The presentations at the workshop will start with the allegorical representation of a car for souls in Plato's Phaedrus and address both ancient ideas of a vehicle for souls (ochêma) as well as their reception as redemption, astral, or glorified body in the philosophical and theological texts of the Middle Ages and the modern era. The workshop was organized by Dr des. Bettina Bohle (Excellence Cluster Topoi) and PD Dr. Lutz Bergemann (Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center “Transformations of Antiquity”).

The accompanying light installations by Lena Gätjens deal with the workshop topic from an artistic perspective: Details of light and vision are combined with material details. The focus is on the engagement of the tangible and intangible – starting from the mode of action of the light, depending on the nature of an object to break at light, to pass through it, or to be reflected. Light becomes a central metaphor not only for cognitive processes in general, but also for ancient and modern ideas about the relationship between body and soul.

Lena Gätjens studied stage design in Graz and architectural lighting design at the Hochschule Wismar. She has been working as a freelance set and costume designer in the theater and in independent productions since 2006, and since 2013 her artistic focus has been on light installations and illustrations.

The Excellence Cluster Topoi is a research network of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in cooperation with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the German Archaeological Institute, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.