Exhibition at the Art Museum 10 February – 30 April 2026
Enjoy the Science
Macro photographs by Tom Tautz
What happens when you get up close and personal with science?
So close that shapes, colours and structures lose their usual meaning – and become art?
"Enjoy the Science – Macro Photography between Aesthetics and Insight" is an exhibition at the interface between art and science. In cooperation with Wolfsburg-based photographer Tom Tautz, the phaeno Science Centre is showing its exhibits from an unusual perspective: as large-format macro photographs that are abstract, sensual and surprising.
Science is often associated with explaining, measuring and proving. But before something is understood, it is seen. And before an insight takes
shape, there is a moment of wonder.
This is precisely where ‘Enjoy the Science’ comes in: at the threshold between perception and knowledge.
The photographs show details from inside phaeno – concrete surfaces, control elements, fragments of exhibits. Things that you would normally touch, use or overlook take centre stage.
Seen from extremely close up, they become aesthetic landscapes: reduced to structure, texture and colour.
What remains is pure form.
And the question: what do I see – and what do I recognise?
The exhibition sees itself as a connecting project and dialogue between the art museum and phaeno, building a bridge between:
Behind the project is Tom Tautz, photographer, artist and creative professional from Wolfsburg.
For him, "Enjoy the Science – Macro Photography between Aesthetics and Insight" is an experiment: an approach to science through images, aesthetics and intuition – and an invitation to see familiar things in a new light.
"At phaeno, I'm not looking for what can be explained. I'm looking for the moment when things cease to need explanation. When the camera is very close, things lose their names. What remains is colour, light, surface. What I see is not an end – it is a beginning. The camera gives me time: time not to ask what it is, but to feel what it triggers in me."
"Enjoy the Science – Macro Photography between Aesthetics and Insight" connects places, disciplines and perspectives:
An exhibition for anyone interested in photography, art and the beauty of the hidden – and for anyone who wants to experience science in a different way.
Enjoy the Science. And rediscover phaeno.
