An exhibition exploring the pervasive and often unsettling influence of fungi on the natural world and human life has opened at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. The show, titled “Fungi: Anarchist Designers,” examines the resilience and disruptive power of fungi, from their role in decay and regeneration to their impact on human health and ecosystems.
Fungi’s Ominous Presence
The exhibition draws inspiration from Sylvia Plath’s 1959 poem “Mushrooms,” which depicts fungi as quietly taking hold and ultimately “inherit[ing] the earth.” Curators Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing and Feifei Zhou present fungi not as passive organisms, but as “co-designers of the world,” capable of outwitting and reshaping their environment.
A Dantean Journey Through Fungal Worlds
The exhibition features installations, films, and soundscapes illustrating the vast domain of fungi, encompassing over two million organisms. A timelapse film showcases the basket stinkhorn, which attracts flies with the smell of rotting flesh to disperse its spores. Fungi are shown to thrive on decay, disrupting industrial trade, commercial agriculture, and even infiltrating hospitals, where the multi-drug resistant candida auris can be deadly, killing as many as one in three patients who contract it.
Impact on Flora, Fauna, and Humanity
The exhibition highlights fungi’s destructive potential, citing heterobasidion root rot as a major threat to conifer plantations. A multimedia installation, entitled “We shall by morning, inherit the earth,” reflects on this impact. More than 90 amphibian species have been wiped out by a microscopic fungus, with many more endangered. The show also references the cordyceps virus, popularized by The Last of Us, which infects insects and controls their brains.
Beauty in Decay and Symbiosis
Despite their destructive potential, the exhibition also acknowledges the beauty and ecological importance of fungi. Historic architectural drawings mottled with fungal discoloration are displayed alongside “mycelial sculptures” by Hajime Imamura. Lizan Freijsen’s “tufted floor objects” resemble dry rot, highlighting the fungus’s spread through colonial trade routes. Michael Poulsen’s model of a termite mound illustrates the symbiotic relationship between fungi and termites.
The exhibition also highlights the positive role fungi can play in regeneration, citing the matsutake mushroom’s emergence after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. An installation, “architecture must rot,” explores how fungal growth breaks down materials and contributes to ecological processes.
“Fungi: Anarchist Designers” is on display at the Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, until August 8.
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