Animate my ARS exhibition booklet
pronouns: any
Helsinki, Finland
katekuler@proton.me
katekuler.com
In a square room, I sit and try to answer questions about my identity, guided by a god-like voice. Those questions reveal how arbitrary and rigid our human identifications are. By diving into the fungal world with the same questions, I encounter a new possible world of present and future, formed in a fungal way, interconnected and based on genuine love and freedom.
TRUE LOVE (TOSI RAKKAUS) focuses on defining what is TRUE LOVE from the queer, non-sexual perspective. It showcases how patriarchy, wars, climate catastrophes and heteronormativity are interconnected within the topic of identity, and speculates on the possible brighter futures using the examples from the mushroom world. Patriarchy, wars, surveillance, climate change and heteronormativity are all intertwined with one thing – POWER, and fighting for it. Humans are used to exercising power to “conquer” nature or other humans, which ends up destroying our relationships with each other and the places we live in. Even love – conventional love, that’s portrayed as love between a straight cisgender man and a straight cisgender woman – is perceived and showcased in Western society as some kind of power dynamics, often imbalanced by the conventional gender roles. Striving for power in everything we do as humanity compromises our existence and literally kills the people and our planet, both environmentally and with wars and invasions. In “TRUE LOVE” I want to explore the possibilities of another kind of love, a love that’s not destructive. I am speculating on possible utopias and utopian future scenarios that are evoked by the kind of love that disregards power. The mushroom world can show us that love can be all-encompassing, all-embracing, and unconditional, and we don't need to put ourselves in rigid boxes to feel loved and valued. I believe that we as humans could learn a lot of great self-organizing and collective living principles from fungi. Some of them are already used by environmental, indigenous, and anti-war activists across the world. Great examples of such principles are provided in the book “Let’s Become Fungal: Mycelium teachings and the Arts” by Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodriguez, specifically in the context of Latin America. I intend to explore this kind of love that’s based on mutual aid, solidarity, being interconnected and intertwined with everything around us, and considering every living being with care, but more in the artistic way, within the animated medium.