Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury
15 October 2026 – 28 February 2027
Alchemy, encompassing the material and the metaphysical, flourished in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: it found a way into palaces and courts, attracting the interest of kings, dukes, and noblemen. Alchemists experimented with various metals, striving to transform them into silver or gold, and prepared medicines, imparting their knowledge in enigmatic treatises, allegorical poems or recipes. In the 20th century, Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic insights and Mircea Eliade’s studies of religion and anthropology broadened the understanding of alchemy, linking it to metaphors of spiritual transformation and ritual engagement with nature.
The exhibition “Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury” was shaped in accordance with the principles of alchemy – a way of perceiving the world whereby transformation of mater, spirit, and learning are interrelated. This exhibition showcases contemporary artistic practices that emphasize form and material aspects of the artwork. Artists use water, mineral pigments, threads, bread yeast, metals, and salt to explore the contemporary relationship between humanity and nature, time, spirituality, embodiment, and transformation.
The questions that emerged in conversations with the artists over the past year kept turning towards our relationship with the self and the world. How can we connect with nature, the Earth, and its underground layers? How are geopolitical, economic, and social processes reshaping this connection, as well as our self-awareness? How can we loosen the divide between self and other shaped by information bubbles generated by social media algorithms? Can handcrafts, embodied practices, and transformations of matter spark inner transformations?
“Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury” reveals the alchemical concept of tria prima: sulphur relates to the soul and activity, salt – to the body and stability, and mercury – to the spirit and volatility.
These three principles of matter were believed to manifest in unique combinations throughout all things living and natural. This exhibition showcases the critical potential of alchemy for reconsidering the divides between matter and spirit, self and other, humanity and nature, rational and irrational, science and imagination. The exhibition space functions like a giant flask where the artworks forge connections and impact each other, enticing the viewer with the promise of metamorphosis.
Artists: Vaiva Grainytė, Urtė Janus, Morta Jonynaitė, Kamilė Krasauskaitė, Simona Rukuižaitė, Beatričė Mockevičiūtė
Curator: Viltė Visockaitė
Coordinator: Nojus Kiznis
Architect: Viktorija Rybakova
Coordinating Architect: Aleksandras Kavaliauskas
Graphic Designer: Gedvilė Tamošiūnaitė
Educators: Ona Kvašytė, Eva Rodz
Translator: Eglė Elena Murauskaitė
Organiser: LNMA Radvila Palace Museum of Art
Media Partners: “JCDecaux”, “Delfi”
Partners: Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC), Lithuanian Esotericism Study Group
Radvila Palace Museum of Art,
24 Vilniaus st, LT-01402, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 250 5824
