The Color Box/Alchemisten-Complex was the last larger block of solo performances Jörn made before engaging full time with the family in life and art. With it, Jörn explored the use of colors on canvas and on his own skin. Associations connected to the process were the idea of muting the voice of the old white male artist by melting into the background, and ideas about understanding the world by analogies rather than logic, partly borrowed from the analogisms between processes of chemistry, magic, healing and knowledge production that alchemy suggests. Another aspect of the project was the wish to leave a dramaturgical-narrative approach to performance art, replace them with techniques and views of visual art.
Two micro versions of the project were made in Copenhagen in the context of B&W. The first one, “Alchemists: blue”, had a small, but somewhat conventional performance art framing. It took place in the context of a performance event organised by Live Art Denmark in the artist run space Lokale in Nørrebro. The second one, “Alchemists: red” was made for video in our living room, and is published here for the first time.
