THE BIG FIVE  – the other face of cancer

Exhibition from 28 September 2025 – 12 October 2025 | Gelsenkirchen, Germany

“The Big Five” focuses on cancer seen through the eyes of a pathologist. Five large-scale paintings showing the five most commonly diagnosed carcinomas worldwide translate microscopic structures into a visual language that makes the invisible tangible. They are accompanied by works exploring tumour staging, mitosis, and histology..

This exhibition is not an attempt to find beauty in disease. Rather, it is an exploration of seeing differently and offering a perspective aimed at everyone working in the medical field and those who only enter it in times of need – stepping away from the glass slide, yet remaining closely connected to the fascination that the microscopic world can evoke in us.

The exhibition invites reflection on how we perceive cancer, on the balance of distance and empathy in pathological work, as well as on the intersections between knowledge, emotion, and image.