The Green Train in collaboration with European Sleeper
21–23 October 2025
Berlin – Amsterdam – Berlin
The Green Train is an interdisciplinary contemporary art programme designed to deepen public awareness of, and engagement with, European landscapes. It highlights the environmental advantages of train travel, using one of Europe’s most iconic international train lines as its conceptual foundation and starting point.
Travel more slowly, listen more deeply, and act more boldly for the planet.
The project brings together Nina Backman’s Silence Project and her environmental grassroots initiative A Million Trees to Finland, with European Sleeper and a network of environmental partners such as ARTE, ARTPRESS-Ute Weingarten, Podcast die Leichtigkeit der Kunst , The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, Life Terra, Thinking Forest Foundation, Mediamatic, Welna Estate, The Finnish Enviromental Institute (Syke), and The Finnland-Institut in Berlin to create a unique, art-driven international journey.
At its heart, The Green Train is a simple idea: travel more slowly, listen more deeply, and act more boldly for the planet by living more ecologically – and by planting trees. The Green Train becomes a moving venue for reflection, conversation, and creativity, with tree planting along the route and a dedicated “Tree Wagon” inside the train, gifted to all traveling passengers. This collaboration blends sustainable transport, ecological restoration, and cultural engagement into a single experience — one that connects people to landscapes, to communities, and to the quiet urgency of climate action.
The Green Train introduces a new and innovative way of connecting diverse partners through train lines, sharing environmental knowledge, fostering community tree planting, and showcasing contemporary art.
Learn more about The Green Train.
Community event at Mediamatic
The Green Train with European Sleeper: Riding the night, planting the future
22.10.2025, 10:00 -14:00
Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark Dijkspark 6, 1019BS Amsterdam.
Programme:
10:00–12:00: Seedling event at Mediamatic.
12:30–13:30: Join us for a bowl of warm soup.
The event takes place in our Tuinkamer & Hydroponics Greenhouse. The event will be filmed by ARTE tv.
The event is free. More info and tickets.
About Nina Backman
Nina Backman is a Finnish-born, Berlin-based artist and curator whose interdisciplinary practice spans performance, installation, and socially engaged art. She is the founder of The Silence Project, which explores the intersections of silence, communication, and shared human experience. She graduated from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in 2000.
Backman’s practice also extends into ecological interventions, most notably her ongoing tree-planting initiative, A Million Trees to Finland, which merges art, community participation, and environmental restoration. By combining contemplative social rituals with tangible acts of ecological care, her work invites audiences to slow down, listen, and engage with both one another and the natural world.
Her work is held in both public and private collections, including the Roosen Trinks Collection in Germany and the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki. She has exhibited internationally at venues such as Nordic House in Iceland, West Bund Art Center in Shanghai, Punkt Ø Galleri F 15 in Norway, and Malmö Museum in Sweden. Her performative work has been shown in venues such the Berliner Festspiele, Flagey in Brussels, Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin, and Gallen-Kallela Museum in Finland. Her environmental tree events have been featured in leading Finnish museums, including Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Amos Rex, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Turku Art Museum, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, and the Serlachius Museums, among others. In 2023, the Silence Project was awarded the title of Most Innovative Social Art Initiative in Europe by the European Enterprise Awards.