'Even as they stand, flowers carry us to another place and another age. In thei presence we are transformed, no longer the same people we had been in their absence.'

'Wild Flowers of Palestine' - Mahmoud Darwish

Rewilding the archive is a writing workshop which explores ideas of control, freedom, agency and resistance in the geographical and historical context of the Burnieshed Residency. The residency is based within a pioneering rewilding project in Perthshire - Bamff Wildland - where beavers have been unravelling and reimagining the waterways for 20 years.

The workshop is led by Greek-Palestinian filmmaker and PhD researcher Theo Panagopoulos*. Theo uses rarely seen Scottish moving image archives of Palestinian wildflowers in the 1930s and 40s as a starting point for the workshop, as well as his latest film "the flowers stand silently, witnessing", produced by the Scottish Documentary Institute ‘Bridging the Gap’ scheme. After the film screening the session continues with a walk through the wildflower meadows of Bamff Wildland, and will culminate in a writing session in response to, and in conversation with the site and the archives.

* Theo’s creative and academic work explores themes of collective memory, displacement, fragmented identities and language. He is developing his thesis focused on decolonising narratives of memory, waste and heritage through film and performance.

* Burnieshed residency is an artist-run residency in the heart of Bamff Wildland. Burnieshed offers artists the opportunity to rest, work and learn in the context of a radical rewilding project where many species are entangled.

This workshop is part of the Burnieshed Residency pilot project funded by Creative Scotland.