Etienne Issa_Guerrilla Mycology : Found objects for mycelium composites
Atelier as part of CHANTIER
A project by Jean-François Prost with collaborators, presented by Skol.
At 6919 Marconi St à Montréal.
June 8, 2:00 pm-4:00 pm, 2024
(* the workshop will be the the following day, Sunday June 9th in the case of rainfall)
Introduction
Casting
June 15, 04:30 pm-06:00 pm, 2024
(* the workshop and event will be the following day, Sunday June 16th in the case of rainfall)
Demolding ;
From 6:00 pm: open to all, public presentation, music and bar
Project description
Introduction to Mycelium Composites Workshop : A process of waste valorization through fungi
Faced with compromised ecological and social entanglements, the workshop addresses nature’s ability to transform material life cycles through a circular evolutionary model. As we look to break away from exhaustive anthropogenic activity, fungi represent a drastic shift in the way we think of materials, enabling regenerative processes to disrupt linear trajectories. In this low-tech applied workshop, we will be making some mycelium composites grown on collected residual sawdust as substrate from a local hardware store. Each participant is invited to bring a found object that will serve as formwork to shape the organism’s growth. The workshop is divided in 2 days with one week apart, where the first day is dedicated to a brief introduction followed by casting for the first growth phase, and the second for demolding for the second growth phase. The collection of the composites will be done the following week where participants can either dry or bake their composites from home.
To take part in the workshops, please reserve at the following HERE
About CHANTIER
CHANTIER is an artistic, political and social investigation of the conceptualization and creation of a large display device situated on a vacant lot at 6919 Marconi in Montréal. For more than a year, this proposed structure will serve as a support for the realization of a series of collaborative, artistic and civic interventions.
6919 Marconi, starting point of the CHANTIER project, is located in a hybrid urban zone (residential, industrial and commercial) along a train line. For many years now, Prost individually and collectively initiated on this 1 800 ft2 lot different types of occupations, such as workshops, projections, launches and urban camping. Today, many city dwellers are challenged and drawn to this vacant lot as a space-time of stopping, slowing down and spontaneity in an era of acceleration and increased control.
Unlike entertained-animated spaces that are overly programmed and codified, as we know nowadays, the vacant lot stays wide open for imagination (without dictating how we behave, move and travel). According to the theoretician Benjamin Delmotte, this allows “multiple never-ending beginnings.”
For the CHANTIER project, Jean-François Prost will initiate an intervention offering a support on which other individuals can act and contribute to define its character and specificity in transformation. This participation and (co)definition process suggests an eventual negotiation about the land, which is vital for democracy. As the urbanist Jane Jacobs said : “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
The proposed actions will explore the theme of the vanished, existing and prospective urban diversity, as well as the vagueness of the place, and the unfinished aspect of the construction site as a vector for co-defining the city.
It is in this spirit that the CHANTIER project is being developed. More news will follow soon about the planned actions.
Discover the program HERE