Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion, who have been selected for important national and international exhibitions including the British Art Show and the Venice Biennale, created Speaking The Land, a work in three short films looking at the landscape of Dumfries and Galloway, working with writers Robin Lloyd-Jones, Jay Griffiths and John Burnside.  The idea was to create a work which would look at the absence of a type of ‘narrative’ from the landscape.  Once, the act of storytelling was meshed to deeply embedded ways of understanding a locality and its relationship with people.  Louise Scullion said, “The land itself was the primary mnemonic for stories: it became a vessel to store knowledge or wisdom of ways to live on the land”.

This project built on the growing reputation of Dumfries and Galloway as the home of environmental art, a reputation sustained by the partnership between Dg arts, SNH and the Forestry Commission. The project was supported by Dumfries & Galloway Leader Programme.

‘- through these stories, these places keep us alive
through these stories we keep these places alive.’