In the exhibition Even Boxwood Does Not Remember, the artist focuses on the history of the Colchis boxwood — an endemic plant characteristic of this specific geographical region. In the ethnographic sources of Abkhazia, there is a saying: “It was so long ago that even the thousand-year-old boxwood does not remember.” The phrase reflects the very nature of the Colchis boxwood — an evergreen tree that has existed on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus for approximately 1.8 million years, since the Ice Age. For centuries, boxwood formed an integral part of both the forests and valleys of the North-Western Caucasus, and the cultural life of its indigenous peoples. Referred to as “iron wood,” it was used wherever strength and durability were required.

Since 2012, the Colchis boxwood has been under threat. During the landscaping of the venues for the XXII Winter Olympics in Sochi, seedlings were imported along with a moth species highly destructive to the plant. The insect spread rapidly, almost completely destroying the boxwood. The exhibition Even Boxwood Does Not Remember incorporates one of the visual testimonies to this process: documentary footage of the yew-boxwood grove near Sochi, filmed by cameraman Igor Khakhalin, shows a lifeless forest draped in cobwebs — a ghost forest.

The idea of contemporary nature as a space full of “ghosts” appears in the writings of numerous Anthropocene researchers. In their understanding, “ghosts” are not only specific material remains of extinct or disappearing species, such as the documented ruins of the yew-boxwood grove, but also the lingering echoes of multiple losses that permeate ecosystems, cultures, and communities. In her project, Lilit Matevosyan examines the history of the Colchis boxwood from precisely this multifaceted perspective.

Even Boxwood Does Not Remember is an attempt to map and artistically reflect on the extent of these echoes of disappearance. Matevosyan approaches this double task at the intersection of documentary and artistic expression. The works and materials presented are simultaneously the result of archival research, fieldwork, and artistic interpretation. The artist encounters the “ghosts” of boxwood on walks through the forests and groves around Sochi, in conversations with residents of Adyghe villages, in historical documents, in the legends of the Caucasian Black Sea coast, and in the insect-like clicking sounds of the pkhachich rattle. The traces of this loss recorded by Matevosyan form a mosaic — a compelling testament to one of the central insights of Anthropocene critique: the disappearance of a single plant signifies something immeasurably greater than a mere change in the landscape.

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