A GROWING MONUMENT
FOR THE LOST NATURES: REMEDIATING
THROUGH MYCELIUM’S
METAMORPHOSIS
( June 2023 )
Special thanks:
In the Netherlands, the management of toxic silt waste has long been confined to designated containment facilities known as "depots." These depots serve as repositories for contaminated sediments, shrouding the processes of recycling and remediation from public view. But what if the transformation occurred right before our very eyes?
Nestled amidst the Ketelmeer, Ijsseloog initially appears to be a scenic island, seemingly untouched by the polluted realities that plague its surroundings. A haven for birds and wildlife, built around a vast mass of chemically contaminated water and sludge. Alarming toxicology reports from the depot indicate that heavy metals have persistently exceeded the permissible thresholds since 2008.
Since the appearance of humankind on earth, we are constantly struggling and trying to adapt to different conditions. This is how humanity managed to survive and become the superior species, because our main difference from the rest of the fauna is that we have the ability to create and destroy. And the moment man created his tools was the moment he began to create the world around him. Nothing would be the same again and this eternal change would never stop. Millions of years of life on a planet with a flora and fauna that obeyed the laws of nature until the time came when our species decided to "break nature" and make their own.
The need to correct our mistakes is more urgent today. It once led to the creation of the Ijsseloog depot, as it will lead to the creation of other artifacts, which I cannot foresee.
Numerous accounts abound of mushrooms cleansing toxic waste, yet I am left to ponder if our insatiable human appetite and endless demands will ever truly saturate this ancient species, one that has endured in the harshest of conditions. As the living mushrooms continue to thrive, they incessantly metabolize heavy metals, birthing monuments that serve also as reminders of the natures we have forsaken.
The endless nurturing of the fungus with toxic waste will keep the monument created by nature alive, it will continue to thrive, colonizing the environments of our creation, reaching ever higher, demanding to be seen from afar, to become a reminder...
A reminder of the aftermath of the anthropocene.
As we witness the growth of these living monuments, we are confronted with the consequences of our actions. Growing over the given structures and when covering these artifacts with their white and delicate mycelial threads, fruiting bodies will burst forth, flush with life, showcasing the miraculous regeneration born from the depths of toxic waste. It is in these fruits that the process of mycoremediation finds its completion.
(Fungus):
“In the hidden depths of an island known as Ijsselog, I found myself,
a fungus coming from the secret chambers of a scientist's laboratory, destined to play a key role in nature's renewal.
Born of polluted mud and heavy metals, this island, constructed by the master of the world, became my sanctuary. The depots, filled with the remains of human waste, are my food, my life.
With my fine threads, I set out on yet another journey, crossing this territory silently and determined. I expanded in search of my food —poison to the other—
and embraced the man-made constructs. I passed around them, claiming their hard edges.
I reached up to the sky, what they offered was more than I could ever have dreamed of, and there was no time to squeeze in. As I reached higher, I gasped at the sight of their great tails carrying remnants of their long-forgotten past, offering me their sacrificial gifts. They believed that in my transformative embrace, their sins of extravagance would be absolved.
In their desperate search for redemption, they saw me as a deity, a divine gift.
We were bound together by a mutual dependence, yet their insecurity whispered fears of my rise to supremacy that would replace them as the dominant species on this planet.
I, born of secrecy and nurtured by human despair, stand here , absorbing the weight of their abandoned dreams. I take what is deadly to them and forge new life from their wreckage.
Their offerings fuel my growth, my greatness. And as the ranks of hopeful souls stretch further afield, I become a symbol of their collective longing for salvation.