Chloe Dewe Mathews

PLANTATION

Set in the Landes de Gascogne - the largest man-made production forest in Western Europe - Plantation uses photography, found objects, video and archive imagery to reflect on both the history and future of the constructed landscapes we inhabit.

The Landes Forest covers around 900,000 hectares, bordering the coast in South West France. Ninety percent of its trees are maritime pine, the species the best suited to the poor soils of the region. However, it has not always been covered by trees; originally common land, for hundreds of years the territory was used by local shepherds to graze their flocks which, in turn, fertilized the land for small scale subsistence agriculture. Then, in the mid 19th Century pine plantations were established, ending free movement of livestock. Within half a century, the area was transformed into a booming timber production, of which today 95% is still privately owned.

However, despite its apparent physical homogeneity, when Chloe Dewe Mathews was researching in the region, she heard about a small piece of ‘old forest’, an un-touched deciduous woodland at the heart of the Landes de Gascogne. Hard to locate and disputed for its authenticity, the ‘old forest’ became a kind of mythological place for her, like ‘the zone’ in Tarkovsky’s Stalker or Brian Catling’s “Vorrh”, and so began a quest to find it.

Felix Arnaudin famously documented the region in the 1850s, before it was turned into pine plantation. In his photographs, the distinctive image of stilt-walking shepherds appears as an emblem of the former, pastoral life of the Landes de Gascogne. Stilts enabled shepherds to travel long distances on unstable ground, and were an early means of surveillance. The form of two stilts and a steadying stick is reminiscent of the photographers’ tripod: a simple piece of technology that people have used for generations, standing motionless in the landscape recording their environment.

In her five-screen video piece, Chloe Dewe Mathews creates a kind of animated tableau, splicing images from Arnaudin’s archive into footage she made in collaboration with local folkloric groups from the Landes. These groups practice stilt walking and dancing as a way to enjoy and preserve the traditions of the region. In the video work, they take on the role of silent witnesses in the rapidly changing landscape around them. From expanses of pine plantations in regimented lines to solar farms that host grazing sheep, these stilt walking characters traverse and survey these man made spaces. The final frame rests on the ancient forest; that small patch of biodiverse woodland amid the expansive monoculture: a fetishised piece of ‘pure’ nature.

When Dewe Mathews arrived to photograph the Landes in June 2022, the region was engulfed by wildfire that consumed thirty square miles, both of man-made production forest and also the bio-diverse 'old forest'. In the gallery, objects she collected from the charred forest are displayed like relics, alongside photographic prints, themselves mounted on discarded pallets made with timber grown in the forest. These sculptural works, made in the aftermath of the fire, became a kind of memorial to the lost forest, as well as a document of events that became quickly woven into the fabric of local history.



"Plantation" was commissioned by Frac MÉCA Nouvelle Aquitaine and Fluxus Art Projects. The exhibition opened in Bordeaux 2024 and selected works then toured to venues in France during 2025.