The Spiritual Legacy of Digital Aesthetics: Natacha Donzé’s “valeurs refuge” Exhibition

Can a gallery hold both an ancient symbol and the synthetic aesthetic of the digital age at once? Natacha Donzé’s valeurs refuge exhibition at Max Goelitz tackles this very question. It transforms the gallery space into an unstable pictorial landscape, stretching from intimacy to abstraction, from emotional weight to pristine surfaces. Like a digital ghost image imbued with ancient symbolism, the exhibition carries traces of transcendence, decay, and the cycle of life.

At the heart of the show is the painting not built, but born. This iconic work, depicting two skeletons facing each other like lovers in silence, is enveloped in a chromatic world of gold, acid yellow, and sunset hues, evoking a timeless sense of passage. The atmosphere feels both sacred and steeped in consumer culture. Drawing inspiration from architectural facades and bodily gestures, Donzé portrays sweating structures, touched surfaces, and worn bodies. She weaves together languages borrowed from corporate visuals, religious spaces, and biological systems.

Donzé’s practice focuses on exploring the tension between human-made structures and the emotions within us. The exhibition creates a fragile yet radiant cycle, spanning love and death, capital and desire, bodies and buildings.

Exhibition Details:

Venue: Max Goelitz, Berlin

Dates: On view through November 8, 2025