Maria Brænder

Slow Show (2021)

Installation in the Living Room, at the Medical Museum, in Copenhagen.

Brightly colored oyster mushrooms and fringe objects are intertwined in a micro-scale performance cycle of life and decay. The mushrooms have devoured the objects and performed their metabolic wizardry next to an uncontrollable growth of black mold. Now, in the lengthy final act of the show, the decaying fungal divas chant; where do we begin and the objects end?

Box installation with a prerecorded looped sound piece intended for intimate listening with headphones. The box contains a wide variety of discarded objects, many of which relate to a (mostly gynaecological) medical practice. It also encloses mycelium blocks, dried and moulding oyster mushrooms, and a pair of JrF contact microphones.

Photographs taken by Sara Valle Rocha and Maria Brænder.

The Living Room is an experimental project in the basements of Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen. The Living Room collective works across conservation, mycology, artistic practice and humanities research to rethink the lives of museum objects.

My focus has been to experiment practically with what happens if we allow objects to literally metabolize with others; “making-with” the more-than-human. This contradicts assumptions about stasis and stillness in the museum, welcoming movement and transformation.