Gints Gabrāns, Arnis Rītups (LV)
Sējējs (The Sower)
Video and mycelium installation, 2023-25.
Sējējs (The Sower), courtesy of the artists.
The work is created in the form of artistic falsification, where the author (me) becomes an agent of the spread and reproduction of the fly agaric (amanita muscaria) – a sower.
Not being a user of psilocybin mushrooms, I view this phenomenon from a distance and with detachment. But in the course of my work, I came into contact with people who use mushrooms to achieve altered states of consciousness and find answers to questions that are important to them.
My attention was drawn to certain observations and facts that aroused my interest and raised questions.
This passion and almost religious enthusiasm for psilocybin mushrooms is expressed by those who have developed a kind of relationship with these mushrooms. Is it possible that this is behavior caused by the mushrooms with the aim of spreading and multiplying?
For what purpose have fly agaric—which contain psilocybin—evolved as a persistent species trait, given that in nature, anything that does not help survival, reproduction, or propagation is discarded through natural selection and disappears as unnecessary? The effect of these substances is targeted at highly structured brains, such as those of animals and humans. And can we talk about a kind of psychoparasitism here, or is it a form of symbiosis or cooperation, manipulation, or something else?
And in the end, how is it that I, of my own free will – albeit in the name of art – became engaged in the sowing and promotion of the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria)? Could this not be, indirectly, an activity initiated by the mushroom itself, perhaps through those who already have a connection with it?
Gints Gabrans is one of the most prominent artists of the 1990s generation in Latvia. In creating installations, video works, and internet art projects, Gabrans uses an interdisciplinary approach to his visual research themes, combining insights gained from experiments in the exact sciences with free artistic fantasies.