warmth and rootedness.
- Performers:
- Martyna Miller
- voice, singing, saxophone
- Magdalena Siemieniako
- electric guitar
- Izabela Smelczyńska
- electronics, ambient sound
- Weronika Zalewska
- reading, voice
- Martyna Miller
