In their residency at La Clinica, Oaxaca, the artistic collective developed the concept and first exhibition in the gallery La Clinica. It considers current scientific discourse while incorporating ancient indigenous knowledge to explore collective consciousness and the interconnectedness of living and non-living elements in the universe. They use mushrooms and their behaviors as a metaphor to convey this concept. By intertwining La Clinica‘s non-human entities with its visitors, Alex, Susanne, and Katherine, create distinct conscious realms and multiple realities.
““We” are ecosystems that span boundaries and transgress categories. Our selves emerge from a complex tangle of relationships only now becoming known.” ¹
Consciousness, often regarded as an elusive concept, is a fundamental aspect of existence. This project endeavors to shed light on consciousness not merely as an individual experience, but as a collective phenomenon that permeates all life forms and invades spaces. Thinking of ourselves as mere actants in a living universe suggests consciousness is a primal force and not something that only affects humans. Through dialogues with indigenous communities, and research on the topic of consciousness studies, the artists embark on a journey through the fabric of consciousness and our animate surroundings. The project aims to inspire visitors to explore the profound mysteries that lie within and around us.
The use of clay and cultivating mushrooms as an artistic medium symbolizes the malleability and adaptability required for symbiotic relati-onships to flourish and their role in sustaining life. Through the creation of sculptural forms representing various organisms, the artists foster a deeper understanding of consciousness and interconnectedness across diverse cultural landscapes. Becoming acquainted with local craft and cultural practices becomes an integral part of the project. By conducting the research phase in Mexico and exhibiting in Mexico, Switzerland, and France, a mutual exchange of experiences infuses the artwork with diverse perspectives and narratives.
Sound and video installations immerse visitors in an audiovisual journey where touch develops into a musical dialog between the individual and the collective; a play between people and their surroundings. An invisible map is created here, a network of sounds that wanders through the architecture of La Clinica and spreads out across its surroundings. Projections, digitally augmented and in physical space, provide a captivating visual representation of the interrelatedness of life, and encourages visitors to recognize the beauty and necessity of symbiotic connections.
the mycelium
Mycelium consists of a vast underground network of entangled fungal threads that binds eco systems together. It serves as a powerful metaphor for the interconnectedness of all life and emergent realities. By cultivating mushrooms as part of the project, the artists highlight both the mycelium’s physical presence, as well as its metaphorical significance. The mycelium becomes a symbol of unity and the unseen forces that sustain life, encouraging visitors to consider the profound connectivity that underlies our existence.
“Water and nutrients flow through ecosystems within mycelial networks. The mycelium of some fungal species is electrically excitable and conducts waves of electrical activity along hyphae, analogous to the electrical impulses in animal nerve cells. (...) These networks are inconceivably complicated, their implications huge and still poorly understood.” I was reminded of the way that modern physicists portray the universe, more than ninety-five percent of which is described as “dark matter” and “dark energy.” Dark matter and energy are dark because we don’t know anything about them.” ¹ In 1933, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky was observing the motion of galaxies and began wondering what kept them together. Dark matter affects how “normal” matter clumps together. It stabilizes galaxy clusters. It also affects the shape of galaxies, their rotation curves, and how stars move within them. Dark matter even affects how galaxies influence one another.
The fabric of consciousness
Mushrooms also show attributes to learning and memory. But do mushrooms show forms of intelligence and consciousness? The mycelium is like an integrated multicellular organism, it operates as more than a mere sum of its individual hyphae. Researchers call attention to indications of communicative underground fungal networks. They suggest that these networks might be a sign of a massive, planetary-scale invisible intelligence. ² Could our planet have a mind of its own? The “planetary intelligence” theory investigates the possibility that Earth has a collective knowledge and intellect. Understanding the idea of a planet displaying intelligence could provide us with important new perspectives on dealing with the urgency of climate change. This thought experiment pushes us to reconsider our behavior and look for opportunities to promote a more peaceful coexistence with our planet.
The nature of consciousness and the existence of the self has been a long-standing debate in science and philosophy. Douglas Hofstadter, cognitive scientist and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (1979), argues that the self emerges in those systems that have the capacity to represent or model the world and themselves. This creates a self-referential feedback loop whereby cognition reflects upon itself, producing a nexus of experience and control. Processes like recurrent feedback loops lay the foundation for the emergence of consciousness and, by extension, the notion of a personal self. The self, while it is not a material entity in the traditional sense of the word, it is both real and detectable. Taking psychedelics can temporarily dissolve this structure, creating an ecstatic sense of interconnection with the external world, but at the same time proving that the structure exists. ³
unseen architect of life
1: Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, Random House, England, 12 May 2020
2: Intelligence as a planetary scale process. Published online by Cambridge University Press, Adam Frank, David Grinspoon, Sara Walker, 07 February 2022
3: Bobby Azarian, October 2023. Cognitive neuroscientist and the author of the book The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity.
