09.09. – 10.10.
"Schieben, Drücken, Treiben".
Nina Bachmann .
Nina Bachmann
Malerei, Arbeiten auf/mit Papier.
„Rush Hour“ by Pola van den Hövel
Traffic crawls through the city at a walking pace. A few street corners away, a replacement bus service has taken over for a cancelled train line. People wait, push past one another, and make way. Everything is in motion, yet nothing is really moving forward. The metropolis thrives on this contradiction. It offers opportunities while simultaneously draining our energy. We grow accustomed to the fast pace of life, even when it takes its toll.
Artist Nina Bachmann is interested in this feeling. Her paintings are about pushing, pressing, and being driven along. Yet for Bachmann, the city is by no means purely negative. She draws inspiration from its density. The multitude of people and impressions generates an energy that can be both invigorating and exhausting. “You feel so driven, and at the same time, you somehow need it too,” Bachmann says, describing precisely this ambivalence. Her own surroundings often serve as the starting point for her work, as social and societal questions begin there for her. The city therefore appears in her works less as a specific place than as a framework in which to observe how people interact with one another and how these interactions change under pressure. Even the titles of her works read like fragments of everyday life: Rush Hour, Replacement Bus Service, or Staying Home do not refer to extraordinary events. Quite the opposite.
Language itself offers an entry point into Bachmann’s body of work. “Driving, pushing, pressing—these are all terms that also come from hunting,” the artist explains. During a driven hunt, animals are herded together. An animal “presses itself down” when seeking cover. Suddenly, the ordinary movements of the city take on a new meaning. One is the hunted, only to drive someone else through the streets the next moment. The pressure Bachmann describes is passed on. The artist herself observes a change in the way people interact with one another, though she does not pass judgment on it. Those who have to coordinate work, commuting, family, and financial concerns often have only limited attention to spare for what is happening around them. In the city, peace, space, and retreat are privileges. Making these available is not equally easy for everyone. Those with sufficient financial means can afford a quiet apartment, shorten their commute, or leave the city temporarily. What may seem like a personal feeling of stress is therefore also connected to the conditions under which people live.
Nina Bachmann translates these observations into a visual language that appears light and accessible. Her figures are vibrant, physically exaggerated, and at first glance bizarre: hands are oversized, limbs elongated, and perspectives thrown off balance. Bachmann studied communication design and came to painting through graphic design and illustration. This background is still evident in her direct, figurative visual language. The figures in her works may initially appear cute or absurd, and the titles, too, often have something laconic, almost humorous about them. Bachmann understands humour as an entry point. With prolonged viewing, uncertainty and exhaustion emerge. The paintings therefore do not work despite their comedy, but precisely because of it. The figures can be read as carriers of a feeling familiar to many: the attempt to keep up, to establish boundaries, and yet not disappear entirely into one’s own world. This very act of distancing oneself is ambivalent. Noise-cancelling headphones can make a crowded subway more bearable while simultaneously shutting out one’s surroundings completely. A means of coping with overstimulation thus also removes us, at least to some extent, from shared public space.
Alongside the paintings, Bachmann presents numerous sketches of urban scenes. They are deliberately assembled on simple paper. Through their sheer number, they create a dense bustle of figures, situations, and small observations. Rush Hour normally refers to the hours when the city is at its busiest. For Nina Bachmann, however, the term describes a state of mind. The feeling of being driven continues into everyday working life. The artist does not offer a solution. Her works are instead observations of a condition. Perhaps this is where a small counterproposal lies: in speaking to one another and sharing experiences. People may recognise themselves in the works. The city remains contradictory. It can be loved and questioned at the same time. Perhaps this is precisely the state that Bachmann’s paintings capture so poignantly. We are driven, we push, and we press forward. And sometimes, we still pause for a moment and simply remain present.