The Universal Forest is an augmented reality sound art installation, co-created by Elsa Mroziewicz and Cécile Palusinski, which invites viewers to wander through a forest composed of tree species from different continents and encounter fourteen animal species that are currently threatened with extinction.
This stroll is not just a simple interactive journey. It is an artistic and political gesture: to bring to life, through images and sound, the presence of endangered animal species. In a context where more than 42,000 species are threatened according to the IUCN Red List, The Universal Forest seeks to give a voice back to those that are becoming increasingly silent due to the collapse of biodiversity.

To traverse The Universal Forest is to accept slowing down, to enter into the long cycle of time and regeneration—a time at odds with the ecological urgency of the present day.

Far from being a simple visual effect, augmented reality animation of endangered animals is akin to symbolic reanimation: giving body, breath, and voice back to those we no longer hear, no longer see—or no longer want to see. Each apparition emerging from the forest is an encounter. The animal is not just a naturalistic motif: it is a subject. It makes an appeal. Through sound haiku, it recounts its uniqueness and fragility. The augmented reality fresco becomes a space of resonance, a theater of apparitions. The Universal Forest does not show, it invokes. It invites us to rethink our relationship with living things through listening and emotion, confronts us with the beauty of a world that is fading away, and encourages us to become, in turn, its attentive witnesses.

At the end of the tour, educational and artistic content extends the experience, opening up a space for knowledge and transmission.
In line with our committed artistic approach, part of the profits from the distribution of this work are donated to our association Socotra Dragon Blood Tree, which is actively working to protect the Socotra dragon tree and its ecosystem.

This project was carried out in collaboration with the Kalhath Institute, with the support of the Jan Michalski Foundation.