biography

Silvia Bächli was born in Baden, Switzerland, in 1956. She lives and works in Basel.

Bächli has developed her drawing practice working on sheets of white paper of different sizes, qualities and tones, and using Indian ink, charcoal, gouache or pastels. Using the body and its movements as a starting point, her work spreads into everything that can be considered part of the realm of feeling. In this way she presents a reality made up of fragments and impressions. The result is not just painterly moments: the drawings often seem to capture, as if in film stills, a cinematic way of looking at bodies and things or their details, at landscapes, gestures, structures, and processes. Her works tell stories without an actual beginning or end, just a visualization of a moment captured in time.

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Silvia Bächli was born in Baden, Switzerland, in 1956. She lives and works in Basel.

Bächli has developed her drawing practice working on sheets of white paper of different sizes, qualities and tones, and using Indian ink, charcoal, gouache or pastels. Using the body and its movements as a starting point, her work spreads into everything that can be considered part of the realm of feeling. In this way she presents a reality made up of fragments and impressions. The result is not just painterly moments: the drawings often seem to capture, as if in film stills, a cinematic way of looking at bodies and things or their details, at landscapes, gestures, structures, and processes. Her works tell stories without an actual beginning or end, just a visualization of a moment captured in time.

Important solo exhibitions have been dedicated to her, including: Silvia Bächli, Museum Langmatt, Baden, Switzerland (2023); Silvia Bächli. Along Long Lines, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany (2022); Side Facing the Wind, Fidelidade Arte, Lisbona (2021). Travelled to: Culturgest, Porto (2021); Silvia Bächli, Fondation espace écureuil, Printemps de septembre, Toulouse (2021) Interstices, LaBF15, Lyon (2021); Shift, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (2019); Situer la différence, Centre culturel suisse, Paris (2017, with Eric Hattan); weiter.wird.Les abords, Frac Franche-Comté, Besançon (2015); Brombeeren, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2014); Far apart - close together, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2012).

Silvia Bächli has been included in a number of group shows, including: “Warum ist nicht alles schon Verschwunden?”, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany (2021); Resonating Spaces, Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2019); Mask: In Present-Day Art, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (2019); To have a shelf live, Eric Hattan & Silvia Bächli, Art Basel | Parcours (2018); Drawing Now, Albertina, Vienna (2015); Biens communs I, acquisitions récentes, Mamco, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva (2011); elles@centrepompidou, artistes femmes dans les collections du Centre Pompidou, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010). She represented Switzerland at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). Bächli’s works are featured in numerous major collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunstmuseum, Basel; Kunstmuseum St.Gallen; Staatliche Graphische Sammlung and Neue Pinakothek, Munich; Mamco, Geneva; The Art Institute of Chicago.

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images

Untitled, 2021

Gouache on paper

144,3 × 409 cm (8 parts; 72 x 102 cm each)

Untitled, 2021

Gouache on paper

102 × 144 cm (2 parts, 102 × 72 cm each)

Untitled, 2020

Gouache on paper

80 × 60 cm

Untitled, 2020

Gouache on paper

80 × 60 cm

Untitled, 2020

Gouache on paper

80 × 60 cm

Untitled, 2020

Gouache on paper

62 × 44 cm

Untitled, 2020

Gouache on paper

62 × 44 cm

Untitled, 2019

Gouache on paper

44 × 62 cm

sette, 2020

Plaster, painted with gouache

7 × 5 × 10 cm

otto, 2020

Plaster, painted with gouache

17 × 17 × 11 cm

Untitled, 2017

Gouache on paper

72 × 102 cm

Untitled, 2013

Gouache on paper

62 × 44 cm

Untitled, 2012

Gouache on paper

62 × 44 cm

To have a shelf life (sich nicht ewig halten), 2018

With Eric Hattan

131 found wood sections and black paint (plywood, chipboard, mdf, acrylic)

500 × 1850 × 3 cm

Photo: Installation view at Art Basel | Parcours 2018

Photo: Serge Hasenböhler

public exhibitions

Museum Langmatt

Baden, Switzerland

Silvia Bächli

26.2 – 29.5.2023

Kunstmuseum Bochum

Bochum, Germany

"Warum ist nicht alles schon Verschwunden?"

