Alexandra Valahu
Research Residency
Lush Ecologies
September 2021 - June 2021
Lush Ecologies traced the impact of climate disruption on mushrooms during three seasons in western Switzerland. In November, the project took the shape of an ephemeral public installation which displayed mushrooms from four locations across Lausanne. The residency ended with the launch of an audio documentary titled To the naked eye.
During this residency, Alexandra Valahu questioned and researched the impacts of climate change on fungi and on the food system in Switzerland. Since the effects of climate disruption are pushing fungi towards higher elevations as they try to survive, and mushroom season is beginning earlier and earlier, an asynchrony is setting in. Lush Ecologies was a curious inquiry into what the future of the Swiss culinary and foraging landscapes could look like if fungi move poleward and upward. To explore these questions, Alexandra created a decaying public installation at Deli Social, and an audio documentary which launched at La Becque.
Listen to the audio documentary here
Instead of seeking to arrive at a resolution, To the naked eye, tends towards an exploration of the precariousness and resilience of mushrooms and their collaboration with our food systems.
If Warming Temperatures Move Mushrooms was an ephemeral, and decaying archive of mushrooms that are growing this autumn in Lausanne.
During a few weeks, the display changed to reflect what emerges in four locations: Vidy, Tunnel, Sauvabelin, and Chalet-à-Gobet. Along this 500m cross-section that cuts through Deli Social, a vegetative body of fungi grows beneath our feet. This network of mycelium produces mushrooms which respond to the particular weather conditions of a place: records of the microbial ecology of soil. Here, each mushroom is presented with the plants or trees it shares a symbiotic relationship with.
If soil structure breaks down without mycelium
And soil is not a renewable resource
Warming temperatures may be pushing fungi towards higher elevations as they try to survive. But there is almost no long-term data on the effects of global warming on fungi within the Western scientific sphere. What is certain is that fungi are the foundation of much of our food chain, and a common pathogen to many crops. Without fungi, we have no forests or trees. And without trees or soil, we have no food or liveable earth.