From 21 November 2025 to 9 August 2026, the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam presents FUNGI: Anarchist Designers, an exhibition that offers an unconventional perspective on the fungal world. Curated by anthropologist Anna Tsing and designer Feifei Zhou, the show challenges anthropocentric approaches to design, proposing that fungi are not merely resources or materials but active agents in the design process.
The exhibition centers on seven new works developed through collaborations between scientists and artists. Through paintings, sculptures, and interactive multimedia installations, FUNGI explores fungi as organisms capable of decomposing, recycling, and transforming matter, playing a vital role in the generation of new life forms. The exhibition is structured around three main sections—Break, Assassinate, and Mobilize—which present fungi as destroyers, mediators, and regenerators of ecosystems.
Highlights include coffee_rust, which examines the impact of a parasitic fungus on coffee crops and the vulnerabilities of monoculture farming. In Of Boar and Fungi: A Nuclear Love Affair, fungi, wild boars, and radioactive particles interact within a post-nuclear landscape. The installation yeast worlding explores the long co-evolutionary relationship between yeasts and the human digestive system.
In addition to works resulting from art and science collaborations, the exhibition includes three commissioned pieces, five manifestos, eleven loans from other institutions, two poems (including Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath), and an outdoor installation built around a tree stump, symbolising biological renewal.
The curatorial project aligns with a broader research trajectory that moves beyond conventional design practices. Here, fungi are framed as anarchist designers, agents operating outside systems of control and prediction, capable of fostering alliances between humans and non-human life forms. The exhibition proposes an alternative vision of design, one that acknowledges the autonomy of living organisms and the complexity of their interactions with the environment.
Anna Tsing is known for The Mushroom at the End of the World, a landmark essay that has significantly shaped discourse around more-than-human ecologies and alternatives to linear capitalist thinking. Feifei Zhou, founder of the studio terriStories, works across spatial design, ecology, and visual culture, translating complex scientific ideas into accessible visual forms.
Scenography is by the duo Marloes and Wikke, with graphic design by Jacob Hoving and Maud Vervenne.
Exhibition Title: FUNGI: Anarchist Designers
Location: Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Dates: 21 November 2025 – 9 August 2026
Curators: Anna Tsing and Feifei Zhou
Scenography: Marloes & Wikke
Website: nieuweinstituut.nl
