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“Alchemy is the attempt to build a world in which every thing is the mind and the hand of something other. A world where everything breathes and yearns in unison.”

Modern Alchemy is the brainchild of Viviane Sassen and Emanuele Coccia. The photographer and the philosopher—both leading figures in their fields—weaved together images and words, engaging in a fruitful dialogue deeply rooted in the Champagne terroir and the inspiring relationship Maison Perrier-Jouët entertains with art and nature.

“Art and nature are not only equivalent but that they are also twins born from the same mother.”

A series of 80 photographs and an essay intersect and collide, creating a space where the creativity of matter throughout all living things can be marveled at anew. Pictures mix and match with ideas, the history of planet Earth encounters that of artistic creation, and matter joins hands with the mind—producing an infinitely manifold work of art and establishing a modern alchemy where both vision and thought can be upended and renewed.

“As long as matter exists, nothing can prevent it from irreparably transforming everything around it. Such art imbues everything: each reality is more of an artist than a form.”