Environmental Therapy Through Art Practices: Memory, Agency, and the Care of Wounded Places

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of Environmental therapy through a dialogue between philosophical perspectives, artistic practices, and speculative approaches to care. Expanding beyond the human subject, Environmental therapy considers the environment itself as an active participant in processes of transformation, bearing memory, trauma, and agency. Drawing from new materialist theories, hauntology, and affect studies (Barad, Ingold, Bennett, Haraway, Gordon), the research examines how artistic interventions engage with wounded landscapes, abandoned sites, and repressed histories, addressing their psychic residues and perceptual imprints. Through a selection of contemporary art case studies, including the Don’t Follow the Wind exhibition in Fukushima’s exclusion zone, olfactory and atmospheric projects (Tolaas, Assaël), and choreographic explorations by La Tierce or El Conde de Torrefiel, the paper investigates artistic methodologies that activate latent memories and generate reciprocal processes of care between humans and environments. Finally, the paper critically examines the ethical challenges of such approaches, questioning the risks of romanticization, anthropomorphism, and extractive aesthetics. By framing environmental therapy as a hybrid and relational practice, this study suggests that artistic and performative interventions might foster new ways of sensing, remembering, and co-inhabiting fragile ecologies.