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Lament explores post-wildfire ecology in soil, offering a space where ecological and more-than-human death and grief are dignified and where fires are treated as a phenomenon that belongs to the co-evolution of ecosystems and humans. At the same time, the work engages with current ecological shifts and fractures, encompassing changing fire regimes, vulnerable ecosystems, and their less perceivable but highly relevant interplay with soil.
Developed over eighteen months of research, the work combines ecological observation, bioart, sculpture, exchange with scientists and independent experts, musical composition, philosophical inquiry and encounters with communities who experienced devastating wildfires. The latter resulting in an emotional fire-scar map.
Lament features a performance with sounds of cello and burned wood. Onstage are organic elements from a wildfire site and sculptural pieces: hanging glass sculptures containing soil, soil on the floor and a costume made of tree barks. After the performance, these remain as a more-than-human deathbed installation for the exhibition. The audience is invited to notice the tiny changes inside the glass sculptures, which evoke untold stories of soil ecology.
Lament performance by Margherita Pevere; Photography by Romane Iskaria
Performance: 40 mins performance for solo performer, cello and live electronics
Installation: 4×7 m, glassware, rope, soil from burnt woods, paper. Community engagement program based on sensory mapping.
Credits: Margherita Pevere with Ivan Penov | Céline Charvériat, Lucía Iglesias Blanco & Diana Vieira. Community engagement program in Santa Comba Dão (PT) with the support by ForestWISE and FIRE RES
Related links:
Margherita Pevere: concept, performance, installation, bio-protocols, costume and glassware design
Ivan Penov: music (composed and performed by)
Diana Viera / JRC: scientific advisor
Céline Charveriat / Pro(to)topia Consulting: research advisor
Lucía Iglesias Blanco / Nature Conservation Unit (DG for Environment, European Commission): conservation advisor
Jurica Mlinarec: project management
Lena Böckann: costume maker
Jason Hitchcock / Berlin Flameworking Studio, Berlin Glass: glassblowing
Caterina De Donato: studio assistant
Romane Iskaria: photography
Daniele Lucchini: video
Realised with the support of NaturArchy – Resonances Project at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
Special thanks to: Alfredo Branco, Daniele De Rigo, Margherita di Leo, Duarte Oom, Jesus San Miguel
Mattia Bianco, Marco Donnarumma, Mira Fabjan, Alessandro Ruggero, Gianmarco Lupi, Marco Revelant.
Céline Charveriat: concept and direction
Margherita Pevere: concept and artistic direction
Conceição Colaço / CEABN InBIO, School of Agriculture (ISA), University of Lisbon (UL): scientific advisor and project overview, partnership coordination
Brigite Botequim / CoLAB ForestWISE: Partnership coordination and resource supporter
André Mota / Santa Comba Dão Fire fighters: on-site support
Madalena Ferreira / CoLAB ForestWISE: on-site mediation
Letícia Oliviera / CEABN InBIO, ISA-UL: documentation
Tania Ricardo / Municipality of Santa Comba Dão: psychological support
With the hospitality of the municipality and the voluntary firefighters of Santa Comba Dão (PT), and the kind participation of its citizens.
Realised with the support of NaturArchy – Resonances Project at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, School of Agriculture (ISA) – University of Lisbon, CoLAB ForestWISE and FIRE RES – Innovative Technologies & socio-ecological-economic solutions for fire resilient territories in Europe.
Lament (2022 – 2024) is a new performance and installation belonging to my long-term project untaming death, which explores death from a more-than-human perspective in times of environmental disruption. In this context Lament focuses on the aftermath of wildfires, occurrences with complex ecological roles and with noxious effects on unbalanced ecologies. Stepping back from data-driven responses related to restoration and monitoring Lament embraces overlooked stories of transformations in post-wildfire environments along two trajectories: with a focus on soil and through community engagement.
Beyond the spectacular force of wildfires, Lament reflects on wildfires and the anthropogenic shifts in fire regimes by inquiring into more-than-human becoming in soil. These changes are unperceivable to humans, but possess far-reaching effects, capable of revealing regeneration and erosion. Extending the project to vulnerable communities, Lament offers engagement with those affected by wildfires to offer an entry to dealing with environmental tragedies and resilience. Equipped by the collaboration with leading environmentalists, conservationists and researchers, Lament makes space for the contemplation of ecologies of death and harnessing solastalgia and ecological grief as artistic and epistemological tools for the times to come.
Lament website & performance trailer.
Margherita Pevere is an artist and researcher whose inquiry hybridizes bio-technology, ecology, environmental politics, gender and death studies to create arresting installations and performances that trail today's ecological complexity. Lucía Iglesias Blanco is a forestry engineer and a nature protection expert, at DG ENV. Former IEEP Director (Institute for European Environmental Policy), Céline Charveriat is a renowned research activist and experienced civil society leader. The three of them met at the SciArt Summer School on NaturArchy which took place in June 2022 at the JRC in Ispra. Margherita also involved artist and musician Ivan Penov in the project, who will contribute with sound recordings of burnt wood. They are also actively looking to work with experts from the JRC on wildfires. Since the residency periods at JRC, Margherita has also been working with Diana Vieira - an Environmental Engineer with a special focus on soil erosion risk, who has worked on burned areas and the underlying key-processes in fire-affected soils and landscapes to better adapt models to burned conditions.
Lament looks at death ecologies after wildfires. Wildfires as one of the ecological phenomena or environmental phenomena that are part of ecosystem, but have been changing in the last decades because of anthropogenic environmental change - certain ecosystem are more prone to fire. So at a an ecological scale, how does death change meaning or implications in times of changing ecosystems? I started this project with the intention to give attention to the more than human implications of this process. So there's how to voice environmental grief, for instance, how to make space for solastalgia, how to make space for becomings after an environment has been dying.
My contribution to the project is very linked to the work I do at the Commission, so it's especially or in particular what Natura 2000 and the Natura 2000 network can bring to the project as it hosts very different type of ecosystems, including forests, that are being affected traditionally or more recently because of climate change by forest fires or wildfires. And I hope that Natura 2000 values, the Natura 2000 network and its processes, the importance of nature conservation, can reach also not only the artists, but the public and somehow let them get to know and feel proud about European nature and what is being done for its protection and for their benefit, so that they would want to take care of it.
Presentation of residency at JRC | 07/06/2023
Art & Science for wildfire resilience with FIRE-RES EU @ CDMA | 13/06/2024
Lament testimonial with iMAL during the NaturArchy exhibition
Residency at the JRC Ispra | 17/04/2023 - 21/04/2023
Margherita Pevere @ Crowdsourcing knowledge on depression mechanisms Workshop | JRC Ispra | 20/04/2023
Residency at the JRC Ispra | 05/06/2023 - 06/06/2023
Production Update: community engagement in Portugal | Jan 2024
Lament inauguration and performance | NaturArchy exhibition events | 12/09/2024
Arts and science for European forest resilience against wildfires - panel | 13/06/2024
Lament at EUSO Forum | 23/10/2024
Lament website
Lament Catalogue Essay
Artists-in-Residence
Collaborating Researchers & Policymakers
NaturArchy Residencies 2023
NaturArchy Residency Projects
Residency Presentation Recordings
More on NaturArchy: Towards a Natural Contract
More on Resonances IV
More on the Resonances IV Summer School
04 Feb 2026 | 14 Jul 2026
