digital animation
two 16 metre public LED screens
4'43''(loop)
commissioned by the Fonds cantonal d'art contemporain, Geneva (ch), for the MIRE program
Every year, media artists are invited to realise works for the stations of the Léman Express city line. For Lancy-Bachet, a digital 3D-animation named Défilé was made for two 16 metre public LED screens.
Défile is a gleeful parade, a procession of colourful mushrooms moving across the screen in a dance-like rhythm. Scrolling text appears between the mushrooms; lines from the Mushroom Manifesto, inviting the people waiting for their trains to join the community of fungi.
Fungi have taken an important part in our artistic thinking for a number of years. Since 2022, we have started grouping our mycetic installations into a hypothetical corporation named "Republic of Fungi". The text of their founding document, the "Mushroom Manifesto", forms both nucleus and nutrient soil for this mycopolitical union.
At Lancy-Bachet train station, the motif of the mushrooms is linked to the image of a (sub-)urban transport network, which can be compared to the underground mycelium of stem mushrooms. Furthermore, we would like to understand the movement of both the passengers and the mushrooms as 'walking together in one direction', as an affirmative, yet eye-twinkling appeal for a culture of mindful partnership with other entites.