Choreospores: Mapping Artistic Practice Through Fungi and Movement
Text by Laima JaunzemaDeveloping a long-term practice is challenging due to unstable, scarcity of funding and lack of time, as many artists juggle multiple jobs simultaneously. As well, the unchecked assumptions and pressures of what it means to present oneself as an active, part of the scene artist, influence the approach to the notion of artistic practice and its related decisions.
The goal of the workshop series was to activate discussions around the fact that creating work involves far more stages than just generating movement material and then producing a new staged work. A practice that involves contextualising the idea, communicating it to the audience, reflections and other essential features that make up a performative work are essential.
These series consisted of three genuinely exciting workshops- laboratories, led by a different dance artist: Maija Hirvanen (Finland), Ana Dubljević (Serbia) and Jarkko Partanen (Finland), each representing a different choreographic practice and movement, thus offering the participants a wider range of ways of looking at the questions that the notion of artistic practice implies. Relating the artistic practice to their professional journeys these three international dance artists whose practice is closely linked to contemporaneity, the methodology of creative work, and the awareness and articulation of their practice, shared their complex and generous worlds of practices with the local community. Each workshop was closed with an artist talk discussion open to wider audiences.
This part of the text looks more closely into the artistic practice of Maija Hirvanen.
Maija Hirvanen (https://www.hirvanen.net/) is a Finnish choreographer, performance artist and teacher. The workshop with Maija referred to her artistic score system Mycoscores / Choreospores designed to explore through movement and dance the connections between fungal organisms and human ways of being. The scores offer starting points for exploring the movement, social relations and dance/ performance composition, as well as for the exploration of performativity.
At the workshop in Riga, participants were introduced to these scores, and together tried them out in practice, as a starting point to reflect on their interests, practice and work. As well the other working methods Maija employs in her work were introduced and experimented with. The notions of 'practice' and 'result' were explored in relation to understanding the creation of an artwork. As the first workshop in the cycle, Maija offered an important ground and a strong link in the thinking of an artistic practice further within the following two workshops- laboratories adding up to the reflections. In the closing discussion, she stated profoundly:
"Let’s not fetishize artistic practice as something individual. It’s more about how we share practices, how we learn from each other.’'
In a local dance context, this raises important questions: How can we create spaces for exchange that resist the pressure of producing finished work? How do we allow artistic research to remain open-ended, adaptable, and responsive? By thinking through artistic practice as a form of collaboration—whether with humans, non-humans, or the environment—new possibilities emerge, not only in dance but in the ways we structure creative communities.
Maija describes her artistic journey through two timelines: the early experiences that reside in the subconscious, shaped her sensibilities and artistic investigations that occurred through her professional career. Growing up surrounded by forests, dancing with horses and among her toys simulteniously playing with rocks, she later recognised how these embodied interactions had influenced her understanding of choreography. Over time, her practice expanded beyond dancing of various techniques into performance writing, dramaturgy, and investigating performativity itself. At its core, her work remains centered on bodily expression and its evolving relationship with the world.
At what point does a daily activity become an artistic practice?
Maija reflects on this transition: ‘Walking in the forest is something mostly anyone can do, but for me once there was a decision that there is more to it, I started seeing it as part of my practice, it began to reveal new meanings and connections to me. The way I observed movement, textures, and rhythms shifted. I think it is related to the amount of time spent on it, how it is shared with others, or combined with something else, how to revisit it, how to mold it. As with daily activities- it is rather a slow process how it unfolds as an artistic practice, at least this is how I relate to it. However I think there is a decision, some type of focus within it.’’
This perspective also informed her curiosity with fungi—what began as just simply applying inherited family and Karelian( eastern part of Finland) cultural knowledge, an ordinary Finish citizen act of foraging, evolved into a dramaturgical approach, influencing her collaborations with dancers, performers, and writers. Maija describes: ‘’I realised that something had changed in the way how I was working with dancers, actors and other collaborators, not that the methods changed, but something in my way of applying them, maybe a position, and it was not clear if it is maybe also because of getting older and softer, or the mushroom starting to operate through me. I like to think it's the latter, and started to playfully think about dramaturgical approaches more from the quirky unknown, and that it's not all in the art field , that maybe it is a bigger life force trying to figure it all out, rather than just human species. Allowing surprises, a sense of being lost. The parallels in naming processes in creation, how those are similar to fungi collection adventures in the forest.‘’
These processes had materialised in Choreospores, a publication containing 31 score cards. Each card presents a verb—an action that connects human and fungal processes, such as for example ‘decay.’ On the reverse side, a score unfolds in poetic and/ or instructional forms, inviting artists, as well as other curious people to engage with it in open-ended ways. These scores do not prescribe, but rather suggest—a spore-like starting point for movement, performance, and creative exploration. Maija describes them as a tool, not a definition, allowing for iteration, adaptation, and continuous transformation.‘’ The connection between the huge amount of time I had been working with dance, choreography and performance and thousands of hours I had spent in woods collecting and discovering fungi plays a huge role. The time spent is what first of all made a connection. To make these cards is not coming from a conceptual place per se. It is rather coming from the embodied experience, and of course I did conceptualise it, but the visceral time spent experience was translated into discourse and language. In general I get ideas by lived experiences, and sometimes ideas get developed into methods, but not the other way around.
