Marjolijn Dijkman – Navigating Polarities

About

NOME is pleased to present "Navigating Polarities", Marjolijn Dijkman's first solo show in Germany. On view will be new solo and collaborative works by the artist.

Marjolijn Dijkman’s artworks operate as speculative fictions rooted in scientific reality. Exploring perception and worldviews through the lens of diverse fields of thought, the artist asks: How can shifting between the macroscopic and the microscopic help us to imagine complex systems that are otherwise hard to grasp? 

The immersive video installation "Navigating Polarities" (2018) spans the cosmic to the cellular, from the forcefields of the universe to the balance – or imbalance – between mind and body, humanity and ecology. Projected on a dome-shaped screen, like the concave of the globe, combinations of historical materials related to physics, navigation and astronomy summon philosophical speculations into the future directions of life in the Anthropocene. 

"Reclaiming Vision" (2018), a film made in collaboration with Toril Johannessen, focuses on aquatic life forms that are invisible to the eye but that have been affected by human activity. The artists place microorganisms and pollutants from Norwegian fjords under the microscope in choreographed sequences, blurring the boundary between nature documentary and fiction. A series of photographic prints in heightened colors, composed from the film’s raw footage and titled "Aberrations" (2018) – a biological term for defect or deviation from the norm – zooms in on the timely concern of global marine pollution. 

"Navigating Polarities" measures the blind spots of anthropocentric perspectives alongside – in underwater filmmaker Jean Painlevé's words – “the mysteries and miracles of nature.”

"Navigating Polarities" was commissioned by the 21st Biennale of Sydney. The work "Reclaiming Vision" was commissioned by the Munchmuseet in Oslo.

Marjolijn Dijkman (b. 1978, The Netherlands) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brussels. Dijkman has had solo shows at Munchmuseet, Oslo (with Toril Johannessen, 2018); fig.-2 at the ICA, London (2015); IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2011); and Berkeley Art Museum, USA (2010). She has participated in the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018), the 11th Shanghai Biennale (2016), and the 8th Sharjah Biennial (2007).

Toril Johannensen (b.1978, Norway) is an artist based in Tromsø. Exhibitions include solo shows at Munchmuseet, Oslo (with Marjolijn Dijkman, 2018); ARoS, Aarhus (2017); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo (2016). She has participated in the 13th Dak’Art Biennale de Dakar (2018), the 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013), and dOCUMENTA 13 (2012).