This exhibition explores the dynamic systems shaping our world—urban sprawl, invasive species, digital flows, and environmental breakdown. The photographs reveal patterns, ruptures, and transitions, exposing the fragile balance between structure and randomness that defines our networked reality. Marike Schuurman is included in the exhibition with work from the series „Toxic“.
In „Toxic“ subject and object merge, allowing what is photographed to infiltrate and alter the image. Schuurman continued her research in the region Lusatia 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.
Photo: f² Fotofestival 2025 – dis/connect, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Jens Sundheim, 2025.
f² Fotofestival 2025 – dis/connect
13 June – 13 July 2025
