@article{ART003312592},
author={So-Hyun An},
title={Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto},
journal={The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art},
issn={1229-0246},
year={2026},
volume={77},
pages={270-300}
TY - JOUR
AU - So-Hyun An
TI - Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto
JO - The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art
PY - 2026
VL - 77
IS - null
PB - 한국미학예술학회
SP - 270
EP - 300
SN - 1229-0246
AB - This article derives the operational mechanism of Swiss curator Harald Szeemann’s mnemonic system, the “Museum of Obsessions,” from one of its “samples,” Visionäre Schweiz. This show, organized as part of the curator’s “geographical exhibitions,” namely his method of subjective historicizing, imparted a “history as magnetic field” to creations by Swiss individuals from the 15th to 20th centuries, thereby presenting “introverted individualism” as a core component of Swiss spirituality. I claim that the method Szeemann employed to stage his ahistorical history was the “alchemical imagination,” the intersection between analytical psychology’s dialectics of heroic creation and Gaston Bachelard’s poetics of the four elements. Based on the alchemical principles that mimic nature’s creative ones, this method takes a dialectical structure of imagination, where the synthesis is conversely separated into the deep and the apparent. Centered on earth obsessions, Visionäre Schweiz presented a process wherein the four elements counterbalanced and conjoined with each other, eventually becoming one synthetic cosmic tree. I argue that such dynamic movement of alchemical imagination is none other than the Museum of Obsessions’ basic mechanism.
KW - Alchemical Imagination;Analytical Psychology;Gaston Bachelard;Harald Szeemann;Museum of Obsessions;Visionäre Schweiz
DO -
UR -
ER -
So-Hyun An. (2026). Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, 77, 270-300.
So-Hyun An. 2026, "Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto", The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, vol.77, pp.270-300.
So-Hyun An "Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 77 pp.270-300 (2026) : 270.
So-Hyun An. Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto. 2026; 77 270-300.
So-Hyun An. "Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 77(2026) : 270-300.
So-Hyun An. Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art, 77, 270-300.
So-Hyun An. Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto. The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art. 2026; 77 270-300.
So-Hyun An. Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto. 2026; 77 270-300.
So-Hyun An. "Harald Szeemann’s Museum of Obsessions and Alchemical Imagination: Visionäre Schweiz (1991-1992) as Pars Pro Toto" The Journal of Aesthetics and Science of Art 77(2026) : 270-300.
