Mycorial Theatre 2016
“Mycorial Theatre” is a quasi-symposium curated by Milovan Farronato and Paulina Olowska and conceived in 2014. The past two editions, having taken place in the small town of Rabka-Zdrój, Poland in October 2014 and October 2015, included a number of convivial encounters and activities inspired by the principle of mycology. Starting with a pilgrimage, sleeping overnight in a forest shelter, the activities of the first two editions centered on inspirational journeys through the forests; on walking, sharing ideas, collecting mushrooms, contemplative actions and engaging in rituals and conversations. The uninhabited Villa Kadenówka – a 19th Century eclectic collision of highlander Zakopane and Hutsuls church architectural style – was activated by these daily events. The weeklong programme built in a crescendo, which was exposed to the public in an Open House where the abandoned building became a living object.
Building on these successes “Mycorial Theatre 2016” will go through a radical shift and move across the Atlantic; eradicating its muddy boots from the forest and planting its footprints in the middle of a metropolis. Luiza Bernardes will be the third edition’s gracious terrestrial guide as Mycorial Theatre moves from Rabka-Zdrój to São Paulo, co-organised and hosted by Pivô Art and Research. While shifting to a new location, the quasi-symposium stays the same: a mycelium, esoteric, an exotic community. Produced in collaboration with Pivô and supported by Culture.pl, the chosen shelter – formed of a section of Pivô – will be transformed into a staged, temporary house: Mycorial Theatre, still one week, a walk, a place of secret gatherings, a crescendo culminating in an Open House.
Coinciding with the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, which takes Live Uncertainty as its curatorial theme, the shared reference of mushrooms will be celebrated with a talk organised by Frieze on September 4th at 1.30pm in Pivô. Moderated by Dan Fox, with the participation of Lars Bang Larsen, Paulina Olowska, and Milovan Farronato it is titled ‘The Mycorial Hunt: From Theatre to the Mushroom at the End of the World’.
Participant artists present in São Paulo will be Paloma Bosquê, assume vivid astro focus (featuring Pipa – Comida de Papel and Yusuf Etiman), Delia Gonzalez, Justyna Górowska, Lucia Koch, Daniele Milvio, Augustus Serapinas and Georgina Starr whilst cameos from Magdalena Bernardes, Anna Bella Geiger, Adriano Costa and Prem Sahib will enrich the programme. Contributions from remote locations will be supplied by Chiara Fumai and Giulio Delvè. Much of the weeklong activities will be hosted in the headquarters of Pivô, on the second floor, next to the residency area. Turning this in to a quasi-domestic setting it will play host to meetings, discussions and group activities, culminating with performances.
Set amidst the cultural effervescence and fertility of central São Paulo, Pivô is a space for experimental and process-based art. Located in Oscar Niemeyer’s Copan Building, the monumentally sized tower houses a vibrant and diverse social life including shops, restaurants and apartments. Closed for nearly twenty years the spaces were reactivated as part of an initiative to use culture to revive the downtown area of São Paulo. With Mycorial Theatre, the participants will contribute to this reactivation. During the week, the participants present will live in the Copan Building, using the exhibition space at Pivô as a house where a web of different possibilities can grow and form..
