Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations is an artists’ film by Rachel McBrinn and Alison Scott commissioned by Cove Park and ACT, who together form the Argyll Climate Beacon.
Responding to the Scottish rainforest, the film is a poetic document of collaborative learning which expands from observational documentary footage, conversations, and a critical engagement with place.
Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations was filmed across the Argyll area, taking us from the experimental mono-cultural forestry of Kilmun Arboretum, to sites of Atlantic Rainforest at Cormonachan Community Woodland, Taynish National Nature Reserve, Barnluasgan, and recent planting of native tree species at Cove Park.
The film moves from blocks of planted forest to fragmented pockets of native woodland—from one management system to another. Paying close attention to the language and history of forest management and how this might develop into the future, we ask, what is allowed to grow, and what is not?
A digital copy of the accompanying publication can be viewed here.
Rachel McBrinn & Alison Scott, Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations, 25 min video, 2022
Rachel McBrinn & Alison Scott, Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations, 25 min video, 2022
Rachel McBrinn & Alison Scott, Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations, 25 min video, 2022
Rachel McBrinn & Alison Scott, Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations, 25 min video, 2022
Rachel McBrinn & Alison Scott, Congenial Soils and Favourable Situations, 25 min video, 2022
Congenial soils and favourable situations shown as part of 'Where we meet land: environment and ecology in artists' moving image, Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, March 2026. Image courtesy Fruitmarket.
Congenial soils and favourable situations shown as part of 'Where we meet land: environment and ecology in artists' moving image, Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, March 2026. Image courtesy Fruitmarket.