Proposal by: Lena Kuzmich

Expanding Kin

Project Proposal: video installation on multi-species world-building

"Expanding Kin" is a video installation on multi-species world-building and consists of a short film and a physical installation organized as seating islands. The work examines the potential of mycelium and fungi in the fight against climate change and the expansion of identity constructs through non-human life. Inspired by Donna Haraway's theory on the Chthulucene and rooted in Queer Ecology, the film´s narrative guides through a symbiosis of science, pop culture, and emotional storytelling. How can notions of "kinship" be expanded into the category of nature? Using tools of multi-species storytelling and sympoietic world-building strategies the film explores a speculative ecosystem with mycelium as the main protagonist. 

Vergroot

Installation mock-up for Expanding Kin by Lena Kuzmich - Mock-up for the video installation „Expanding Kin“ by Lena Kuzmich. The installation will consist of a curved 4m wide screen and seating islands designed in cooperation with the Mushroom Research Center Austria. The islands will be made out of dead mycelium blocks and other materials infused with living mycelium to grow mushrooms on site.   Lena Kuzmich

Project Description

The project consists of two parts – a short film and an installation to sit on – realized in collaboration with the Mushroom Research Center Austria (MRCA) and My Pilz. "Expanding Kin" intertwines fiction and fact investigating strategies of non-human life to find creative and collective solutions against climate change and the Capitalocene. Looking at queerness, biology, and ecology the project questions the idea of "the self" as an enclosed entity and proposes strategies of mutualism and sympoietic world-building.

The short film invites the viewer into a speculative ecosystem with mycelium as the main protagonist. Based on scientific research on symbiosis and mycelium the film tells of a fictional, collective lifeform. This lifeform functions as an overarching network connecting all living beings of the film's world, similar to mycelium in our reality. Made with techniques of classical animation, film, and 3D animation the video work will have a length of around 15min. 

The installation - organized as seating islands - will be an extension of the film’s world and invites the audience to get a closer look at mycelium, fungi, and mushrooms in the physical space. The seating islands consist of different artificial and organic (dead and living) materials such as mycelium, fungi, lichens, dead mycelium blocks, wood, moss, soil, textile, metal, and small biotopes. The seating islands will be organized as overlapping blobs –round shapes made out of different materials – partially infused with living mycelium to grow mushrooms on site. Some of the blobs are specifically designed for the viewer to sit on to become part of the world. The production of the installation requires further extensive material research and collaborations with external partners such as MyPilz and MRCA. 

Possible ways to expand the project

I would like to collaborate with Microphotographer Wim van Egmond to combine the film's speculative landscape and organisms with imagery from living organisms of our ecosystem. The world of fungi and microbes fuel imagination which is why working with Wim van Egmond would be exciting for the development of semi-fictional worlds. 

Personal introduction: Lena Kuzmich

Lena Kuzmich (they/no pronouns) is a non-binary and multidisciplinary artist from Vienna currently based in Amsterdam. Their work, a fluid remix of photographic and videographic fragments taken from pop and subcultures, sketches alternate visions of society. Imaginative landscapes, hybrid representations of bodies, and technology all become a portal beyond preconceived notions about the world and our identity in it.

Within their practice, they strive for trans-disciplinary approaches with research based on multi-disciplinary hopping. Eclectically, they collect contents from science, art, social theory, pop culture, subcultures, and historical myths to assemble collage-like worlds through the use of various editing software. Found footage is combined with own creations and photographs to assemble new contexts and stories. In their work, images from obscure internet forums meet those originally published in scientific databases to dissolve hierarchies. Once the narratives that shape our understanding of reality are laid bare, they become open for restructure.

Duration

The production time of the project is estimated at 7-9 months. 

Estimated costs

This calculation offers a first overview of the expenses for the production but is not final:

Production and editing of the film and design of the installation, project coordination by Lena Kuzmich: 4100€ 

3D Graphics by Cristian Anutoiu: 2500€

Sound Design by Leonard Prochazka: 1500€

Graphic Design: 1200€

Architect Paul Knopf: 1500€

Consulting and lab experimentations for the installation (MRCA): 1500€

Consulting and lab experimentations for the installation (My Pilz): 2300€

Material costs for the Installation: 5400€ 

Names and links to the websites of everyone involved in the project. 

 

This proposal is part of the 'Penny for your Thoughts' project 2022.

Vergroot

Set Design Björk - Set Design for Björk's music video Utopia by Heimir Sverrisson & James Merry This image is part  of the mood board for the video installation „Expanding Kin“ by Lena Kuzmich and functions as visual  research for the seating islands of the installation. Lena Kuzmich

Vergroot

Fungi couch - This image is part  of the mood board for the video installation „Expanding Kin“ by Lena Kuzmich and functions as visual  research for the seating islands of the installation. Lena Kuzmich

Vergroot

Tree branch with lichens - This image is part  of the mood board for the video installation „Expanding Kin“ by Lena Kuzmich and functions as m aterial research for the seating islands of the installation. Lena Kuzmich

Vergroot

Fungi - This image is part  of the mood board for the video installation "Expanding Kin" by Lena Kuzmich and functions as material research for the seating islands of the installation. Lena Kuzmich

Vergroot

XxA - Promo picture of the theatre performance "XxA" by Lena Kuzmich and Tony Wagner which explored mutualism and symbiotic identities. The speculative world and lifeforms created for the performance function as a first starting point for the film's world of the project "Expanding Kin". Lena Kuzmich

Vergroot

Installation mock-up for Expanding Kin by Lena Kuzmich - Mock-up for the video installation „Expanding Kin“ by Lena Kuzmich. The installation will consist of a curved 4m wide screen and seating islands designed in cooperation with the Mushroom Research Center Austria. The islands will be made out of dead mycelium blocks and other materials infused with living mycelium to grow mushrooms on site.   Lena Kuzmich