Marko Pogačnik is UNESCO Artist for Peace 2016 to 2018. He was born in 1944 in Kranj, Slovenia, and trained as a sculptor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. He works worldwide to promote multidimensional ways to approach the Earth and its beings, developing methods of ecological healing such as "lithopuncture" (Earth acupuncture). His books in English include Nature Spirits & Elemental Beings, Turned Upside Down, Sacred Geography, Touching the Breath of Gaia, and Gaia's Quantum Leap. Marko is a visiting professor at Columbia University, New York.