ROTTERDAM, 9 October 2025 – Nieuwe Instituut will open the exhibition FUNGI. Anarchist Designers on 20 November. The American philosopher and historian of science Donna Haraway, this year’s Erasmus Prize laureate, will attend the opening for a special conversation with Anna Tsing and Rosi Braidotti.
Image: Donna Haraway (photo: Lilly Pinedo Gangai) & Anna Tsing (photo: Isa de Jong)
A dialogue on more-than-human coexistence
Curated by anthropologist Anna Tsing and designer Feifei Zhou, the exhibition explores fungi as independent designers, allies and world builders. During the opening event, Tsing and philosopher Rosi Braidotti will lead a public discussion with Haraway titled Composing for Multispecies Survival in Dark Times. The conversation will focus on how vanished species and ecological crises shape human imagination and resilience.
Haraway, Tsing and Braidotti have each played a defining role in shaping global thought on more-than-human equality and ecological ethics. Their writings and collaborations continue to influence artists, theorists and scientists worldwide.
Erasmus Prize 2025
The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation has awarded the 2025 Erasmus Prize to Donna Haraway for her pioneering ideas on interspecies equality, openness and connectedness. The Erasmus Prize is one of Europe’s most prestigious cultural honours, presented annually to individuals or institutions who make an exceptional contribution to the humanities, social sciences or the arts. The award will be presented by King Willem-Alexander on 25 November.
About the event
Composing for Multispecies Survival in Dark Times takes place on Thursday 20 November at 18:30, introduced by Nieuwe Instituut and Geertjan de Vugt, director of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation. Tickets (€12.50) go on sale 22 October via nieuweinstituut.nl/events/haraway-tsing-braidotti.
Following the talk, the festive opening of FUNGI. Anarchist Designers will be open to all and free to attend.
About the FUNGI exhibition
Running from 21 November 2025 to 9 August 2026, FUNGI. Anarchist Designers presents fungi not as resources for humans but as autonomous lifeforms that challenge our drive to dominate nature. The exhibition invites visitors to rethink the boundaries between design, art and ecology, positioning fungi as collaborators and teachers in the act of world-building.
Supported by the Cultuurfonds, Mondriaan Fonds, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Iona Stichting, the project continues Nieuwe Instituut’s exploration of design’s social and ecological dimensions.
Getting there
Nieuwe Instituut is located next to Museumpark, a short walk from Rotterdam Centraal Station and Eendrachtsplein metro stop.
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