Alexandra Bircken is a German sculptor born in Cologne in 1967 and based in Berlin and Düsseldorf. Trained in fashion at Central Saint Martins in London, she first worked through clothing and accessories before moving toward sculpture. Her practice brings textiles, leather, wood, steel, mechanical parts and disassembled vehicles into tense encounters. These materials turn familiar objects into hybrid bodies that test boundaries between skin and armour, vulnerability and protection, handwork and industrial production.
Bircken examines how bodies are shaped by technology, labour, gender and social norms. Knitted structures may be cut open, motorcycles suspended or split, and mannequins combined with prosthetic or organic forms. Across these works, seams, shells and exposed interiors become ways of thinking about identity and power. She has presented major solo exhibitions at Museum Brandhorst, KINDL, Secession, Museum Abteiberg and The Hepworth Wakefield, and participated in the 58th Venice Biennale.
In 2026, the Capc Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux presents SomaSemaSoma from 12 June 2026 to 3 January 2027. The exhibition surveys emblematic works from the last decade as a passage through individual, social and mechanised bodies. Developed with Culturgest, Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne and Marta Herford, it continues the project’s European trajectory.