UK Fungus Day 2020: Fungi and Art—Extending Networks

An extraordinary group of individuals discuss the relevance of fungi and their growing presence in art,design, architecture, music, literature and performance. Artists will be talk about their work, followed by Q&A about their experience of the growing interest in fungi from the creative sectors. In addition, we will discuss the types of work that fungi are inspiring locally and internationally, and how this can be nurtured and supported within the UK.

Guest Speakers

• Abi Palmer, interactive artist and writer

• Chloe Ting and Alexandra Sazonova – Founders of Fertile Grounds and organisers of Fungi Fest 2019

• Francesca Gavin, art writer and curator of the Mushrooms exhibition at Somerset House

• Mariana Heilmann, artist, Running With Mycelium 2020

Facilitator

Professor Martin Bidartondo, Professor of Molecular Ecology at Imperial College

Part of the series Fungi and Art: Relevance, Presence and Future and inspired by Mariana Heilmann's Running With Mycelium 2020.

Speaker Details

Abi Palmer

Abi Palmer is an artist and writer currently exploring the relationship between fungal networks, slime moulds and marginalised communities. Her debut book Sanatorium (Penned in the Margins, 2020) is written to mirror fungal growing structures and her own body. In 2016 she collaborated with mycologist Nathan Smith to develop Mycolyrica, a series of literary structures based on the reproductive patterns of fungus, at Kew Gardens 'Fungarium. Her current work The Slime Manifesto explores using mycological and slime mould networks to develop speculative fiction and film exploring alternative futures.

www.abipalmer.com

@abipalmer_bot

Fertile Grounds

Fertile Grounds was founded in 2016 by Alexandra Sazonova and Chloe Ting as an artist-run initiative that creates art projects to increase the understanding of untapped and undervalued territories. We weave connections between people, ideas and movements in order to tell stories. Our work often extracts from fields of natural sciences, anthropology and language studies in order to question our shared values, knowledge and existence. Currently we are exploring concepts of cohabitation, questioning humankind within ecosystems and how to better care for and love the Earth.

Fungi Fest gathered artists, designers, foragers, chefs, mycologists, writers and thinkers to celebrate fungi at an all-day festival in London. The festival proposes that fungi can be a source of inspiration to imagine new ways of understanding and attuning to the world. Fungi Fest was a space to cross-pollinate ideas between disciplines and people – asking in a time of climate crisis, when humans are consciously contemplating the future, what can we learn from fungi?

Website: fertilegrounds.art

Instagram: @fertilegrounds.art

Francesca Gavin

Francesca Gavin was the curator of Mushrooms: the art, design and future of fungi at Somerset House in 2020, following her show Champignons at Galerie PCP in Paris in 2017. She is the author of seven books and is a contributing editor at Financial Times' How to Spend it Magazine, Twin, Good Trouble, Beauty Papers and Kaleidoscope. She co-curated Manifesta11 and her monthly radio show Rough Version on NTS.live looks at the intersection art and music.

francescagavin.com

@roughversion

Mariana Heilmann

As an artist working in a time of crisis, Mariana uses her practice to understand the science that underpins life. Through the use of a wide range of media, she explores scale, interconnectivity, and ways in which humanity is a meeting point between microscopic and global scales. Her work is informed by scientific phenomena such as symbiosis, decomposition and cell evolution. Currently she is investigating mushroom mycelial networks and how their inter-connective forms of existence relate to the human story.

https://www.gowithyamo.com/blog/artis...

https://marianaheilmann.com

Martin Bidartondo (facilitator)

Martin has been a scientist for over 20 years, first at the University of California at Berkeley, and since 2004 at Imperial College London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is fascinated by the evolution and ecology of interactions between fungi and plants. He investigates mycorrhizas, a widespread underground symbiosis. Martin has been involved with creative works by artists and students.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.b...