Souvenirs from the La Nature 2024 Festival, where we were invited to create a 3-day immersive performance using the Domingo necklace we designed.

La Nature is an intimate art and music festival nestled in the heart of the Belgian Ardennes. The thematic cycle aims to follow the flow of nature and its impact on the evolution of organic matter and biological phenomena, from photosynthesis to decomposition and all the stages in between. In 2024, they entered the ‘Mycelium’ phase. We therefore offered a 3-day participatory performance in which 30 festival-goers were each invited to wear a necklace filled with beans inoculated with rhizopus spores. While the participants enjoyed the various festival activities, they all transferred their own body heat and energy to their little tempeh being made. They kept the necklace around their necks as they danced, vibrated and were inspired by the music and activities linked to the festival in the middle of the forest. They were able to watch the mycelium grow over the hours and days, giving them a very special connection with the natural process of mycelium formation and tempeh fermentation.

At the end of the mycelium’s growth, after 48 hours of fermentation, we came together again for a small tasting feast where each collar wearer was invited to discover their piece of tempeh by releasing it from the collar and smelling, touching and tasting it.

This immersive experience invited us to rethink our relationship with living things, by engaging in an intimate dialogue with mycelium, the source of life and transformation.

Courtesy of Margot Lavigne, Kat Closon, Juliette Viole.