Ballon Rouge

Present Tense — A Practice in Attention is an ongoing photographic practice by Marlike Marks, centred around a simple gesture: looking up.

The project developed from a daily practice of photographing the sky above Rotterdam into a ritual of attention and presence. Each image marks a specific moment in time: a certain day, a particular light, a changing atmosphere. The photographs are not about the sky itself, but about the act of looking and the way repetition can transform our perception of the everyday.

During the presentation at Ballon Rouge, the images come together as a growing installation. Printed, dated, and arranged chronologically by hand, they form a visual record of an ongoing practice. The process of selecting, printing, and building the installation becomes part of the work itself, making time, care, and attention visible.

The installation can be visited from Thursday to Saturday, 12–17h. During these hours, visitors are invited to witness the ongoing process of building the work, as the installation continues to take shape throughout the presentation.

From 11 September to 26 September 2026, Ballon Rouge presents The Unfixed Line, a group exhibition bringing together the work of Vivian Ammerlaan, François Hendrickx, Anne Kære, Merel Klomp & Elmar Janse, Marlike Marks, Sanne Romeijn, and Dineke Versluis.

Water is never still. It shifts between forms, reflects its surroundings, carries traces of distant places, and constantly redraws the boundaries between land and sky. The Unfixed Line explores water as a force in motion, a space of connection, memory, and transformation.

Through photography and experimental processes, the artists in this exhibition approach water not only as a subject, but as a presence. Their works move between the visible and invisible, between vast landscapes and intimate experiences, revealing how water holds stories, emotions, and traces of time.