�鶹��ý

Skip to content

Mind

The great wonder and strangeness of the human brain

A dazzling exhibition in Lisbon celebrates the most complex of human organs with art that makes the brain sing – as well as revealing how chimps can outsmart us

By Alun Anderson

24 April 2019

gilded representation of brain — Self Reflected: a golden, hyper-real representation of the brain
Self Reflected 22K gilded microetching under white light. Greg Dunn and Brian Edwards. 2014-2016

Cérebro – Mais vasto que o céu/, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, to 10 June

A FEW steps inside the Gulbenkian Foundation’s latest exhibition, a crowd of visitors halts, entranced. There is a faint collective “Wow” as they look up. In a twilight space, an enormous video screen shows a slice of human brain, but with its long, looping pathways and layers of nerve cells shimmering in gold.

Colours change, the viewpoint…

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with �鶹��ý events and special offers.

Sign up

or

Existing subscribers

More from �鶹��ý

Explore the latest news, articles and features

EDITORIAL USE ONLY Quaz Qureshi in ???Museum of Edible Earth', a new exhibition by dr. masharu on display at Somerset House in London. Picture date: Tuesday March 17, 2026. PA Photo. The exhibition explores the practice of 'geophagy', the consumption of earth for health, customary, or culinary benefits, running from March 18 to April 26. Photo credit should read: David Parry/PA Media Assignments

Comment

�鶹��ý recommends sampling the Museum of Edible Earth in London

Culture

I don’t see images in my head. Can training give me a mind’s eye?

Mind

I don’t see images in my head. Can training give me a mind’s eye?

Features

Nelson Dellis holds his trophy after winning the annual USA Memory Championships in New York in 2011

Mind

Unprecedented insight into memory champion's brain reveals his tricks

News

EAF952 the end of the road where a road dead ends into the Salton Sea with a sign and barrier

Mind

Want to live forever? There are major questions to confront, first

Leader

1

The biggest threat to Chernobyl is no longer radiation

2

Neanderthal infants were enormous compared with modern humans

3

Exclusive report: Inside Chernobyl, 40 years after nuclear disaster

4

Collapse of key ocean current may release billions of tonnes of carbon

5

The man who crawls into the perilous heart of the Chernobyl reactor

6

Largest ever map of universe captures 47 million galaxies and quasars

7

How autoimmune conditions can unexpectedly drive mental illness

8

Monkeys walk around a virtual world using only their thoughts

9

My life as a meteorologist in Chernobyl under Russian occupation

10

Beef is making a comeback – does it fit into a healthy diet?