symbiosis
noun [ U ]
US/ˌsɪmˌbiˈoʊ·sɪs, ˌsɪm·bɑɪ-/
a close connection between different types of organisms in which they live together and benefit from each other

A rather unusual cooperative one might say, when 2 seemingly uncorrelated professions collide together to engulf in an experiment with near endless possibilities.
Elise Elsacker ( a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Bio-engineering Sciences at the VUB ) and Isabel Fredeus ( an artist engrossed in working with natural processes ) initiated this symbiotic relationship at the beginning of this year. Where the focal point of a scientist lies on collecting and analyzing data, this of the artist shifts to experimenting in a creative way with the material at hand.
In this case, the material is called ‘mycelium’, and it engages in a more or less similar symbiosis with his surroundings. It stretches his fungal threads in search for nutrients and in return it may enhance, prosper, or simply redeliver ingredients or characteristics to the beneficiary partner at stake.

Both scientist and artist, inaugurate in this collaboration from two different educational backgrounds and two dissimilar approaches. But rather than to oppose each other, this strengthens the ingenuity of the works on display.
The exposition is kind of like the fruit that sprouts from their mutual interest in Fungi, as a component, as an art supply, as a partner…comparable to a mushroom that sprouts when the mycelium has been nurtured enough in his natural environment.
All of this together could be seen by an outsider as some sort of love affair, a devotion between science and art.
In our case however, we like to call it A FUNGAL AFFAIR…

Sam Meersman