The Global Goals Pavilion

The Forest for Change

In 'Forest for Change' visitors will be taken through a journey on which they discover the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Development - an ambitious plan to eradicate poverty, inequality and climate change.

Es Devlin, Forest for Change' designer and Artistic Director of the Biennale, was told that trees had been forbidden from the courtyard at Somerset House when the building was originally conceived 250 years ago. When designing this year’s Biennale, Es decided to “counter this attitude of human dominance over nature, by allowing a forest to overtake the entire courtyard.” In subverting the rules of Somerset House’s Enlightenment-era designers, Es and her team considered the transformational nature of forests in literature to create a place of real change: “The UN Global Goals offer us clear ways to engage and alter our behaviour and it is our hope that an interaction with the Goals in the forest will be transformative."

Bringing trees into the courtyard at Somerset House for the first time is a bold statement that mirrors the audacious nature of the Global Goals – an ambitious plan agreed to by all nations to create a better and fairer world for all by 2030. 2021 is a pivotal year for the global community to address the most urgent issues faced in a generation, and this forest of 400 trees will show how the Goals are the answer to the challenges we are facing. It will bring to life the solutions needed to tackle climate change, growing inequality and covid recovery and show a pathway towards building a better and brighter future for everyone, everywhere.

Designed by Es Devlin, in collaboration with Landscape Designer Philip Jaffa and Urban Greening Specialists Scotscape, the outdoor experience is presented in partnership with Project Everyone, a not-for profit agency founded by Richard Curtis, Kate Garvey and Gail Gallie to further awareness and engagement with Global Goals.'

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Photography: Ed Reeve

Photography: Ed Reeve

Photography: Joe Short

Photography: Ed Reeve

Credits

Artist

Es Devlin

Executive Producers

Richard Curtis, Kate Garvey and Rachel Waldron

Co-Creators and Global Goals Lead

Project Everyone

Landscape Designers

Philip Jaffa, Fahmi Ardi (Scape Design)

Bird Song Soundscape

Brian Eno, Cheryl Tipp and the British Library Board

Pavilion Music

Robert M Thomas

Associate Designer

Jack Headford (Es Devlin Studio)

Production Team

Angus Cunningham, Darren Bosworth (Scotscape)

Principle Contractor

Jez Clarke, Jez Gooden (Beautiful Wonder)

Lighting Design and Luminaires

John Cullen Lighting

Sound Supplier

Andrew Hedges (Autograph Sound)

Structural Engineers

Neil Thomas, Christopher Matthews (Atelier One)

17th Pillar Executive Producer

Hannah Cameron

17th Pillar Interactive Creative Director

Tom Seymour

17th Pillar Production & Installation

Artists & Engineers, Olaya de Marcos, William Young, Francis Redman, Elise Plans

Supported by

Google.org, Salesforce

Material Partner

Amorim

Additional supporters

Pangaia, Google Arts and Culture, Bloomberg Philanthropies

2021 Exhibitors

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