Nicole Bachmann works across video, text, sound and performance. She situates the body as a site of knowledge production used to explore alternative discourses within language and form.
By using movement and voice, Bachmann intends on subverting languages power and political relations that she believes is attached to normative vocabulary, opening up spaces or gaps in which to “embody vocabulary” where new meaning can be created. In becoming other-too, Bachmann wants to question the inherent patriarchal qualities of language through her own and others bodies, providing a refreshing and relevant agency.
Her predominantly collaborative practice reflects this subversion, evoking a sense of togetherness and reciprocity, searching for meaning away from the prescribed set of definitions she considers language exists within. Activating the individual as well as the group, Bachmann wants to inquire into how to become bodies of social and political change.
Working predominantly in mediums which are still underrepresented with the art market because of there non-physical, temporal aspects, Bachmann again wants to interrupt tendencies inherent to a system.
Nicole Bachmann (b. 1973, Zurich, CH) works and lives between Zurich, CH and London, UK. She holds a Diploma in Fine Art from Zurich University of the Arts (2007) and an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London (2010). Awards Include: Swiss Art Awards, shortlisted (2019); Freiraumstipendium, Zurich, CH (2018); Werkbeitrag, Stadt Zurich, winner (2015 & 2018); Art Prize 2008, Nationale Suisse (2008); Swiss Design Award (2003).
Bachmann has been exhibited internationally at galleries, institutions, biennials and fairs, including: VITRINE, London, UK; Singapore Biennale 2019, SG; Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, CH; Berlin Espace Diaphanes, Berlin, DE; Manifesta 11, Zurich, CH; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK; ICA, London, UK; Kunsthalle St.Gallen, St. Gallen, CH; Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK; Darling Foundation, Montreal, CA; Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK; Tenderpixel, London, UK; Block Universe, Performance Art Festival, London, UK; Helmhaus Museum, Zurich, CH; Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK; Haus der Kunst Uri, Altdorf, CH; LUX Artists’ Moving Image, London, UK; Art Hall Tallinn, Tallinn, EE; New York Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1, USA; Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK; Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, CH; Videotank, Zurich, CH; Cabinett in Kallio Kunsthalle, Helsinki, FI; Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, FR; Mimosa House, London, UK; E-Werk Freiburg, Freiburg, DE.
Residencies include: LUX, London, UK (2016); Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Edinburgh, UK (2015); Escalator program, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire, UK (2011).
Upcoming exhibitions include a solo show titled ‘Rub your shoulders with mine’ at TOPIC, Geneva, CH (17 December 2020).
