The work of Marike Schuurman (1964, Groningen) explores the ambiguity of human-made spaces and landscapes, as well as of the media of photography in which she works. While Schuurman’s approach can be described as documentary – her subjects are usually bound to a certain location, often as curious phenomenons of this site-specific reality – the final images leave the realm of the documentary, moving towards a conceptual and sensory contemplation on what we see when we look at a photograph and what was there to begin with.
In Toxic subject and object merge, allowing what is photographed to infiltrate and alter the image. After capturing the boulders used as memorial stones for the excavated or buried villages in Lusatia in her series KOHLE, Schuurman continued her research in the region and on the effects of open-pit lignite mining on the landscape. The mining industry left deep craters in the natural environment. Often these abysses are filled with water to create opportunities for future tourism. The water is currently still too acidic to sustain life. Schuurman took polaroids of the surface of these man-made toxic lakes and let the image develop inside the water. The different PH levels of the water, interacting with the acids of the Polaroids themselves, allowed a variety of shapes and colors to emerge: A visual manifestation of the un-naturalness of water. Presented in plexiglass boxes, Schuurman emphasizes the „untouchability“ of her source material.
Inkjetprints on aluminium, framed in plexiglass box; 104 x 85 cm and 147 x 120 cm, 2022
For Flashback Schuurman addresses the aftermath of the act of taking a photograph.
Magnified images of blown-out or defective flashbulbs allow us to look closer at the potentially destructive power of light.
The smooth glass surface becomes mangled with bulbous discoloration, while wires are tangled inside.
The image captured with the bulbs is discarded. Schuurman focuses instead on the process, highlighting the transformation and destruction behind the photograph.
Inkjetprints on aluminium, framed, museumglass; 112 x 75 cm, 2021
Schuurman causes 23 different passport photo booths to photograph themselves by throwing two euros into the coin slot and waiting outside until the photos have been taken and rolled out of the machines.
Inkjetprints of scanned instant photos of analogue photo booths; 69.5 x 54 cm and 64.8 x 64.8 cm, 2015-2018
KOHLE highlights the social and environmental consequences of lignite mining in the former GDR. Many villages in Lusatia were demolished, communities destroyed and craters left behind without any public participation. These interventions caused not only physical damage, but also social wounds.
The memorial stones that Schuurman photographed clearly manifest both a very distant and at the same time very recent past. They connect the most divergent periods of time and history and, as silent witnesses, serve as a reminder of that which is now history, which has disappeared and is now lying just below the surface.
This is exactly the point where Marike Schuurman applies her particular technique within this work group: she uses a no-longer-produced “peel-apart” instant film, which provides the standard colour-positive image, which for her needs is no longer relevant. Instead, the artist works with the initially almost invisible negative found on the black part of the film which has to be revealed by using an ordinary bleach. This negative is then scanned with transmitted light and printed. This specific method allows the photographs to appear somewhat washed out and yellow on the colour scale. First and foremost, these photographic works reference that which is missing, that which no longer exists.
Inkjetprints of reclaimed negatives on aluminium; 36 x 48 cm, 2017
Marike Schuurman’s series ‘Automat’ shows the interior of a booth, in which for a modest sum one could traditionally make passport photos and other photographs, which then after a certain amount of developing time would emerge from a slot. The artist took photographs using a polaroid camera – which corresponds to the technical process employed in the photo booths – of the swivel stools on which one sits for the photographs, at the various heights one needs to set according to one’s body height to be in the image properly.
Marike Schuurman, however, does not show us the polaroid photographs, she has in fact bleached the negatives from which the photos are pulled off, and produced strongly enlarged photographs from these. Unlike in conventional negatives or digital files, neither grains nor pixels appear because the basis is solely a chemical emulsion. The image definition and distorted colour range automatically lends the photographs the appearance of having been made in the 1960’s or 1970’s. The look into the photo booth thus turns into a look into the photographical laboratory, into a reflection upon how the manufacturing process of a photo is more decisive than the motif itself
Analogue C-Prints of reclaimed negatives on aluminium, 92,7 x 72 cm, 2015
Since 2007, the ‚Clean City Law‘ exists in São Paulo, prohibiting all advertising in public space. For ‚Expires‘, Schuurman uses old expired polaroid film to photograph the advertising-free city of São Paulo.
Every snapshot made with the SX-70 Polaroid camera results in one abstract picture after another, without any reference to what the camera has been aimed at. As if the old lens and the long expired film – one of the last available ones for this medium, threatened by extinction –, with a view of an entire city without any visual noise or clues, had been hit by a final blackout. The deliquescent, exquisitely colourful images, destroyed by time and saturated by the chemicals in the instant camera, are mysterious commentaries on their own disappearance.
Blown up into a large format, due to the lack of film grain in the Polaroids, they have kept their smooth depth. The film Schuurman uses is called “Time Zero”, as if it were announcing its own zero point right from the start.
