Presentation:

Messages from the Myco-Assemblage

Arne Hendriks & Dominik Einfalt talk about their attempts to construct pigeon guano towers with living mycelium waste.

11 Dec 2020

Friday afternoon, Arne and Dominik will discuss their attempt to build structures with living mycelium waste. What have they learned? What are the challenges?  And what stories have emerged so far? Over the next months, all through the winter and into the spring of 2021, they will continue to build myco-towers while listening to the messages that the mycelium, the pigeons, and its multiple other voices have to share with us. 

Free Entrance / 
RSVP

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Arne Hendriks introducing his practice through telling excerpts of stories - Anne Lakeman

Arne Hendriks

Arne Hendriks is an artist and researcher on human ecology. He explores the borders of specific cultural values that define our relationship with the planet. His projects include The Incredible Shrinking Man that researches if it is possible to downsize the human species to better fit the earth and Fatberg, the building of an island of fat. As regular Mediamatic collaborator he directed several projects to draw attention to our (sometimes twisted) relation with the planet and its resources, like Kool Abundance, The Starvation Experiment, and the building of a holy pigeon tower out of recycled newspapers.

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Layer by layer, Dominik shapes the Mycelium bricks into a tower - Nadine Schütz

Bad rep

Feral city pigeons have a bad reputation but that says more about us humans than it says about the pigeon. It's also a relatively recent perception. Throughout history, pigeons have always been highly valued, both for their incredible skills to find their way home, as well as for their meat and the quality of their droppings. Before the use of artificial fertilizers, pigeon excrement was indispensable, especially in the Middle-east, for food production. The monumental pigeon towers of Isfahan in Iran serve as an inspiration. 

Come to his presentation and learn more about his view on the relation between humans and the earth, his challenging art-projects, and the pigeon towers that are currently under construction. (Tickets are free, but please RSVP to reserve a spot) 

Information

Friday 11th of December at 17:00
Mediamatic Biotoop, Dijksgracht 6, Amsterdam
Tickets: RSVP

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Showing the mushroom fruit bodies that can grow from the mycelium blocks - Anne Lakeman

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Arne Hendriks introducing his practice through telling excerpts of stories - Anne Lakeman

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Dominik illustrating the importance of the number 8 in their building approach - How many days are in a week, if you count the day of the next week as part of it? Is it the same principle as with music? What does an infinity sign look like? Anne Lakeman

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The audience listening to the way Arne Hendriks and Dominik Einfalt 'tango' with Mycelium - Anne Lakeman

With: Hyunsuh Kim
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Arne elaborating the steps they during building the Myco-Assemblage - Anne Lakeman

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Dominik explaining their building approach - From the dialogue with the material to the strengths of different building shapes Anne Lakeman

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One of the lecture participants translating the presented knowledge through notes - Anne Lakeman

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The audience getting acquainted with the material - By opening up the packaging around the mycelium blocks, they revealed the material that Arne Hendriks and Dominik Einfalt have been working with over the past months. Getting acquainted means smelling the material, massaging it, listening to it, looking at it. Anne Lakeman

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Who is sitting next to you? - By opening up the packaging around the mycelium blocks, the audience 'met' the material that Arne Hendriks and Dominik Einfalt have been working with over the past months. Anne Lakeman

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One of the lecture participants commenting on other properties of mycelium - Anne Lakeman

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What does it feel like? - By opening up the packaging around the mycelium blocks, the audience 'met' the material that Arne Hendriks and Dominik Einfalt have been working with over the past months. Anne Lakeman

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What does it look like inside? - By opening up the packaging around the mycelium blocks, the audience 'met' the material that Arne Hendriks and Dominik Einfalt have been working with over the past months. Anne Lakeman