Katalin Kortmann Járay & Karina Mendreczky
Mingle and fuse
Exhibition opening: 21. 3. 2025 / 19.00 hod. Exhibition's duration: 22. 3. - 17. 4. 2025 Exhibition's curator: Krisztián Gábor Török
“All things mingle and fuse. All things are moisten and dry. All things flower and bloom in the bowl-shaped altar.”
— Zosimos of Panopolis
Alchemy is a continuous cycle of transformation, where matter, spirit, and story converge. Though often imagined as the work of old men, alchemy was never solely theirs. Women played a vital yet often obscured role through healing, metallurgy, and material experimentation—from Maria the Jewess, who pioneered laboratory techniques, to Isabella Cortese, who recorded alchemical knowledge in print. This exhibition revives their legacy, tracing the human-material loop where substances shift, bodies merge with landscapes, and knowledge lingers in minerals, metals, and ash.
Rooted in animist sensibilities, the work of Katalin Kortmann-Járay and Karina Mendreczky at SOPA Gallery in Košice suggests that materials are alive—holding memory, bearing agency, and embodying transformation. They reimagine alchemy’s transformative cycle through interconnected spaces: in the first, soil becomes an alchemical vessel—both archive and incubator—holding deep time in cycles of decay, fertility, and renewal. In the second, the soul centers the female alchemist as a keeper of intuition and ritual. The final space, spirit, opens into a blooming flower, embodying transcendence and dissolved boundaries.
Alchemy resonates today in our digital age through consumerist dreams of eternal youth and technological fantasies of immortality. Yet beneath these contemporary obsessions remains an ancient recognition: matter itself carries wisdom, continuously transforming and renewing in an endless cycle of creation, dissolution.
Katalin Kortmann-Járay and Karina Mendreczky have been collaborating closely since 2019, creating large-scale, walk-through installations—spatial collages—made up of diverse elements. In their work, they combine various techniques and materials such as textiles, photographs, and sculptures crafted from iron, concrete, and clay, to construct metaphorically fragile spaces. By drawing parallels between contemporary animistic perspectives, rooted in the ecological crisis, and their historical and cultural counterparts, they aim to engage with collective memory.
Their conceptual starting points often involve well-known texts like poems, rhymes, or even song lyrics. These narratives blend the symbolism of fairy tales, quasi-religious motifs, and mysticism. The symbol of women plays a prominent role, reclaiming and valuing qualities often marginalized in patriarchal cultures. The nurturing, care, and interconnectedness traditionally associated with the feminine are expressed through personified objects, creatures, and plants. This approach invites spectators to immerse themselves in the scenarios and explore the themes in a richly layered way.”
The program of the gallery is supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.
The Slovak Arts Council is the main partner of the project.
