In the spring of 2020, the Israeli painter Roni Taharlev invited a model into the Villa Walther. After the first sitting, the contours of a portrait could already be made out on the canvas. But a phone call ended the work abruptly: the model was infected with Covid-19! It was the first case of Corona at the Wissenschaftskolleg, and the concerns were accordingly great. The picture was never completed. Roni Taharlev titled it “The Harbinger of Corona”. Today, a copy of this portrait hangs in the Club Room – as a reminder of all the projects, conversations, and encounters that the pandemic interrupted or even precluded.

For more information on Roni Taharlev's work, see www.ronitaharlev.com