Rise from the Breath

Alchemy and Hermeticism, because of their holistic approach, again seem to be the starting point for the search for many answers. Intense reflection on the human position and the realization that we are part of complex processes within a global biotope seems to be the way out of many social and ecological problems. As a precursor of modern science, highly separating rationality from the rest of perception, alchemy synthesizes multidisciplinary knowledge from the Middle Eastern scholars, from ancient Egypt, ancient China, India and finally from European Renaissance scholars. In addition to the notorious obsession with the production of the Philosopher's Stone, alchemists, including the female ones (such as the famous Mary the Jewess, inventor of the laboratory water bath), were concerned with describing in detail the properties and behavior of substances whose rational and metaphorical knowledge would enable their enlightened guidance, leading to significant discoveries, harmony, and universal bliss.
The joint installation by Jindřiška Jabůrková and Julia Daňhelová does not only include the processes highlighted by the artists through their works throughout the duration of the exhibition. Water drips, limestone settles, pencil drawings appear black and white or silver-white depending on where you stand. The used oil dries into the gallery space, where it eventually blends with evaporated moisture and dust particles of slate and graphite, dusted from the symbolist imagery. This airy compound eventually becomes part of our collective breath, to which each of us adds our own alchemical ingredient.