A collective of womxn* artists, creatives and activists dedicated to addressing the intertwined challenges of displacement, racial justice, and climate justice gathers.

Our Collective is a continuation of our shared journey with a group of womxn practitioners that began in November 2023 — one built on connections around collaboration, creativity, and radical care. Together, we will continue to shape this space, allowing our practices to speak of our own and each other’s work. Our satellite approach for the 2nd If Trees Could Talk International Art Biennale is grounded in connection and gathering.

Our project responds to the question “If trees could talk, what would they say?” through place-based memories, stories, and artistic responses shaped by displacement, heritage, and climate justice.

It will translates the physical gathering way of working into a digital space. Artists working across the United Kingdom will gather and share visual material, sound, and reflections that emerge from their immediate environments and lived realities.

The digital space will act as an accessible site of exchange and assembly. Artists will contribute responses to place and ecological change, building a layered collage of works that listen to what landscapes carry and what they have witnessed. One artist, for example, will share visual material produced during recent storms in Cornwall, where uprooted trees became markers of environmental violence, loss, and resilience.

Sijelo has been chosen as our collective name and artistic practice because it holds layered meanings that reflect the social, embodied, and relational nature of our work. We are dispersed across the United Kingdom, Sijelo will allow us to come together in a multitudinal happening, including conversations, makings and visual art to unlock unheard voices.

In Bosnian, sijelo refers to an intimate social gathering — an evening visit among neighbours, friends, or family. It is a space of shared presence, conversation, storytelling, music, and hospitality. This meaning foregrounds collective experience, exchange, and the creation of temporary communities, which are central to our approach as an international art biennale.

At the same time, sijelo is also a word in Toki Pona meaning the body, torso, or physical substance of a person, animal, or object. Derived from the Croatian tijelo (“body”), this meaning emphasizes embodiment, materiality, and the physical conditions through which experience and expression occur.

Together, these meanings position Sijelo as both a gathering and a body — a living collective formed through shared presence, dialogue, and material practice. It reflects our commitment to art as a social and embodied process: a coming together of diverse individuals, histories, and forms into a temporary but meaningful collective entity.

Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown, which emphasises that profound change begins with small, intentional actions. We embrace this philosophy as we engage in intimate, radical conversations that plant the seeds of transformation. These dialogues—full of insight, discomfort, and revelation—hold the power to shape movements that confront and dismantle systems of oppression.

As Adrienne Maree Brown reminds us, “small is all.” Every action, every conversation is an opportunity to shape the future we want—a future where justice, care, and freedom for all are central to our movements.

*We use this term to include transgender women and nonbinary people.

Participating Artists:

Anna Dermitzaki
Boseda Olawoye
Sovay Berriman
Anca Dimofte
Jelena Sofronijevic
Fozia Ismail
Kaajal Modi