Inkjetprints on alu-dibond, coated with liquid gloss; 150 x 184 cm, 2012
1999-2001 Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam
1993-1998 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
1985-1986 Vrije Academie The Hague, Film department
2009 Capacete São Paulo, Brazil
2008 Platform China, Beijing
2003-2004 Künstlerhaus Bethaniën, Berlin
1996-1997 UIAH Helsinki, Finland
2023 Art assignment at Mahler’s ‚Das Lied von der Erde‘, Concerthall Freiburg, Germany
Dialogue with Dorothée Brill (Staatliche Museen Dresden) at Collection Hoffmann, Berlin
Lecture Kunstverein Meissen, Germany
2022 Member of Jury Artprize Haus am Kleistpark 21/22, Berlin2021- Artprize Haus am Kleistpark
2019 dialogue with Andreas Fiedler at Collection Hoffmann, Berlin
2018 Workshop ‚ Visual Narratives‘, Earthquake, Minerva Academy, Groningen, The Netherlands
2016 lecture and studio visits ArtEZ, Art academy Arnhem, The Netherlands
2010-2014 Photo-documentation of the exhibitions in Ozean, Berlin
2013 Juror Final Reviews, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien
2010 Artist talk with Heike Fuhlbrügge at Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin
lecture at Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam
lecture Kunstraum Art Uhr, ‚Berlijnse avonden‘, Berlin
Art assignment Schipper-Bosch, Amersfoort ; concept photos of FAT Design building
2008 Stationsquare, Central Station Amsterdam; art-assignment for photowall 4 x 45 m.
2007 lecture/workshop at HKU, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
2006 lecture/workshop at Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam.
Demain est annulé, Fondation EDF, 2024; ISBN 9-782385-190316
Von der Erde, Marike Schuurman. Graphic Design: Studio Krispin Heé, Katya Lupanova, 2023
Alptraum, Marike Schuurman, 2021.
Battle Banners, Hester Oerlemans & Marike Schuurman, Xiamen,China, 2020
Memento Mori, GalerieDaniel Marzona, Berlin, 2019
Ruinen der Gegenwart/Contemporary Ruins, Kerber Verlag, 2017; ISBN 978-3-7356-0415-6
Weltbilder 6, Helmhaus Zürich, Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2015; ISBN 978-3-903004-82-5
Time Zero, Galerie Hamish Morrison, Berlin, 2012; ISBN 978-3-00-037075-5
Innerscapes, intervention in public space, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2011
Berlin auf der Couch, Autoren und Künstler zu 20 Jahren Mauerfall, Lettre International nr. 86, 2009.
Cat. Off the record, Proposal Municipal Art Acquisitions, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2009
The Chain, Berlin. Peeping Tom’s Digest, Paris/Berlin, 2009
Foam Album 08, Exhibitions in 2008, Amsterdam ISBN 978-94-90022-01-3
Eye-catcher, Marike Schuurman, Beijing, 2008
Cat. Autocenter 2001-2007, Berlin, 2008; ISBN 978-3-00-023731-7
Cat. Strategies for concealing, C Space, Beijing, China, 2008.
The world is bigger than Schijndel part 2, KEG Schijndel 2007
Believe it or not, Basso Magazin 5, Berlin; 2007
Plots, Marike Schuurman, Berlin, 2007
Cat.Dutch Dare, Contemporary Photography from the Netherlands ,Nai Publishers,Rotterdam, 2006; ISBN 90-5662-548-9/ 978-90-5662-548-1
Atelier Berlin, Kastalia, Amsterdam 2005. ISBN 90-8546-051-4
Spam, CBKG, Arnhem 2005
BE Magazine 11 “Critique”, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2004
Cat. Paradies, Eds. Torsten and Nina Römer, Berlin, 2003.
Cat. Living Apart Together, behind solid walls, VRIZA, Amsterdam, 2003. ISBN 9080738026
Cat. Regionalisten, Paraplufabriek, Nijmegen, 2002. ISBN 90 80738018
Cat. Dutch Delight, Foam, Amsterdam, 2002.
‘Kastalia’, nr.5-2001
Cat. L’oeil du Nord, Institut Néerlandais, Paris, 2000. ISBN 2-9515280-1-9
Cat. For Real, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2000.
Cat. Niet de Kunstvlaai, Uitgelicht 3, Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam, 2000.
De Verenigde Sandbergen, in: ‘Simon’s keuze’, nr.3, September 1998.
