FUNGI: Anarchist Designers
In his manifesto, forest pathologist Matteo Garbelotto recounts an adventurous encounter with a mushroom.
He intertwines this childhood memory with the practical knowledge of the people of the Southern Alps and his own professional experience as an academic working in a Californian lab. The reality of millions of years of co-evolution still alarms the now 60-year-old professor, echoing the shock he felt as a six-year-old when a porcini mushroom brushed against his leg. Beneath the surface, fungal networks conceal all sorts of valuable secrets that we can discover through microscopes and computer screens, or on a foraging walk with the family.
“ I am six years old… a cold and somewhat slimy creature touches my left leg, right where the sock had slipped down exposing my bare skin... I stop breathing... I keep my eyes closed... When I open my eyes and look down, I recognize the chocolate-colored convex cap of a porcino mushroom… it is resting against my leg. I scream again, this time for joy.” ”
Matteo Garbelotto
Matteo Garbelotto is a forest pathologist at UC Berkeley who specializes in tree diseases and invasive pathogens. His work combines scientific innovation with a commitment to protecting forest health — one fungus at a time.
Other manifestos
Throughout FUNGI: Anarchist Designers, the case for an alternative worldview emerges. Rather than striving for control, humans should take inspiration from the cross-species, more-than-human alliances that fungi exemplify. In their manifestos, the experts invited by curators Anna Tsing and Feifei Zhou explore this shift in mentality. You can download all of the manifestos in full via the collection page on this website.