On November 29, 2025, a group of ten participants explored the exhibition “Between the Lines” by artist Marjolin Dijkman with great curiosity and ingenuity.

The various thematic areas were approached through discursive and creative practices. Associatively, answers were developed to questions such as: What material do we see? What is the difference between charge and voltage? How do frequent optical repetitions arise in nature, such as between fulgurites and sprouting potatoes or marine corals?

In this workshop, artist, art historian, and art educator Flora Lou Matilde Saß guided a group of students through the exhibition spaces. The mix of students from Kassel and Göttingen studying art and biology was a perfect fit for the selection of works, which focused primarily on biology—such as forests and microorganisms.

After a two-hour tour of the exhibition spaces and many discussions, the hands-on work began. In exploring the theme of “Electronics and Rare Earths,” the artist aims to make hidden processes and mechanisms visible to the human eye once again. Here, the group also worked with structures that appear on an electronic screen and are photographed with a cell phone. Printed on plastic film, the textured images served as a base for embroidery or for wiggle pictures, which were crafted to create shifting effects through movement.

In the thematic area “Aftermath of Verdun,” Marjolijn Dijkman explores the visual analogy between shrapnel and tree bark, into which she mills bark beetle tunnels. Taking their own everyday paths as a starting point, some participants traced lines in embossed foil, which can be understood as their personal “life bark.” Among other things, they also experimented with the foil’s outline by incorporating structures reminiscent of the electronic aura from the work “Depth Discharge”.

Dijkman establishes the third thematic focus with microscopic images of tiny aquatic creatures, which she sets to melancholic film music. This combination of visual and auditory elements, characterized by contrasts, was also explored in a film created by two participants: they set images of ink in water to sounds recorded at the exhibition.

Finally, the participants presented their work to one another and proudly took it home with them.

Text: Flora Saß