in the forest, very quiet.

The former Cistercian convent Börstel with its early gothic brick church is hidden in the middle of the forest between the towns of Berge and Herzlake in the Osnabrücker Land region. In keeping with Cistercian tradition, the convent was built in a secluded location in the middle of the 13th century and even today you can still feel the peace and quiet, the spirit of life in monastic seclusion.

As the winner of the 2006 Hecker Scholarship, Nikola Dicke had the opportunity to live and work at Börstel convent for a period of three months. Based in Cologne, she was suddenly confronted with the seclusion of this place, with loneliness and silence.  With her light drawings, which she projected onto the walls of the cloister, the church and the crypt, she created mysterious pictorial worlds that are sometimes reminiscent of an enchanted forest and at other times appear as graffiti drawings on rough stones.
(Ulrike Hamm)