The Aromatic Wheel of Fungi by Isabelle Kirouac and Willoughby Arévalo
Isabelle Kirouac and Willoughby Arévalo
The Aromatic Wheel of Fungi
Site #1
Churchill Square
11:00am-9:30pm
The Aromatic Wheel of Fungi is a didactic, playful and immersive display where visitors can experience and interpret the diversity of smells found in mushrooms. The wide spectrum is organized into plant, chemical, bacterial, mineral, animal, fungal, associative/compound smells, and adjectives, which elicit curiosity, imagination, and memories. Be ready to experience olfactory delight, disgust and surprise!
lUNA Art Festival 2022 Revelstoke -92: Philippe Vernon
ACTIVATION & WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Olfactory Facilitation with the Artists: Throughout Festival Hours, June 28 – July 1, 2025
The Art of Fungi & Scents Workshops:
Saturday June 28: 2-4pm
Monday June 30: 2-4pm
*Registration Required
Mushroom Walk with Willoughby Arévalo in Mill Creek Ravine (OFFSITE): June 29, 2025 10AM-12PM
ARTIST STATEMENT
“Smell is interpreted in layers – personally, culturally and contextually, and this wheel continues to grow as more people and fungi interact with it in different contexts.”
This wheel is an experiential tool for supporting participants to recognize, identify, analyze, appreciate and discuss the wide range of aromas that are emitted by the diversity of macrofungi (mushrooms). Many mushroom lovers will habitually bring a mushroom to their nose (or vice versa) before taking a good look at it with their eyes. This demonstrates the usefulness of aroma to mushroom identification, but also the power that smell has in creating associations, memories and a sense of familiarity.
We conceived and developed the wheel collaboratively with input from personal experience, mushroom field guides, and the participants who have engaged with the wheel. Indeed, it is an ever-evolving catalogue of smells, and if you have experienced distinct mushroom smells not listed here, please let us know. Smell is interpreted in layers – personally, culturally and contextually, and this wheel continues to grow as more people and fungi interact with it in different contexts.
The first iteration of this wheel was created in 2018 as an art installation in residency at the Guapamacátaro Art & Ecology Center in P’urhépecha Territory/Michoacán, Mexico and since then it has continued to evolve into multiple immersive installations. We have shared this work on mushroom forays, in schools, in community art projects, at mushroom festivals, art festivals, and museums all over the world, including the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh Scotland, LUNA Arts Festival in Revelstoke, Burnaby BLOOM Festival of Eco-Arts, New Moon Mycology Summit in Mohawk Territory/New York & Abenaki Territory/Vermont, the Sunshine Coast Mushroom and Seaweed Festival in Shíshálh Territory/British Columbia, and more.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Isabelle Kirouac explores the poetic of the senses and more-than-human relationships through choreography, immersive experiences and community-engaged work. She has shared her practice across four continents. Isabelle holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from the School for Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, on the Coast Salish Territories, where she currently lives.
With the hands of an artist, the eyes of a mycologist and the heart of a deeply connected human, DIY Mushroom Cultivation author Willoughby Arévalo brings the practical and the joyful together through the science and wonder of mycology. His work is an invitation to not only learn from fungi, but to grow one’s true earthly relationships. His lifelong friendship with fungi has led him down a mycelial pathway and for over 15 years he has shared mycology with communities across North America and Europe.
Together, Willoughby Arévalo and Isabelle Kirouac lead The Art & Fungi Project, a series of artistic projects that provide sensory and playful experiences in relation to fungi. In this work they explore how fungi shapes and connects our world, grows the interconnections between communities, the land, and its more than human inhabitants.