For Catalan artist Daniel Steegmann Mangran (b. 1977, Barcelona), forests are not only places but living beings which embody the environmental, political and cultural complexity of our world. Captivated by the Amazon and the Mata Atlântica – the forest that runs along Brazil’s coast – he settled in Rio de Janeiro in 2004 to be closer to the exceptional biodiversity of these spaces. Drawing on biology and contemporary anthropology, he explores the intense relationship between nature and culture through drawing, photography, cinema, sculpture and installation, in a practice characterised by delicate and subtle gestures.

While the exhibition’s title invites us to “befriend the mountains”, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané begins by highlighting nature’s order and rigour, countering common perceptions that contrast its seemingly unpredictable forms with the geometric abstraction theorised by humans. To do so, he has installed slanted partitions that structure the Atelier Hermès space, creating an immersive labyrinth akin to a forest. Within this artificial ecosystem, visitors unexpectedly encounter various natural elements, including tropical forests, jagged rocks, small branches and insects.