Lucas Leffler, Zilverbeek / Crescent

Nearly a century ago, a man discovered silver in the mud of a creek in Antwerp. The reason was that a nearby photography factory producing films and photo papers discharged wastewater in the stream. The mud was filled with the precious metal and therefore the creek was named Zilverbeek, dutch name for Silver Creek.

In 1920, Lilly Kolisko attempted to prove the influence of the planets on the chemical properties of metal elements. Through experiments observing the effect of the various phases of the moon on silver-salt solutions she was able to demonstrate that there is a definite relationship between the moon and the metal silver.

These stories charmed Lucas Leffler and motivated him to re-enact them and to experiment with the silver element. Fascinated by the materiality of chemistry and technique of photography, these projects aim to reveal this bivalent nature, akin the photographic process, between science and magic.

Nearly a century ago, a man discovered silver in the mud of a creek in Antwerp. The reason was that a nearby photography factory producing films and photo papers discharged wastewater in the stream. The mud was filled with the precious metal and therefore the creek was named Zilverbeek, dutch name for Silver Creek.

In 1920, Lilly Kolisko attempted to prove the influence of the planets on the chemical properties of metal elements. Through experiments observing the effect of the various phases of the moon on silver-salt solutions she was able to demonstrate that there is a definite relationship between the moon and the metal silver.

These stories charmed Lucas Leffler and motivated him to re-enact them and to experiment with the silver element. Fascinated by the science and the technique of photography, these projects permit him to reveal an alchemical aspect of the process. A bivalent nature somewhere between the scientific and the magic dimension.