Many alchemists sought to emulate the divine act of creation—or even to surpass it. In this respect, alchemy is akin to artistic creation, asserts Jörg Völlnagel, curator of the exhibition “Alchemy: The Great Art.”

In mid-June, we therefore invited our FELLOWS & Friends to a curator-led tour of the exhibition at Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie. Völlnagel guided our group of about 20 people through the extensive exhibition, which featured more than 200 works spanning over 3,000 years of art and cultural history up to the present day. Among them were two works by Villa Aurora fellow Sarah Schönfeld: For her work “Hero’s Journey (Lamp),” she collected 1,000 liters of urine over several weeks at Berlin’s “Berghain” to subsequently fill a large glass tank with it. The illuminated tank reveals nothing of its mundane contents but, thanks to the special lighting from both ends, appears rather ethereal. Her second work shows substances on film stock in high magnification and alludes to the “form-seeking nature of substances,” an assumption in alchemy that every substance strives toward a specific form.

We thank Jörg Völlnagel for the guided tour of this fascinating exhibition.

“Alchemy: The Great Art” is on view at the Gemäldegalerie Berlin through July 23.

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