In TENT, Marjolijn van den Assem presents an exhibition that unfolds like an indomitable stream of thoughts. The performative side of her art practice, in which thinking is a physical action, is given free rein.
The whetstone of her thinking is the unruly work of the nomadic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. On the border between drawing and performative writing, she enters into dialogue with his books, letters and travels. What does it mean to sharpen your thinking on that of another? Van den Assem follows the trail of Nietzsche's walks and regurgitates pieces of text, to get a stream of thoughts going and to let them be carried to the limits of her imagination, regularly putting her physical limits at risk.
The source of inspiration for the enormous series of drawings that Van den Assem has made in recent years are Nietzsche's reflections on our relationship to reality. She draws from his 'Merry Science', named after the 'gaia sciensa' of the early troubadours that he saw as free spirits. Nietzsche experimented with concentrated insights through mocking poems and provocative aphorisms that keep thinking alive and fluid, just as the world in and about which we think is always in motion. Van den Assem in turn tries impatiently—with ink, pencil, knife, staple gun and, where necessary, the use of her full weight—to pin down her thoughts in motion, until they are played out or burst at the seams. And each time, next to or behind each attempt, another image forces itself upon us.
In addition to an exhibition, 'awareness of appearances' is also an artist's book that was published in 2021. You can watch the book presentation again via the button below. From 36 minutes Marjolijn is interviewed by Mirjam Westen.