Sara Manente, Deborah Robbiano & Sébastien TripodRUINED, 2023-2024, installation view,
Pilar, Brussels, 2024.
Photo: Silvia Cappellari, courtesy of the artists

Toward a Mycelial Imagination

Emmanuel Leriche

115 – Decay Feature Côme Di Meglio Deborah Robbiano Johanna Mårtensson Sara Manente Sébastien Tripod

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Closely associated with witches, mushrooms evoke a dark and mysterious world by growing in the secret shadows of forests. Sometimes edible, sometimes poisonous, they are fundamentally ambivalent and symbolize both putrefaction and regeneration. Mycelium, for its part, is a living organism composed of myriad branching threads and constitutes the vegetative part of a fungus that allows it to release its spores. It can sometimes be seen on the forest floor or in decaying wood. Generally, however, it is found underground in a vast network that can extend over kilometres in search of nutrients. Equally complex, mycelium decomposes dead animal, vegetal, and fungal materials in different ecosystems by secreting enzymes that create a natural fertilizer for the surrounding flora.

Mycelial networks do not manifest themselves in the spectacle of catastrophes, but instead bring about slow transformations out of sight. Therefore, they encourage us to redirect our attention to subtle activities that strategize underground, under our feet, in all the places where we are not looking.

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