In the stillness of the night, deep within Dutch national park De Veluwe, a wildlife camera captures an unexpected signal. A wolf appears, pausing as if it senses another presence. It is Pan, the ancient god of shepherds and the wild, who has come to speak with the wolf. A hybrid of man and goat, Pan bridges the human and non-human worlds and embodies the spirit of wilderness. What follows is a nocturnal conversation between two exiled figures: one banished from the land, the other from our imagination.
In the installation A Wild Encounter, I reflect on the recent reappearance of the wolf in the Netherlands through venturing on a fictional conversation between the Wolf and Pan.
The work consists of archival footage of wolves captured by wildlife cameras in De Veluwe, an animation of Pan, a scripted dialogue, and a bundle of essays reflecting on the wolf, the wild, and the role of mythmaking and animation.
Through this project, I seek to move beyond the human-centred and polarised discourse surrounding the wolf's return. Instead, I approach it through the lens of the fictional and the more-than-human, using storytelling to reframe how we relate to the animal, the landscape, and the idea of wilderness.
