About the project
Fungal Galaxies is a rare fusion of Science and Visual Art.
Fungal Galaxies is the unique experience of a microbiologist who dedicated his research to discover new fungal strains for use as beneficial biological agents in agriculture. This project is an exclusive manifesto of biodiversity that unveils the hidden beauty and complexity of filamentous fungi (moulds) that live within plants, from roots to seeds. Invisible to the naked eye when inhabiting inside their host, these fungi can be brought to light and cultivated on a macroscopic scale using advanced techniques that demand complete sterility and meticulous control in laboratory conditions.
Fungal Galaxies is a celebration of life on Earth, a gallery of colourful living beings that serve as an opportunity to reflect on the silent, extraordinary acts of Mother Nature at work, on the power of evolution, and on the unbelievable fact that only around 10% of the estimated species in the Kingdom of Fungi have been characterised so far. This project challenges what science is and can be, and goes so far beyond our possible imagination that it will inevitably reshape our collective understanding of these living beings.
Fungal Galaxies is potentially a source of new fungal species, as it was not possible to certainly identify at molecular level some of the fungi here presented, even after having extracted DNA of high quality and having compared it with other fungal barcodes in the most complete database of genomic sequences used for correct identification (NCBI).
