bewustzijn van schijn

drawings, paintings and three-dimensional works Marjolijn van den Assem text Florette Dijkstra

A letter that Friedrich Hölderlin wrote to a friend as a travelogue was copied 350 times by Marjolijn van den Assem with a dip pen. She watched the landscape through his eyes, the way he describes it, and empathised with the appeal concluding his letter: ‘Please write to me soon. I need your pure tones. The soul that reigns among friends, thoughts that emerge in conversation and correspondence are indispensable for artists.’

Marjolijn van den Assem writes in her preface: “That is how I became aware once more that words arise from one’s state of mind. The movement of the step, the looking up- and downwards, the colours of the sky, the scent of the storm, the bending trees, they all affect the form our thoughts assume.

On my 325th copy, a Nietzsche quote unwillingly infiltrated Hölderlin’s words: ‘there is something unsilenced within me, something that cannot be silenced, that wants to be heard.’ The essence of artistry. That brought me back to two of Friedrich Nietzsche’s aphorisms in his book The Gay Science: ‘The awareness of semblance’ and ‘Our ultimate gratitude towards art.’

Extensive exploration and visual comprehension of these statements have directed me towards contemplating the games that are played. The observation of daily life with all of its duties, conventions and guidelines. “

Dutch, English, German and French

size 240,5 x 320,5 mm 288 pages hardcover design Lecturis appears in September NUR 646 ISBN 978-94-6226-399-4 € 42,50 Marjolijn van den Assem (Rotterdam 1947) received the Hendrik Chabot Prize in 2019 for her entire oeuvre. Her drawings, paintings and spatial works are in the collections of many Dutch museums, including the Rijksmuseum, as well as in corporate and private collections.

In 2021, the solo exhibition “consciousness of appearance” will take place at TENT Rotterdam, platform for contemporary art

Previously published books by Marjolijn van den Assem: Seelenbriefe (2007) Sgelare (2010) de taal van de dooiwind (2014).