Alexandra Bircken

The title seems to announce a comprehensive encyclopedia: from A to Z, each and every object or material has the potential to become an element in one of Alexandra Bircken’s charged objects and installations. Whether it’s packaging materials, machine parts, or bones, everything finds a use—the organic as well as the inorganic, raw materials and industrially produced goods. The constant reference point in her artistic explorations is the human body and its contradictory relationship to the environment, as defenselessly at its mercy as it is dependent on it. This catalogue is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of Bircken’s sculptural practice from all creative periods, which here enter into a dialogue that explores the artist's multi-layered statements on surface, body, movement, shell, and skin.