Interspecies Community. Neighbourhood of Nature in Białystok – a walk with Kasper Jakubowski

As part of the project “Interspecies Community. Neighbourhood of Nature in Białystok”, everyone is cordially invited by the “Arsenal” Gallery in Białystok to join a walk with Kasper Jakubowski.

When: November 25^th 2023 (Saturday), 11:00 a.m. – 01:30 p.m.

Where: the meeting will begin in front of the main gate of the FASTY Factory, Przędzalniana No. 8, Białystok

Admission to the event is free.

Thickets rule? The Fourth Nature at Białystok’s village of Fasty

Our walk/micro-expedition will take us to Białystok’s village of Fasty with doctor Kasper Jakubowski. Participants will be offered an opportunity to take a look at how nature takes over and colonises abandoned, depleted post-industrial areas. In time, they become a location of observation and research of emerging species, and of the entire process of land reclamation by nature.

The walk will thus be themed around nature succession in urban areas, with a sideline attempt to answer the question whether we have a fighting chance of salvaging nature wherever man has withdrawn. Somewhat disquieting, such abandoned spaces are attractive in their otherness, rampant vegetation and wildlife showcasing the force of nature capable of rebirth under least favourable conditions. Such forms of nature are unquestionably worth protecting. A solid redesign is all that is required: novel ecosystems certainly deserve our attention.

Kasper Jakubowski, D. Eng.

Landscape architect and educator. Content director and co-founder of Forest Maker. Chairman of the Dzieci w Naturę (Children into Nature) Foundation. Author of artistic plant installations for exhibitions, and garden and art  festivals. Autor of the book Czwarta przyroda: sukcesja przyrody i funkcji nieużytków miejskich (The Fourth Nature: Succession of Nature and Urban Wasteland Functions, 2020), and walking guides to the untamed nature of Cracow and Warsaw. Author of the script and illustrations for the Fourth Nature Educational Path at the Mound of the Warsaw Rising. Animator of pro-nature campaigns in collaboration with local communities.