Comment emprunter l'œuvre Mushroom Foray ?
How to Borrow the Work Mushroom Foray?
Étude de cas sur les modalités d’emprunt et d’activation d’une performance
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A Case Study on the Loan and Activation Modalities of a Performance
26 octobre 2025 au 17 mai 2026
Depuis 2016, cette institution réactive chaque année l’œuvre par l’organisation d’une cueillette de champignons, conformément au protocole imaginé par l’artiste, dans le contexte du projet artistique Outdoor School. Cette démarche lie l’expérience artistique à l’observation du vivant et à la transmission de savoirs liés au territoire.
Artiste reconnue pour son approche sociale et environnementale, Diane Borsato explore depuis plusieurs décennies les liens entre l’étude attentive, le mentorat et la participation active, afin d’apprendre des savoir-faire pratiques et esthétiques — de la cueillette de champignons à l’apiculture, en passant par l’art floral japonais, la fauconnerie ou encore la culture du thé. Ses œuvres se développent à travers des relations de confiance et de collaboration avec des communautés et des experts issus de milieux variés, unis par leur engagement envers les pratiques qu’ils cultivent et transmettent.
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The Collection Room is devoted to making visible the MAC LAU’s initiatives developed under its new collections management policy, which is now structured around four distinct collections: the Permanent Collection, the Semi-Permanent Collection, the Outreach Collection, and the Intangible Collection. The latter is divided into two areas — one relating to the performative field, and the other to artistic practices and know-how.
In an effort to deepen its understanding and further research into the modalities of collecting performance works, the MAC LAU approached the Doris McCarthy Gallery of the University of Toronto Scarborough to borrow Mushroom Foray, a performative work conceived by Diane Borsato and Amish Morrell. Since 2016, this institution has activated the work annually by organizing a mushroom foray in accordance with the artist’s established protocol, as part of the broader artistic project Outdoor School.
At once a school, laboratory, and space for experimentation, Outdoor School offers a non-traditional pedagogical approach, liberated from institutional frameworks. It invites rethinking artistic creation through empirical experience — mushroom foraging, botany workshops, outdoor performances, and observation sessions. These practices act as gateways to alternative modes of attention and learning, grounded in the sharing of knowledge and skills, where the body cultivates a sensitive and embodied intelligence.
The process of exhibiting the archival component of the work, along with preparations for its next activation planned for fall 2026, continues the reflection initiated by the MAC LAU on the challenges of preserving and disseminating performative practices. Following the exhibition dedicated to the acquisition process of L’Homme de Nemiskashi by François Morelli and Le Kid du Lac Raymond by Didier Morelli, this case study contributes to expanding strategies for the preservation of performance-based works. It thus forms an integral part of the museum’s ongoing development of its Intangible Collection.