“Unknown Mushrooms”
Beside my main activity and business (a gallerist at Galerie Uberall), I’m a dedicated mushroom picker and, like the majority of gallerists, I have a great passion for collecting. Currently I own quite a large collection of mushrooms consisting of specimens picked in Lithuanian forests.
While building this mushroom collection, I couldn’t but notice a new mushroom species that I keep coming across… (I’m not sure how it should be called…) But it’s a highly resilient or, perhaps we should say, invasive mushroom species, which multiplies at the speed of geometric progression and is found in forests, near expanding settlements. I’ve never picked this species, but in 2018, I decided to give it a try. As I didn’t know how these species were called, l called them ‘Unnamed’ or ‘Unknown’.Mushrooms of these unknown species are presently found in almost all forests all around the world. It’s difficult not to notice them…
Perhaps these woods have such a large population of these mushrooms because there’s enough humidity and darkness…? Or perhaps these mushrooms grow in exactly the opposite climatic conditions…? I have no clue…
It is thought that these mushrooms reproduce via spores. It is also thought that spores are carried by animals in their stomachs. They also say: “mushrooms ‘travel’ underground, together with tree roots and species…”
Sometimes it seems to me that like all the others, ‘Unknown Mushrooms’ are reproduced not only by rodents or hoofed animals, but also by ‘Animals Wearing Boots’…
Together we will collect both mushroom species: “”Known”” and “”Unknown””. We will bring our collection on the operating table and try to separate “”Known”” from “”Unknown””. We will boil a soup on fire afterwards out of “”Known”” species and eat it together.