For example I use these cards as a dramaturgical tool to support the process of creating the work in a nonlinear manner. So as they are chores-spores, it is rather as a suggestion of the beginning of the score- a single spore, it can develop in very many directions, the score on the card is not my artistic suggestion to others. It's rather doing it, and then altering, doing again and continuing to alter… The score itself is not a performance, it can become of course, but it would then require a more elaborated perspective I guess, as soon as something becomes public. I think about this publication as one type of manifestation about the interest in fungi, and even if it is printed out and published it is just part of the work in progress. “
This perspective also informed her curiosity with fungi—what began as just simply applying inherited family and Karelian( eastern part of Finland) cultural knowledge, an ordinary Finish citizen act of foraging, evolved into a dramaturgical approach, influencing her collaborations with dancers, performers, and writers. Maija describes: ‘’I realised that something had changed in the way how I was working with dancers, actors and other collaborators, not that the methods changed, but something in my way of applying them, maybe a position, and it was not clear if it is maybe also because of getting older and softer, or the mushroom starting to operate through me. I like to think it's the latter, and started to playfully think about dramaturgical approaches more from the quirky unknown, and that it's not all in the art field , that maybe it is a bigger life force trying to figure it all out, rather than just human species. Allowing surprises, a sense of being lost. The parallels in naming processes in creation, how those are similar to fungi collection adventures in the forest.‘’
These processes had materialised in Choreospores, a publication containing 31 score cards. Each card presents a verb—an action that connects human and fungal processes, such as for example ‘decay.’ On the reverse side, a score unfolds in poetic and/ or instructional forms, inviting artists, as well as other curious people to engage with it in open-ended ways. These scores do not prescribe, but rather suggest—a spore-like starting point for movement, performance, and creative exploration. Maija describes them as a tool, not a definition, allowing for iteration, adaptation, and continuous transformation.‘’ The connection between the huge amount of time I had been working with dance, choreography and performance and thousands of hours I had spent in woods collecting and discovering fungi plays a huge role. The time spent is what first of all made a connection. To make these cards is not coming from a conceptual place per se. It is rather coming from the embodied experience, and of course I did conceptualise it, but the visceral time spent experience was translated into discourse and language. In general I get ideas by lived experiences, and sometimes ideas get developed into methods, but not the other way around.
For example I use these cards as a dramaturgical tool to support the process of creating the work in a nonlinear manner. So as they are chores-spores, it is rather as a suggestion of the beginning of the score- a single spore, it can develop in very many directions, the score on the card is not my artistic suggestion to others. It's rather doing it, and then altering, doing again and continuing to alter… The score itself is not a performance, it can become of course, but it would then require a more elaborated perspective I guess, as soon as something becomes public. I think about this publication as one type of manifestation about the interest in fungi, and even if it is printed out and published it is just part of the work in progress. “
What has changed the most in the way of relating to and understanding performance via fungi?
‘Definitely, I had become more open in seeing what body, performing body is, the micro and macro scales fuse, and it is maybe in contradiction of what being in a human-centred narrative is like, but this makes the body to be perceived even more personal, and even if sounding banal I am deeply very touched by the life force and the universe. Also, principles of collaboration have changed, they are allowed to be wilder and bolder. I think a lot about how I am codependent on collaborators. I think of reciprocity, generosity, and safe space. Imagination of empathy, principles of life and principles of action, because it is not like you can directly compare the fungi body to the human body, nor imitate it. Fungi challenges the idea of individuality. They function through networks, reciprocity, and symbiosis rather than isolated genius”.
She points to how Western institutional knowledge has historically erased other ways of knowing, particularly in relation to ecology and care. By embracing a more porous, shared approach to artistic practice, she resisted the idea of the solitary type of genius artist working in isolation, instead fostering collective, process-driven creation.
Maija is also strongly aware of the historical context where she places her practice, it is well known to her that the relation to forest and arts always had been there, and is very old, but the Western context had cut it out for some 200 years, and now it is coming back, and is treated as if it was never there, but that is of course not true. To counterpart the ongoing consequences of the enlightenment era of male-dominated perspectives in since, where the credit of knowledge was taken away from its direct realm and institutionalised, Maija mentions a great inspiration contributing to her knowledge of fungi- a Chilean female mycologist Giuliana Furci (https://giulianafurci.com/).
Also, the relation to fungi and art history, for example, looking at the famous story about the composer John Cage and how he got interested in fungi reveals the historical context. Because there were huge financial crises and Cage had no money to buy food, his hungry motivation tucked him out of the New York streets to go picking mushrooms, to have something to eat. His relationship and interest in fungi grew, influencing his work and thinking of composition. This story is a typical example of modernism- and the imbalanced gender representation of this era, fewer women got recognition, men dominated the cannon, the understanding of knowledge and the ‘discovery’ of this knowledge, as well as the interpretation.
