Sensing Fungi. Invisible Agencies and the Undergroud
October 8–10, 2025
International Research Center for Cultural Studies, Vienna, AT
An event by ifk & Mycelial Space in cooperation with the Wiener Pilzfestspiele
Fungi are everywhere. They colonize our bodies and environments, enrich food and medicine, provide sustainable materials, and some even withstand the most extreme conditions. With their refined perceptual capacities, fungi are masters of adaptation and collaboration, engaging in myriad forms of symbiosis. Through their wood-wide webs, mycelial networks supply forests with vital resources and infrastructure while sequestering large amounts of carbon. They can divide into multiple individuals and persist for millennia—challenging prevailing notions of identity and terminality.
From shamans and witches to lucky New Year’s fly agarics and the psychedelic movement, fungi have always been woven into human culture. Yet as mediators between organic and inorganic matter, feared for their toxicity, and resisting categorization as well as cultivation, they have long been sidelined by academia—relegated to the underworld, dark spaces, and a secret knowledge embodying the unconscious »other« of an enlightened, rationalized view of nature and culture. Given today’s socio-ecological challenges, fungi offer a generative ground for rethinking ecological practice and more-than-human coexistence from below.
Concept: Co.Lab Mycelial Space / Sarah Kolb & Jutta Strohmaier (University of Arts Linz)
Participants: Ilka Becker (Mainz), Magdalena Breitwieser (Linz), Roberto Dell’Orco (Paris), Jitka Effenberger (Linz), Johanna Ficht (Berlin), Erik Göngrich (Berlin), Karin Harrasser (Linz/Wien), Peter Holzinger (Linz), Julia Ihls (Karlsruhe), Charlotte Janis (Paris), Maria Kobylenko (Berlin), Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian (New York), Fabricio Lamoncha (Linz), Flavia Matei (Linz), Peter McCoy (Portland), Maja-Lisa Müller (Bielefeld), Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez (Mexico City), Alison Pouliot (Victoria/Biel), Nora Wilhelm (Berlin), Feifei Zhou (New York)
Image credits: Alison Pouliot