23.11.2021 – 13.3.2022

Fondation espace écureuil

Toulouse, France

Le printemps de septembre Festival

18.9 – 17.10.2021

Fidelidade Arte

Lisbon, Portugal

2021-09-10

Silvia Bächli: Side facing the wind

26.11.2021

Photo: Bruno Lopes

LaBF15

Lyon

Interstices

5.2 – 27.3.2021

Fondation Beyeler

Basel

Resonating Spaces

6.10.2019 – 26.1.2020

Photo: Serge Hasenböhler

Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

2019-07-13

Silvia Bächli: shift

29.9.2019

Photo: Bruno Kelzer | kelzer.de © Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

Art Basel 2018 Parcours

Basel

2018-06-14

Silvia Bächli & Eric Hattan: To have a shelf life (sich nicht ewig halten)

17.6.2018

Photo Serge Hasenböhler

Musée Barbier-Mueller

Geneva

Faraway Arts, So Close in Silvia Bächli's Eyes

20.3 – 28.10.2018

Aargauer Kunsthaus

Aarau

Wild Thing

2.12.2017 – 8.4.2018

Photo: Ullmann Photography

press

Choreografien auf Papier. Silvia Bächli: Lange Lienien lang

Beßling, Rainer

ArtLine

September 26, 2022

Il disegno che compie narrative astratte. Oltrepassare i confini del supporto cartaceo, un trittico d'eccezione alla Galleria Raffaella Cortese

Caterina Angelucci

ArtsLife

August 1, 2021

Wander Through the Fixed Constellations of Artist Silvia Bächli

Shawn Ghassemitari

HypeArt

July 19, 2021

Räume ausmessen

Niklaus Oberholzer

Journal 21

November 24, 2019

Künstlerin Silvia Bächli bekommt Preis der Sammlung Ricola

Monopol

November 21, 2018

Silvia Bächli, Ana Mendieta, Nazgol Ansarinia | Galleria Raffella Cortese

Rossella Moratto

ATP Diary

May 1, 2016

Der Basler Kulturpreis geht an die Künstlerin Silvia Bächli

Karen N Gerig

TagesWoche

September 24, 2014

publications

Silvia Bächli

Stegmann, Markus

Hatje Cantz

Berlin

2023

Resonating Spaces

Vischer, Theodora

Hatje Cantz

Berlin

2019

Silvia Bächli: shift

Claudi, Kirsten

Kerber Verlag

Berlin

2019

Arts lointains si proches dans le regard de Silvia Bächli

Bächli, Silvia; Barbier-Mueller, Thierry; Boyer, Alain-Michel; Entwistle, Lance; Kurjaković, Daniel; Mattet, Laurence; Morin, Floriane; Vanderstraete, Anne; Wilmotte, Jean-Michel

Musée Barbier-Mueller

Genève

2018

Situer la différence: Silvia Bächli, Eric Hattan

Felley, Jean-Paul; Kaeser, Olivier (ed.); Bächli, Silvia; Felley, Jean-Paul; Hattan, Eric; Javault, Patrick; Kaeser, Olivier (texts by)

Les Presses du Réel

Dijon

2017

Silvia Bächli: Brombeeren

Bächli, Silvia; Reust, Hans Rudolf; Semff, Michael

Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König

Köln

2014

far apart – close together

Bitterli, Konrad; Halter, Jürg; Kuhn, Eva; Kurzmeyer, Roman; Naef, Maja; Pavlovic, Catherine; Reust, Hans Rudolf; Schmidt, Kristin; Stegmann, Markus; Veronese, Nadia; Wäspe, Roland

Verlag für moderne Kunst

Nürnberg

2012

Studio

Fernandes, João; Loock, Ulrich; Naef, Maja

Fundacão Serralves

Porto

2007

LIDSCHLAG – How It Looks

Bächli, Silvia; Söntgen, Beaten

Lars Müller Publishers

Baden

2004

video


Side facing the wind

2021

Fidelidade Arte, Lisbon


Silvia Bächli and Eric Hattan at the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

2019

The artists installing "To have a shelf life" at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe


Interview with Silvia Bächli

2013

On the occasion of the artist's solo show at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan

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