About this Event
Friday | May 10th | 3PM EST
Please join us at Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore for a conversation between Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez and Juan Ferrer in celebration of Let's Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts: Based on Conversations with Indigenous Wisdom Keepers, Artists, Curators, Feminists and Mycologists.
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The enormous popular interest in the world of fungi and the mycelium testifies to its tremendous resonance as a metaphor for new ways of thinking, new systems and behaviors. Taking its inspiration from this world, Let’s Become Fungal! looks at a range of Indigenous practices from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia that are rooted in multispecies collaboration, symbiosis, alliances, non-monetary resource exchange, decentralization, bottom-up methods and mutual dependency—all suggestive of the behavior of the mycelium.
Each of the book’s 12 chapters offers teachings on collaboration, decoloniality, nonlinearity, toxicity, mobilization, biomimicry, death and being nonbinary, while also examining the world of fungi. Let’s Become Fungal! shows how fungi can inspire artists, collectives, organizations, educators, policymakers, designers, scientists, anthropologists, curators, urbanists, activists, gardeners, community leaders, farmers and others to become more fungal in their ways of working and being.
Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez is the founder and director of the Green Art Lab Alliance (established in 2012); a network comprising sixty art organizations across Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. The mission of the alliance is to foster relationships that contribute to social and environmental justice, akin to the interconnected nature of mycelium. She founded and directed the Nature Research Department at the Jan van Eyck Academie (Netherlands, 2017), the Van Eyck Food Lab (2018), and the Future Materials Bank (2020); a crowd-sourced database of sustainable materials for artists, designers and architects. She organised countless Reading Groups, Food Art Film Festivals and has been curator-in-residence, as well as writer-in-residence, in many art institutions worldwide. She is a self-proclaimed "mycophile", interested in exploring the application of a mycological lens in defining fair models of collaboration and (self) organization. Her debut book, "Let's Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts," shares twelve teachings of the world of fungi. It was published by Valiz and is being translated into various languages. It was selected as one of the Best Dutch Book Designs 2023 and nominated for the Best Book Design Globally 2023.
Juan Ferrer (he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and curator, whose interdisciplinary practice navigates the limits of contemporary art and science engagement. With a specific interest in the influence of museums and digitality on engaging diverse audiences with the social-ecological crisis and Fungi, he founded Museo del Hongo (Chile, 2016), or Museum of Fungi; a pop-up/virtual museum that integrates art, mycology, and technology. His work has been showcased at Telluride Mushroom Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Ars Electronica Festival, Berlin Science Week, Santiago Media Arts Biennial, and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, among other scientific and artistic events. He is completing his Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies at New York University's XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement program.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, United States
USD 0.00