Unearthed links, a collection of sculptures made of mycomaterials
On 18 March, the travelling exhibition "The Unexpected Species. The human condition from art and genetics" was inaugurated on 18 March. Doctoral student Elsa Gil Benito, a member of the DESIRe research group and attached to the Faculty of Fine Arts at the UCM, participated with the work Vínculos desenterrados: una colección de esculturas de micomateriales (Unearthed links: a collection of sculptures made of mycomaterials).
The exhibition, curated by Francisco Antequera Márquez, José Gómez Isla, Luis Castelo Sardina of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid and the CSIC of Salamanca, will be presented at the Museum of Salamanca from 18 March to 4 May. It will then move to Logroño and Madrid in 2025.
According to the curators, "this exhibition project establishes a dialogue between scientists and visual artists to produce a complementary vision of the human condition based on current knowledge of its genome...". This interdisciplinary vision "seeks to investigate the perception we have of ourselves, our relationship with other organisms and with the environment and the challenges that this relationship poses for the future of our species...".
Vínculos desenterrados, is a collection of sculptural columns of mycomaterials in different dimensions. It was made as part of the doctoral thesis "Micodesign, meaning and significance in the new material culture, for its projection and application in design and art". In the search for a conceptual meaning for micomaterials in society, the doctoral student translates social perceptions into new languages of expression for their acceptance with the human condition.
Through Focus Groups, the DESIRe group approached different groups of students to get to know the perception of micomaterials, presented in different forms and appearances. The geometries inspired by the mycelium's own growth were related to those structures inherent to the human condition: neurons, biological chains, bone structures... By humanising the form, they are linked to it, they understand it and accept it. In this way, the set of pieces in random repetition assimilate it to living systems, tissues and organisms: a repetition that shapes us all.
Vínculos desenterrados collects these testimonies and brings them together in a collection of six volumetric pieces that are associated with genetic chains: with the structure of repetition that makes us different.
Vínculos desenterrados is an impact work for Elsa Gil Benito's doctoral thesis. The collection will travel to different locations in the Spanish region during 2025 as part of the exhibition "The Unexpected Species. The human condition from art and genetics", paid for as a FECYT project.
Bringing mycomaterials together in new expressive languages that understand society's perception opens up new paths in the new material culture. Visitors, mostly unfamiliar with the material, can access the sculptures from different perspectives to investigate them: from below, from the inside, from the outside, their different colours... In this way, they are encouraged to understand how they work and to assimilate them into their own organism.
The exhibition at the Museum of Salamanca is free of charge. It is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to 20:00, Sundays from 10:00 to 14:00.
