Biography
Anaïs Berck is an artistic collective of trees, people, and algorithms. In each project, they open up a space where human intelligence finds a place alongside plant intelligence and artificial intelligence. Anaïs Berck was founded in 2019 by artist An Mertens, who has been collaborating with trees and their ecologies for over ten years, always with the aim of making them knowable and visible as living beings, as potential friends and colleagues, as therapists and sources of love.
In 2024, Anaïs Berck created the installation “Arnhemse Bomen Vertellen” (Arnhem Trees Tell a Story) in collaboration with six old trees in Sonsbeek Park, Zypendaal, and Gulden Bodem in Arnhem. The installation “Boomtijden” (Tree Times) runs until November 2025, in collaboration with three Scots pines in the Kalmthoutse Heide, Bosland National Park, and De Liereman Landscape. The novel “Bosberichten” (Forest Messages), written in collaboration with a hornbeam in the Sonian Forest, will be published in 2026.
During this residency, Anaïs Berck will be represented by artists Maria Lucia Cruz-Correira, An Mertens and other artists who work with more-than-human beings, their non-human colleagues and the technology they use in their work.
In residentie Copyright for Trees
02.03.2026 – 13.03.2026
Can we extend the “we” of a team or a group of friends to trees and more-than-human beings? How do you do that?
Is it possible, as an artist, to grant copyright to the trees you collaborate with, as well as decision-making power and a legal presence within an organization? How do you make this concrete, in communication, materially, and administratively?
Copyright for Trees is a project by Anaïs Berck, a collective of artists, trees, and algorithms. During their residency at C-TAKT, Maria Lucia Cruz-Correira and An Mertens are working on an online publication. They are also inviting other Belgian artists, hoping to create a national network of artists who consciously choose to collaborate with more-than-human beings.
Collaborating with more-than-human beings is part of the zeitgeist. An entire generation of artists is turning to other entities in their search for experiences and stories that no longer center on humans and actively engage in relationships with trees, plants, rivers, birds, bacteria, and fungi. For example, last summer the Kröller-Müller Museum organized the exhibition “Botanischer Wahnsinn” (Botanical Madness), presenting works by artists who examine the rich world of plants from different perspectives. Shortly afterwards, Onomatopee in Eindhoven hosted the exhibition “A Tree,” which showcased research and work in which artists explore the relationship between humans and trees and ways in which we can more closely relate to their timeframe. Documenta 15 in Kassel (2022) also presented a series of works by artists working with more-than-human beings, such as “Beeholder-Beecoin” (ZK/U), “The Book of the Ten Thousand Things” (La Intermundial Holobiente), and “The Story of Half-a-Halfling” (Jumana Emil Abboud), to name a few. Furthermore, there are also writers who openly describe their relationships with trees and other living beings, such as Arjen Mulder (The Friendship of Trees), Maja Kooistra (Living with Trees), and Didier Van Cauwelaert (Les Emotions cachées des Plantes).
For this project, Maria Lucia and An are interviewing twenty national and international artists and writers about their methods for engaging with more-than-human beings, how they arrived at this approach, and how they envision the future implications of this new paradigm. Based on this and other material, they are creating an online publication—a guide for collaborating with more-than-human beings—and a physical publication with speculative ideas on these themes.