Galafest La Araucanía: Artistic researches meetings on nature in an exhibition titled Cohabiting Biodiversity

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Based on transdisciplinary research carried out in the region of La Araucanía, the creations of national and international artists are brought together in the exhibition Cohabiting Biodiversity, which will present various exercises around the intersections of art and ecology. The exhibition includes works that emerged in artistic residencies developed by Fundación Mar Adentro (FMA), Valley of the Possible and Museo del Hongo – organizers of the conference together with the Interdisciplinary Center for Artistic Research-Universidad de la Frontera (CIICA-UFRO)– in the framework of galafest, a meeting that brings together participants from the Green Art Lab Alliance (GALA), an international network of artistic organizations dedicated to environmental sustainability through their creative practices.

The exhibition will be open to the public from Saturday, December 2 to Thursday, December 7 at the Universidad de La Frontera, Campus Pucón (Caupolicán 78). At the same time, on the day the exhibition opens there will be an opening ceremony at 12:00 that will show the works of the artists Claudia Müller, Seba Calfuqueo, Mark IJzerman, Sébastien Robert, Andrea Galano, Edge Agency, Nicolás Amaro, Margarita Talep, Yasmine Ostendorf, Rommy González, Andrea Spikker. Likewise, the closing day of the exhibition includes a series of collective activities, including a guided tour of the art exhibition, the launch of the book Let’s become fungal! by Yasmine Ostendorf and the screening of I’m a woman, I’m a hunter by Taiwanese filmmaker Rngrang Hungul.

The works presented in the exhibition address a series of creative and research exercises, which explore different aspects of nature in the context of the current socio-ecological crisis, exploring themes such as water, biodiversity, deforestation, and the fungal kingdom. These are areas of reflection that are present in contemporary art and are of special interest within the framework of Galafest, which this year will take place in Bosque Pehuén, an area under the private protection of FMA and an outdoor laboratory where research, learning processes, and artistic creation exercises are developed. Regarding this, Maya Errázuriz, director of art and publications at FMA, highlighted the meeting as a space to share creative processes and generate networks of mutual support in art, in terms of “an occasion where various subjectivities of artists and managers converge, nourishing a common sensitivity and shared approaches on the need to confront the socio-environmental crisis in a transdisciplinary manner.”

Meanwhile, researcher and curator Yasmine Ostendorf, founder of the Green Art Lab Alliance (GALA), valued Galafest as an opportunity to promote solidarity and mutual support among continents to face common challenges following a collaborative methodology based on the mycelial networks of fungi. “I see significant potential in adopting a different learning approach, such as non-hierarchical collaboration, which is fundamental in the functioning of our alliance,” she stated, adding that these collective instances challenge systemic structures “that coexist in capitalism, patriarchy, and extractivism.”

For his part, Juan Ferrer, director of the Museo del Hongo (Mushroom Museum), pointed out that, just as it is necessary to resort to collaborative metaphors present in the communication networks of fungi, it is relevant to incorporate all kingdoms in the reflection on the socio-ecological crisis, since, in particular, fungi have been historically set apart in biological research, becoming independent from the plant kingdom just a few decades ago. In this line, he also highlighted that we only know 8% of the world’s fungal diversity. In view of this scenario, he expressed, works such as Living Riddles by Andrea Galano –present in the exhibition– delve into the role of fungi as stabilizers of ecosystems and decomposers of nature, highlighting the relevance they occupy in socio-ecosystems.

Meanwhile, Olaf Boswijk, co-founder of Valley of the Possible, appreciated the opportunity provided by Galafest’s public events for the exchange of experiences and strategies with the local community. Similarly, he highlighted the presence of various cultural and artistic organizations in the event, as they are projects that address the ecological crisis with an artistic focus. “We believe that the arts play a fundamental role in changing our collective culture towards a worldview that sees humans as part of nature,” he reflected.

Milestones on the Galafest collective program

Sat Dec 2, 12 noon | Inauguration of the exhibition Cohabiting biodiversity. Welcome words from the organizers of the meeting. Presentation of the works of Claudia Müller, Seba Calfuqueo, Mark IJzerman + Sébastien Robert, Andrea Galano, Agencia de edge, Nicolás Amaro, Margarita Talep.

Thu Dec 7, 4pm | Closing milestone. Collective art and science experience: Guided tour of the Cohabiting Biodiversity expo , book launch and video screening.
Closing day:

16:00 Guided tour of the Co-inhabit biodiversity expo
16:30 Launch of the book Let’s become fungal! by Yasmine Ostendorf
17:30 video viewing of I am a woman, I am a hunter by Taiwanese filmmaker Rngrang Hungul.
18:30 Cocktail.

About the research and creation works present in the exhibition:

• Claudia Müller: Liquid Frontier . Visual story composed of three moments that cross the dividing line between the underwater world and the terrestrial world to address the relationship between water and the universe.
• Seba Calfuqueo : TRAY TRAY KO– Work focused on the conception of the trayenko (waterfall), vital and sacred space in the Mapuche worldview. The performance shows the artist with an electric blue cloak, symbolizing the body’s connection with nature when entering the river in its natural immensity.
• Mark IJzerman + Sébastien Robert: As Above, So Below. Explores the changing landscape of La Araucanía through images and sound, and the dualism of human beings’ relationship with nature through an investigation created from satellite, microscopic and drone images.
• Andrea Galano: Living Riddles. Video-installation that proposes conceiving lichen as a mythological creature. Throughout the work of this complex and mysterious being, we question the origins of life on Earth, the relationships between different species and human identity.
• Agencia de Borde: Crooked Trees. Work that seeks to portray an aesthetic of co-habitation that promotes the flourishing of natural and cultural diversities to think, through a forest, of other possible futures.
• Nicolas Amaro: Multiverses. Material and experimental essay with the photographic medium: deliberately obscured images that emerge from an exercise where the artist, camera in hand, records what captivates him in his wandering through the forests of southern Chile.
• Rngrang Hungul: I’m a woman, I’m a hunter . The film tells the story of Heydi, the director’s mother, who defies hunting taboos in the Truku tribe to become a renowned hunter. The plot highlights the perseverance and faith of the protagonist, revealing her life story and philosophical attitude through a mixture of writing and images.