WE ARE RECONSTRUCTING!
Our popular special exhibition "fungi for Future" has come to an end. Currently, our special exhibition area in the BIOTOPIA Lab is under reconstruction for the next great content. However, the other exciting elements of the Lab can still be visited, of course. Next up is an installation that will allow us to smell extinct flowers! Digital content for the fungi exhibition will continue to be available, and the open program "Fungi for Future" will also continue to be offered in the Lab.
Matching the BIOTOPIA Festival SENSE on October 1 and 2, 2022, our next exhibition revolves around the scent of extinct plants. The installation "Resurrecting the Sublime" by Christina Agapakis, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Sissel Tolaas allows visitors to smell extinct flowers that have been eradicated by colonial activities. The exhibition not only offers an unexpected glimpse into what has been lost, but also challenges us to reflect on our own actions....
FUNGI FOR FUTURE
THE (IN)VISIBLE POWER OF FUNGI
When you think of mushrooms, you might think of the typical mushrooms in the forest, like here: but mushrooms have a lot more to offer!
The world of fungi is immensely diverse. It is estimated that there are up to 3.8 million species of fungi-over 90 per cent of which may still be unknown. Just as plants and animals make up two kingdoms of life, fungi make up their own kingdom in nature.
Fungi are present everywhere in our environment: we inhale fungal spores floating in the air with every breath, they can be found in our bodies and on our skin, as mould on fruit and in buildings, as yeast in beer and bread, as a widely branched mycelium network under the earth or in lichens on trees and stones.
In this video Tanja Seiner, designer and curator of the pop up exhibition "Fungi for Future" and Dr. Dora Dzvonyar, director of the BIOTOPIA Lab, show you some highlights of our fungi exhibition. Find out how vegan sneakers and building materials made from fungi can influence our future and what else the largely unexplored realm of fungi has to offer...
[German with English subtitles]
Fungi can be harmful and cause serious diseases in plants, animals and people. At the same time, life as we know it would not be possible without them: as decomposers, they convert organic waste back into the cycle of life.
Humans have always made use of fungi in many ways and are still discovering more and more species in this largely unexplored realm of organisms. This leads to promising applications for our future, such as new materials that could replace plastics and open up a path to an oil-free future.
The more we learn about these organisms, the clearer it becomes how they shape our everyday lives.
nat-2 ™ has developed vegan sneakers made from tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius).
Carole Collet is a professor of sustainable design and conducts research at the intersection of life sciences and design to develop new sustainable materials and forms of production. In our pop-up exhibition, we show two of her textile collections made from mushroom materials. We interviewed her about her work.
"Veiled Lady III" stool, inspired by a stinkhorn © Studio Klarenbeek & Dros.
Lichen is a symbiotic community of fungi and green algae and / or cyanobacteria.
'The variety of appearances and functions of fungi is incredibly large throughout the living world in nature as well as in human everyday life. It remains exciting for the future to see how much potential lies dormant in this still largely unexplored realm of organisms.'
In her exhibitions, the designer and curator Tanja Seiner investigates current and potential future living environments through the perspectives of science, design and art.
Tanja Seiner has lectured at various universities and is co-founder of the studio UnDesignUnit.
© Verena Kathrein
Curation: Tanja Seiner
Exhibition Design Konstantin Landuris Studio
Illustrations Miro Poferl, HEYmiro
Contributors:
Botanical State Collection Munich (SNSB-BSM), Carole Collet,
Georg Dünzl (Verein für Pilzkunde München e.V.),
Technical University of Berlin - Department of Applied and Molecular Microbiology, Patrick Hickey, nat-2 ™, Mogu,
Mehling & Wiesman, Merlin Sheldrake,
Studio Klarenbeek & Dros, V. Meer, Zvnder / Nina Fabert
With an exciting hands-on program, the BIOTOPIA Lab can also be experienced at home. Instructions, experiments and do-it-yourself concepts bring "hands-on science" into your own four walls. BIOTOPIA Lab@Home awakens interest in scientific relationships and provides inspiration for young and old. It gives a taste of the activities in the BIOTOPIA Lab - from bottle gardens or growing your own mushrooms to isolating DNA from vegetables or fruit. Browse the website and find the right experiment for you!
BIOTOPIA –
Naturkundemuseum Bayern
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