Draft:Museo del Hongo (Fungi Museum)

Museo del Hongo (Fungi Museum) is an itinerant space that seeks to re-signify the kingdom of fungi. It combines contemporary artistic practices and scientific research to design interdisciplinary experiences that are presented in a variety of works, raising awareness about the environmental importance of fungi and promoting the study of their multiple aspects, among them their biotechnological, aesthetic, gastronomic and medicinal properties.

History
The project of Museo del Hongo (Fungi Museum) emerged in 2015 as an essay by the designer Juan Ferrer, who established an interdisciplinary perspective between science and nature and affirmed that the Fungi kingdom was fundamental for life. Later, the project became a museographic and itinerant proposal that had its first presentation at the end of 2016, when 15 creators, designers and scientists exhibited their works at the Club Social de Artistas. Since then, the Mushroom Museum has evolved and has been exhibited more than ten times in Chile and abroad, participating in science and art events such as the Telluride Mushroom Festival, the Biennial of Media Arts of Santiago, the Ars Electronica festival, the weeks of science and biofabrication, the Fungifest of Valdivia and the Berlin Science Week.

Exhibitions
Museo del Hongo (Fungi Museum) has carried out various exhibitions that combine live cultures of fungi, artistic installations, virtual reality scenarios and works that raise awareness about the relevance of the funga on the planet. Some of the most outstanding exhibitions are:

‘Les Micobiontes’ (2021): A work that represents a forest soil full of complex relationships and nutrient exchange between plants and fungi, as well as infinite microorganisms. This work was created to live the VR Hypha experience, where you can immerse yourself in the underground world to understand the mycorrhizal symbiosis and the great network of communication that exists between living beings.

‘Guardians of the Fungi Kingdom’ (2018): An exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Valdivia, where unpublished works by the national artist Iván Navarro were included. The exhibition consisted of a variety of mushroom cultures that were guarded by Navarro’s fluorescent sculptures, which simulated being the guardians of the cultures.

Press
Museo del Hongo (Fungi Museum) has been recognized by various media outlets for its originality and its contribution to the dissemination of the Fungi kingdom. Two press articles about the museum are:


 * Museo del Hongo (Fungi Museum) is born, a living and unrepeatable experience.


 * The surprises of Museo del Hongo (Fungi Museum): the pioneering art initiative in Chile that is inspired by the science of the Fungi Kingdom.