Tree Mourners explores a form of lament still practiced in Southern Italy, rooted in the ancient Greek tradition of moirología, as a way of transforming mourning into a shared, embodied and emplaced event—one that reconfigures our relationship with the nonhuman and with matter as a living continuum. Challenging the ideology of separation from land and from one another that underpins colonial, capitalist and consumerist cultures, the project develops performative practices of embodied participation to mourn the dying sea pine forest and its intertwined human community in Ostia, a green yet deprived periphery of Rome. At the same time, it opens spaces of exchange with artists worldwide who engage in ecosomatic mourning as a vehicle for gathering communities around the urgency of ecological crisis, collective care and land regeneration..

The performative actions will take place on 25-26 January 2025 in Rome - the “Pineta di Acqua Rossa”, Ostia Lido (Lido di Ostia Ponente), near the sea, located in a natural reserve protected by the Italian Government. The goal will be to activate an ensemble of performers, consolidate Raffaele Rufo’s ecosomatic practices with trees and collect footage to create a short eco-poetic film.