SEMG
The Société ethnomycologique de Genève is an association under Swiss law, established in accordance with Articles 60 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code.
Our mission
Study, preserve and transmit.
The mission of the SEMG is to make visible the relationships between fungi and societies: what fungi nourish, heal, transform, inspire, tell and transmit.
It is interested in field-based knowledge, production practices, culinary and medicinal uses, popular narratives, artistic expressions, objects, archives and oral traditions.
Its mission is also to build bridges between mycology, anthropology, history, ecology, production, cuisine, traditional medicine and contemporary cultural practices.
What does the SEMG do?
Projects to document, learn and share.
Library & archives
The library brings together books, journals, objects, resources and archives related to fungi, their uses and their cultural dimensions. The SEMG also builds a living archive of narratives, testimonies, images, vernacular names and practices connected to the fungal world.
Discover →Journal of Ethnomycology
The journal publishes articles, essays, field notes, interviews, artistic contributions and archival documents dedicated to ethnomycology.
Discover →Training & encounters
The SEMG develops spaces for training, workshops, conferences and exchange, allowing people to discover, deepen and share ethnomycology.
Discover →Mycological cultivation and experimentation workshop
The SEMG workshop makes it possible to cultivate, observe and experiment around the fungal world, in controlled environments and under natural conditions. It supports the association’s training, applied research, production and transmission activities.
Discover →Studio SEMG
Studio SEMG makes it possible to produce videos, programmes, podcasts, interviews, courses and educational content around ethnomycology. It supports knowledge dissemination, online training and the documentation of the society’s projects.
Discover →Geneva Fungi Fest
Geneva Fungi Fest brings fungi into the city through cinema, conferences, photography, cuisine, a mycological parade and public encounters. It celebrates the fungal world as a territory of knowledge, imaginaries and creation.
Discover →Statutes
Discover the association.
The Société ethnomycologique de Genève is organized as a non-profit association. Its statutes define its purpose, bodies, membership categories, governance rules, as well as the conditions relating to dissolution and the allocation of its assets.
The purpose of the statutes is to protect the society’s mission, ensure the stability of its projects and guarantee transparent governance.
View the statutesJoin us
Take part in a living ethnomycological society.
Joining the SEMG means contributing to a space dedicated to the study, documentation and transmission of the relationships between humans and fungi.
Our history
The Société ethnomycologique de Genève was founded by Mathieu Binbay, ethnomycologist, with the intention of creating in Switzerland a space dedicated to the relationships between fungi, cultures and societies.
Through his research, readings, projects and encounters, one thing became clear: fungi move through cultures, cuisines, traditional medicines, arts, narratives, techniques and memories, yet no space in Switzerland was specifically dedicated to them from this perspective.
The SEMG aims to respond to this absence: to bring together people interested in ethnomycology, to structure an emerging field, and to build projects capable of giving fungi a place in research, transmission and public culture.