Artist | Liu Yi’s New Interdisciplinary Collaboration Matsutake Lead the Way
2026-02-28 11:08

The work Matsutake Lead the Way by artist Liu Yi and anthropologist Shiho Satsuka was specially commissioned by the Nieuwe Instituut (Netherlands Architecture Institute) and presented in the exhibition FUNGI: Anarchist Designers. The project was developed through close collaboration under the guidance of anthropologist Anna Tsing, architect Zhou Feifei, and scientist Toshimitsu Fukiharu.

Co-curated by Anna Tsing and Zhou Feifei, the exhibition FUNGI: Anarchist Designers brings together installations, films, and multisensory works by artists working in dialogue with scientists. The exhibition reveals the uncontrollable creativity of fungi within ecological ruins, radiation cycles, and even historical archives, inviting audiences on a speculative journey into symbiosis, decay, and regeneration.

Matsutake Lead the Way tells the story of how matsutake mushrooms shape landscapes—a process that spans deep time and unfolds in the present; that takes place above ground while extending beneath the soil.

Matsutake is a highly prized wild mushroom that cannot be cultivated artificially. It typically grows on poor, disturbed lands and forms mycorrhizal symbiotic relationships with the roots of trees such as Japanese red pine. Through this relationship, it creates conditions for forest regeneration in nutrient-scarce environments. Precisely in its profound dependence on environmental conditions—combined with its resistance to human replication—matsutake reveals its distinctive ecological significance.

From the perspective of matsutake, the history of Japan’s forests is not a linear progression but a repeated cycle of “disturbance and recovery.” Natural disasters, human activity, and war have repeatedly cleared forests, while fungal networks have continuously facilitated vegetation regrowth. As a life form that resists domestication, matsutake is not only a participant in ecosystems but also a revelation of the complex and fragile symbiotic relationships between human and non-human life.

In recent years, volunteer groups dedicated to forest restoration have begun clearing overgrown forests in an effort to recreate the conditions favored by matsutake. By cultivating environments that matsutake might prefer—conditions that emulate the ecological settings formed over thousands of years—these volunteers enable Japanese red pine and matsutake to reinitiate their process of mutual regeneration. The volunteers understand that they must remain sufficiently humble, allowing matsutake to lead the way.

Matsutake has guided the history of Japan’s forests.

Liu Yi & Shiho Satsuka
Matsutake Lead the Way

Director, Editor, Animation: Liu Yi
Story: Shiho Satsuka
Scientific Advisor: Toshimitsu Fukiharu
Design Advisors: Anna Tsing, Zhou Feifei
Music: Wang Chenfei
AI Technology: Zhang Rui, Liu Yi
Special Support: Nieuwe Instituut (Netherlands Architecture Institute)

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Related Artists: LIU YI 刘毅