Nadine Fecht (b. 1976, Mannheim) studied art and archaeological drawing at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, Humboldt University Berlin, California College of the Arts San Francisco and the Berlin University of the Arts. She works primarily as a draughtswoman but also makes videos and space-related installations. She currently teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Bauhaus University Weimar.
Nadine Fecht works as a conceptual artist with the media of drawing, language, writing, sound and video. She challenges the idea of drawing as individual expression and uses a wide range of techniques such as collage, overdrawing and drawing with carbon paper. Starting from personal questions such as the role of the artist, her work addresses broader social issues—democratic processes and economic and political power structures (gender, racism, class). The tension between the realisation of the individual—whether as a drawing artist or as a member of society—is the theme of the five-part series Jedes Kollektiv braucht eine Richtung (Every collective needs a direction) (2013), which she made not with a single ballpoint pen but with a bundle of 600 pens, clamping them between her forearms and moving them across the paper. The trace of the single pen disappears in the collective of the bundle of lines. In the form of a drawing process, a political question is raised that has become increasingly urgent in the last decade, not only in Germany: how much must the individual submit to society, how far can solidarity be expected in a society?
Source: Kunstmuseum Basel | Dr. Anita Haldemann
Image: Nadine Fecht
