Long Pan | 2024 Research Trip
Switzerland | Visual Arts
Visual Arts
Nationality: China
Research trip location: TBD
Long Pan (b. 1991) lives and works in China. She graduated from the China Academy of Art in 2019 with a master’s degree. She is a social practice artist working in art, research, technology and community, and is interested in human footprints in the environment, and biological responses to environmental change. and reads the deeper but often overlooked relationship between human existence and the environment in contemporary industrial societies through the medium of biology, in order to explore and present the ‘secret counterparts’ of the whole network of life in which human beings live. She was awarded the Prince Claus Found – Responding to Environmental Change Mentorship Award, and her works have been exhibited at the Beijing Biennale and Chengdu Biennale.
“Over the past few years, fungi have been the main medium of my attention, and reflecting on the connection between humans and nature from the perspective of fungi has been a major focus of my work. Whether it is the matsutake mushrooms in Yunnan or the kindling mushrooms under the Alps, they are windows into climate change. Especially in the context of the unusual weather of 2022, when glacier melt across the Alps hit its highest level ever recorded. And China is also affected, as we can see in the soaring prices of matsutake mushrooms, a change in the lack of life in the forests due to the heat.
The melting of the glaciers led to the discovery of Iceman, who died 5,300 years ago, in the Alps, and the birch mush found in his kit was an important kindling for his journey through the snowy mountains. So against the background of melting glaciers caused by climate anomalies, I attempted to climb the Alps and travel back in time as a modern-day person to experience Iceman’s walk. During the walk, I will observe the plants and fungi that migrate to higher latitudes due to climate warming, as well as the traces of ancient glaciers moving in artificial landscapes. We will explore the connections between the present and the past, between nature and the body, between non-humans and humans, and even between Switzerland and Yunnan.
The project is planned to use video, photographs and installations as media. It is also expected to connect with mycologists in China and Switzerland to find out the wide-ranging impacts of climate change on mountain forests in both Europe and China.”
(Photo by Jan Mun)
