Zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit

Zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit unfolds as a field of recurring serpentine forms emerging from an almost absolute black ground. Their bodies coil, intersect and move beyond the edges of the composition, creating a space that feels simultaneously contained and without a clearly defined depth.

The snake is a recurring figure within Marlon Nikolai’s visual vocabulary, associated with transformation, renewal and cyclical movement. Here, however, it does not appear as a single symbolic protagonist. Its multiplication destabilises the image: individual forms become fragments of a larger movement whose beginning and end remain outside the visible field.

Against the darkness, intense passages of blue, white, red and yellow acquire an almost luminous presence. The black ground is not merely background, but an active condition of perception — allowing forms to emerge sharply in some areas while disappearing or remaining unresolved in others.

The work reflects a central concern of the practice: the threshold at which something not yet fully graspable begins to become perceptible. Zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit holds this threshold open. Recognition is possible, but never complete; the image continually shifts between identifiable form and an uncertain space that cannot be fully located.