TOPOS on the road – Exhibition Fungi. Anarchistic Designers.

Column written by Geert Walinga, editor at TOPOS

Introduction

I had seen the billboards for this exhibition multiple times already. And every time I visited the site of the Nieuwe Instituut —the museum for Architecture, Design and Digital Media in Rotterdam— it was still there: Fungi. Anarchistic Designers. The fit with our theme was too tight to miss it. I waited until the last week of the exhibition before finally deciding to go. To be honest, fungi freak me out. I would rather forget that they exist. 

The exhibition takes the perspective on fungi as lawless and self-deciding, but necessary beings that are an intricate part of our world. They are present in roots, buildings, forests but also in hospital beds, crops and even our guts. Its power is explored in three parts, each one building onto the previous one. I highlight some of the works presented in the exhibition, using the literal exhibition descriptions for clarification. 

Figure 1: Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam (auteur)

Figure 2: Poem accompanying exhibition texts (author)

Part 1. Break

Fungi are there to break of materials. And it does not really matter what kind of material; fungi will eventually break it all off, returning it to the earth once more. However, fungi do not make conscious choices about what material to affect. To them, it’s more about the most favorable space to exist. And, unfortunately, this also means that they exist in places that human society would rather not have them: affecting building materials, growing in our homes, destroying homogeneous agricultural fields. What spaces of our current system have fungi already infiltrated and what are they damaging?   

Figure 3: Contagious extraction, 2025

"Coffee is an understory tree; it thrives in shade. When industrial economics urged full-sun monoculture coffee plantations, the winds blew in coffee rust fungus, a great killer of coffee. Once the fungus was well-established, even peasant polycultures were threatened; shade alone could no longer block the spread of the fungus. Monoculture calls out to fungal killers. In this installation, presented by ecologists Ivette Perfecto, Zach Hajian-Forooshani and artist Filipp Groubnov, the coffee rust fungus has spread across three different scales, scenes and forms: on dying leaves; on ruined landscapes; and through the dead and living apparatuses of the coffee commodity chain” (Nieuwe Instituut, 2026)

Figure 4: We Shall By Morning Inherit The Earth, 2025, 12’ 40’’

"One of the most dreaded diseases affecting industrial conifer plantations is Heterobasidion root rot. The fungus loves the form of the plantation: Spores germinate on stumps and hypha spread from tree to tree on natural root grafts Monoculture calls out to fungal killers. In this multimedia installation, forest pathologist Matteo Garbelotto collaborates with artist Kyriaki Goni to show the linked processes of fungal infection and tree death.” (Nieuwe Instituut, 2026)

Part 2. Assassinate 

Fungi are not only capable of breaking off materials. They are also distinguished killers of species, especially since the dawn of the Anthropocene. In combination with the industrial infrastructure that came with capitalism, fungi have been able to work harder and faster in their path of destruction. Our focus on efficiency and productivity has given way for fungi to invade our systems. For some species, it is already too late. However, we can also recognize species that are currently under attack. How are we dealing with species that might under current conditions not be ideal for urban planting? And how do we make sure that existing species do not wither under our watch?  

Figuur 5 & 6: Ghost Forms, 2025 

“Incidentally imported fungi in the commercial nursery trade have been killing trees around the world. In this room you can see the 'ghosts' of four trees that. were felled by fungi or fungi-like water molds: a whitebark mountain pine that was killed by white pine blister rust; a eucalyptus felled by jarrah dieback; a European ash put down by ash dieback; and an American elm slain by Dutch elm disease, together with the galleries of the elm bark beetles who spread this disease. None died singly; each was killed in a mass attack. Remember their names - they were once part of our more-than-human worlds; now only their ghosts remain to tell their stories.” (Nieuwe Instituut, 2026)

Figure 7: Tomb stone inscribed with all names of extinct amphibians through fungi assassination (author)

Part 3. Mobilize 

The wild and free side of fungi can have devastating effects, as we saw before. However, we can also work together. This does include a change of perspective that might be hard to insert in modern society. It diverts away from a human-centric view. We might not be the most important species on Earth. When we see that fungi are designing our lives and changing it to their will, we might need other methods in many fields. Building with fungi instead of taking them as collateral damage. How can we insert this new perspective into the field of landscape architecture and spatial planning. The final part of the exhibition might not specify for us that clearly. However, taking this new perspective into future discussions might lead us all to new valuable insights. 

Figure 8: Multispecies Mound Builders, 2025.

“Do termites farm fungi, or do fungi farm termites? Either way, understand that fungi and termites work together in symbiosis* to ensure their mutual well-being. The termites bring food for the fungi and secure the best-possible conditions for fungal growth, survival and reproduction. In turn, the fungus breaks down plant cell walls to produce a food source that meets the nutritional needs of the termites. Take a look inside this mound sculpture to see real fungal gardens, built by the fungi and termites together. Through their joint work, mounds such as this one have spread across arid ecosytems in Africa and Asia.” (Nieuwe Instituut, 2026)

Figure 9, 10 & 11: Matsutake Lead The Way, 2025 

“The matsutake has long been Japan's most prized mushroom - and it cannot be cultivated. In recent years, volunteer groups have gathered to recreate the matsutake's favored places; these people aim to please the mushroom by building worlds in which it might like to live. Such worlds mimic the ecologies that the matsutake has created over millennia: well-spaced pines on mineral soils. Volunteers know that they must be humble enough to let the mushrooms take the lead. Anthropologist Shiho Satsuka and artist Liu Yi collaborate to tell the story of matsutake's landscape-making, both over deep time and in the present, and both above and below the ground.” (Nieuwe Instituut, 2026)

Figure 12: Un/Natural Wonders, 2025 

“In central Jutland in Denmark, a brown coal mine has left a barren landscape of mounds of sand, the unwanted residue of mining. Nothing grew there. Then along came fungi - of the most ordinary, cosmopolitan, disturbance-oriented sort. Fungi have been cultivating a forest on the sand. Look at the roots: Those exaggerated shapes are mycorrhizal* root tips, the joint organs made by fungi and trees. Savor them; play with them. Underneath our feet, fungi have built a city for multispecies life. Animali Domestici (architects Alicia Lazzaroni and Antonio Bernacchi) collaborate with anthropologist Anna Tsing in telling the story of the Soby Brown Coal mines - from the perspective of fungi.” (Nieuwe Instituut, 2026)

Final thoughts

Even though this exhibit did not have direct clear links to landscape architecture, its perspective and ideas can surely be translated. The uncontrollable spirit of fungi is yet another force of nature that we have to deal with. Their power to destruct and annihilate becomes more and more visible in current day society. In our fields of work, this can destroy entire green city networks or affect urban green spaces. It is again a reminder that diversity is not another box to tick, it is vital to the survival of all species on Earth. 

Maybe fungi also scare me because they can be reminder that all things will eventually return to the earth. From dust we come and to dust we shall return. However, they can also be a reminder that everything in nature is connected. Anarchistic fungi are then actually not anarchistic at all. Maybe it is us humans that are the anarchists to the natural way of things. 

References

• Nieuwe Instituut. (2026). Fungi. Anarchistic Designers. [tentoonstelling]. Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, Nederland.