Bacterial cellulose is a symbiotic union of bacteria and yeast, known as kombucha. Bacterial cellulose is a product obtained through fermentation or pickling — an eco-friendly material with great potential for application in biology, medicine, the food industry, and fashion design. I am interested not in its practical qualities, but in the cult status of this material and its characteristic poetry of strangeness.

Fermentation is a change in the composition of a substance with the help of a foreign organism — a bacterial culture that causes fermentation. Medusomycetes — or simply, Medusa — is a creature related to those that live inside us, an external representative of the human gut microflora, a symbol of interspecific entanglement.

In Judeo-Christian tradition, fermentation serves as an allegory of the gradual and subtle psychic transformation of the believer, which begins with a small and insignificant intervention — infection — and culminates in the acquisition of new properties. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven” (Matthew 13:33) or “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Matthew 16:5). The consequences of being infected with an idea can be either positive or negative. Leaven can help achieve perfection and attain eternal life, or it can lead to degradation and complete collapse.

The appearance of bacterial cellulose resembles animal skin, dead flesh. But it is not a dead material; it is still alive, but a sleeping organism. If water is added, the bacteria will wake up and come into contact with the environment. Thus, this material well conveys the aesthetics and meaning of the most important phenomenon for Christian mysticism — the worship of holy relics and communication with the dead as if they were alive. The relics belong to people who voluntarily sacrificed themselves, gained eternal life, and became the leaven of divine love.