Talaromyces Sevesus. 2024. Digital collage.. ©ValeriaFaillace
REMARQUABLE FUNGI. 2024. Photography.
In January 2024, French media announced that a team of scientists had identified a species of Talaromyces capable of breaking down hydrocarbons. By May of the same year, the first strains were introduced on Seveso-classified industrial sites along the Seine. Twenty years later, in 2044, these fungi have evolved into an endemic species, reshaping industrial landscapes. Wherever Talaromyces sevesus thrives, giant fungal structures—rising like control towers or chimneys—emerge as living monuments to bioremediation in action.
Through this documented fiction, Remarkable Fungi questions our relationship to time and resilience. By layering images of polluted sites with imagined narratives of their transformation, the project envisions a form of ecological realism: what if the solution to our industrial excesses already existed within living matter? The photographs—poised between document and speculation—become relics of a future in which nature, patient and silent, reclaims its place.
Janvier 2024. Les médias annoncent qu’une équipe de scientifiques français a identifié une espèce de Talaromyces capable de décomposer les hydrocarbures. En mai de la même année, les premières souches sont installées sur des sites Seveso le long de la Seine. Vingt ans plus tard, en 2044, ces mycètes ont évolué, devenant une espèce endémique qui redessine les paysages industriels. Là où le Talaromyces Sevesus opère, des champignons à l’échelle des tours de contrôle ou des cheminées émergent, comme des monuments vivants d’une bioremédiation en acte.Shown within the "Amers remarquables" collective exhibition during Normandie Impressioniste in Poses and Amfreville la-mi-voie from 17 May to 28 September 2024 with Dans le sens de Barge collective.