* Solo exhibitions
2024 Collapse is not a destination, Haunt at Frontviews, Berlin
Demain est annulé (Tomorrow is cancelled), Fondation EDF, Paris
Roosen & Guests, Kasteel Nijenhuis, Heino, Netherlands
Windless, ACEC, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
2023 * Von der Erde, Concerthall Freiburg, Germany
Together, Bradwolff & Partners, Amsterdam
Amtsalon, Berlin ( Dorothée Nilsson Gallery)
Unseen Amsterdam ( Bradwolff & Partners)
Hortus conclusus/ Der geschlossene Garten, Kunstverein Meißen, Germany
Spritz, Nationalmuseum, Berlin
* Toxic, Dorothée Nilsson Gallery, Berlin
Ailleurs, Installation Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin
2022 Rolling Snowball 14, Powerlong Artcenter, Xiamen, China
2021 Deceleration, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
Still alive, Works from the Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann, Albertinum, Dresden, D.
Battle Banners, Collection DE.GROEN, Arnhem, NL
2020 Kohle, Stadthalle Görlitz, D
Rolling Snowball 13, Djúpivogur, Iceland
* so far, (duo with Hester Oerlemans) CEAC, Xiamen, China
2019 * Page not found, (duo with Doug Boatwright) Nicoletti Contemporary, London
* Über alle Berge, Raum 3, Strategy Studios, BerlinMemento Mori, Galerie Daniel Marzona, Berlin
Viel Feind, viel Ehr, Peninsula Art Space, NYC
2018 Doubt, Installation XXII, Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin
* Man-Made, 2C, New York City, USA
2017 Contemporary Ruins, KINDL, Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Rolling Snowball 10, Datong, China
The documentary model, Nationalmuseum, Berlin
Rolling Snowball 8, Xiamen, China
2016 33rd Tehran International Short Film Festival, Iran
World Images 6, Helmhaus Zürich, Switzerland
2015 Installation XIX, Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin
A tale of two cities, Concordia, Enschede, The Netherlands
SOS, the presence of absence, Nationalmuseum, Berlin
Rolling Snowball/6, Djúpivogur, Iceland
Trinkets for the rich, Nationalmuseum, Berlin
Trois collectionneurs, autrement 2, Eté 78, Brussels
2014 IWF Mördertreff, Spor Klübü, Berlin
I’m not doing anything until I feel the need, DNB, Amsterdam
SOLOS III, Ozean, Berlin
2013 Pausen Bilder, ‘framed’, Ozean, Berlin
Heatwave, KADS, Kunst aan de Schinkel, Amsterdam
The picture show, Galerie Jaap Sleper, Utrecht, The Netherlands
The legend of the shelves, Autocenter, Berlin
2012 The dog days of entropy, Nationalmuseum, Berlin
* Blühende Landschaften, Van Zijll Langhout Exposities, Amsterdam
Installation XVI, Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin
* Time Zero, Galerie Hamish Morrison, Berlin
2011 * Stuck, Galerie ParKt, Amsterdam.
Im Büro Galerie Hamish Morrison, Berlin
* Innerscapes, intervention in public space, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
10 Images. Dieci Immagini, Cervia, Italy
* Hell, Nationalmuseum, Berlin
2010 Different tracks, Kunsthal 52, Den Helder, The Netherlands
Louvre in Heino, Photography from the collection Reyn van der Lugt,
Castle Het Nijenhuis, Heino, The Netherlands
* High Rising Grass, Ozean, Berlin
Lillestrøm, Akershus Kunstsenter, Lillestrøm, Norway
Installation XIV, Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin
The garden as a mirror, Goethe Institute, Lisbon, Portugal; and Künstlerhaus Bethaniën, Berlin
Solos, Ozean, Berlin
Fresco Mondo, Galerie im Regierungsviertel, Berlin
Mijn publieke ruimte/…to find emptiness in cityscapes, Gemak, The Hague
Girloverkill II, Künstlerhaus Bethaniën, Berlin
2009 This is not a gateway festival, London.
21C Silkroad Beijing, Korea Center, Beijing, China
Off the record, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
International Guerilla Video Festival, Dublin, Ireland
2008 Strategies for concealing, C Space, Beijing, China
* Etwas ist dazwischen gekommem, Souterrain, Berlin
Dutch Dare, FSM Gallery, Florence, Italy
* Eye-catcher, Sanctuary Gallery, Beijing, China
Expanding the City, FOAM, Amsterdam
Gruppenausstellung Neueröffnung Teil III , Autocenter, Berlin
2007 * Traceurs , Karl Marx Allee, Berlin
The world is bigger than Schijndel II, former pub Schijndel, in cooperation with Hester Oerlemans
Berlin-Amsterdam, folded or tilted realities, presentation of Rijksakademie on Art Amsterdam, curated by Erika Hoffmann
Dutch Dare, Erasmushuis, Jakarta, Indonesia
2006 * Hollandse Meesters, Bytheway, Amsterdam
* WERBUNG, Autocenter, Berlin
Dutch Dare, Contemporary Photography from the Netherlands, ACP, Sydney
Potsdamer Strasse 65
D-10785 Berlin
Tel: +49 170 5470707
E-Mail: gallery@dorotheenilsson.com
Opening Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday
12 – 18 h and by appointment