Being asked if there is anything as strong besides fungi that influence Maijas work, she expands the thought on how of course it is not only about fungi:
‘’Even fungi is the first time in my life something that has kept my attention for so many years. I think my work has always been feminist, and it's not so much directly about the themes, but in the ways of making. And I can say that my work is more in the context of post-gender feminism.
As well, something I have always been interested in is the relation between the body and language. In various aspects. I think it is somehow a miracle that we have this body that has language and understands the words, reflects backs, oral language- the word- the meaning…. This fascination is probably linked to more abstract curiosity, but what interests me is the relation between art and belief systems, the different ideologies. What kind of ideologies are operating, what do I connect with and what not? The mix of different ideas, but in a more abstract intangible sense. ‘’
Maija also talked about the obsessive nature she recognises in her ways of working. Obsessiveness is a deep dive digging, getting carried away- when it's not just horizontal exploring, but digging deep, it affects life. It takes over the mind. ‘’For me doing art is a way of living life, and contributing to the world, and it is a rather ecological way of doing it, in compression to other fields of labour’’.
Her deep dive digging is also present in the practice of collecting fungi, being asked what she is doing with the amounts she gathers, there is no one way to go about it, and it also involves very personal relations and life events taking place. Sometimes she organizes meetings and gathers fungi together with other people. Most of the mushrooms she processes or gives away unless it is better to use them as fresh as possible. Some of them get dried and grained in powders, tinctures are made, and the processing depends on the species. Some of the fungi she collects for only aesthetic, artistic reasons. Some mushrooms are not picked from the forest, because of their rarity, those are cultivated at home in the lodges. For example, the Lions Mane, mushroom is known for being able to stimulate the growth of new brain cells, among other beneficial effects on the body, especially the brain, heart, and gut. The process of cultivating this specific type had become for Maija a way of connecting to her father and reflecting on the complicated entanglements related to the meaning of acceptance, memory, letting go, and grief. All are strongly influenced by the fact that her father is navigating the deteriorating condition of Alzheimer's. Looking at this experience not just as only personal, but as the larger context where the population is ageing, it is rather the experience and story of many people to relate to.
The notion of fungi has of course very rich cultural and social perspectives possible to discuss, one of them approached in the artist's talk with audience members was about whether to share the secrete places where mushrooms grow with others. Realising how again human centred mindset it is to think that you are the one holding the secret knowledge of this place, Maija concluded the conversation connecting the sharing with the notion of practising art. To think of the sharing from the perspective of caring for the abundant places where mushrooms grow, her answer was environmental logic based- share it, but care for the place too, don’t take it all, so more can grow. Being an artist, in Maja's opinion is to deconstruct the idea of finding your individual genius uniqueness and its signature. She is convinced it creates a negative strange protectionism around making art: ‘’If you show only when it is ‘ready’ and wait for the price, how do you open up the practice and share, including to develop things further? If you think that everything is already created, it is good to share, because it can get only even more unique, because the actual labour of sharing influences the outcome and its detail, rather than the myth of genius. The artistic practice in relation to the curiosity of fungi can be one way to reconsider individuality and can be a method, not that individuality is not important, for humans it is, but for example for fungi most likely it is not, and it is good to also see how it is not. In general, I think the practice is a good word for understanding that there are different kinds of meta-levels to making performance. I think we should create practices not just for the sake of practice, but for social connectivity, for it to be articulated out because this articulation requires another protocol for us to be able to communicate it publicly (on a different kind of levels), and then the practice really can test itself”.
She points to how Western institutional knowledge has historically erased other ways of knowing, particularly in relation to ecology and care. By embracing a more porous, shared approach to artistic practice, she resisted the idea of the solitary type of genius artist working in isolation, instead fostering collective, process-driven creation.
Maija is also strongly aware of the historical context where she places her practice, it is well known to her that the relation to forest and arts always had been there, and is very old, but the Western context had cut it out for some 200 years, and now it is coming back, and is treated as if it was never there, but that is of course not true. To counterpart the ongoing consequences of the enlightenment era of male-dominated perspectives in since, where the credit of knowledge was taken away from its direct realm and institutionalised, Maija mentions a great inspiration contributing to her knowledge of fungi- a Chilean female mycologist Giuliana Furci (https://giulianafurci.com/).
Also, the relation to fungi and art history, for example, looking at the famous story about the composer John Cage and how he got interested in fungi reveals the historical context. Because there were huge financial crises and Cage had no money to buy food, his hungry motivation tucked him out of the New York streets to go picking mushrooms, to have something to eat. His relationship and interest in fungi grew, influencing his work and thinking of composition. This story is a typical example of modernism- and the imbalanced gender representation of this era, fewer women got recognition, men dominated the cannon, the understanding of knowledge and the ‘discovery’ of this knowledge, as well as the interpretation.