A curatorial project about our Upcoming Future.
Shaped by novel materials and processes relying on the fundamental role of fungal micro- organisms. A historical greenhouse, filled with projects envisioning novel advancements and potentially near futures, while re-imagining the way in which our domestic and social life will morph during the next decades.
FUNGAL FUTURES / Growing Domestic Bio – Landscapes is a curatorial project presenting the work of an international group of artists and designers who develop innovative materials, applications and narratives using mycelium, the rhizomic network of ‘fungal roots’.
The NWO project Mycelium Design (Jan.2014 – Dec.2015) enabled collaboration between Utrecht University (UU), Officina Corpuscoli (OC) and Stichting Mediamatic (MM). Through an open call, the partners invited artists and designers to participate in the project as part of the Myco Design Lab, located at Mediamatic.
Along the duration of the project, OC and UU developed a palette of materials by making use of natural variation, environmental growth conditions, and genetic modification. These materials were provided to the selected artists and designers, who explored their potential (qualities and opportunities) and provided Officina Corpuscoli (Maurizio Montalti) feedback about the way properties needed to be improved to meet requirements for a range of specific products and applications.
The projects on show as part of FUNGAL FUTURES were all developed as part of innovative research processes that operate at the intersection of design and science. The creatives, working in direct consultation with scientists, adopted and developed unorthodox novel methodologies and techniques as part of their practice.
FUNGAL FUTURES presented work of designers and artists who were involved in the NWO project Mycelium Design, as well as projects of selected invited creatives working along the same principles.
The exhibition demonstrated possibilities for materialising of a near future in which fungal organisms would be one of the main microbial partners leading towards a responsible development of human society and of its entangled relationship within the ecosystem.
In its first episode, taking place at the Oude Hortus of the Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht and within a deliberately organic ecosystem, a constellation of tangible visions showed how working in cooperation with microbes and living systems could lead to ground-breaking innovative outcomes positively affecting humans and non-humans alike, while informing and impacting current existing paradigms, systems and networks.
Participating artists that contributed to the first FUNGAL FUTURES exhibition included:
Aniela Hoitink, Caroline de Roy, Eric Klarenbeek (Studio Klarenbeek & Dros) , Francesco Zorzi (NO-ROCKET), Gianluca Tabellini, Jonas Edvard, Katharina Unger & Julia Kaisinger (Studio LIVIN), Kristel Peters (COJAK), Maurizio Montalti (Officina Corpuscoli), Phil Ross, Wim van Egmond
DOWNLOAD HERE:
Link to Fungal Futures Instagram Page
CREDITS:
Commissioned by:
Utrecht University / MICROBIOLOGY
(Prof. Han Wösten)
Curated / designed / produced / managed by:
Maurizio Montalti / OFFICINA CORPUSCOLI
Graphic design & illustrations by:
Francesco Zorzi / NO-ROCKET
Research:
Officina Corpuscoli, Utrecht University
Supported by:
NWO, STW, KF Hein Fonds, CNC Exotic Mushroom, Gemeente Utrecht, Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht, Universiteit Utrecht
Photography:
Officina Corpuscoli
Officina Corpuscoli’s work has been generously supported by:
