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»My work doesn’t fit into any single genre; it might be literature, it might be visual art, it might be performance, it might be science. Perhaps that ‘perhaps’—that state of limbo—is what defines my work.« ⸺Helen Brecht                           

Helen Brecht (b. 1987, lives and works in Cologne) is the recipient of the 2026 KHM Art Sponsorship Award for female* artists (FLINTA*). In her text-based work, Helen Brecht focuses on queer-feminist issues and the examination of vulnerability as a social and individual category. Helen Brecht understands text as material with performative qualities. She is interested in the interactivity of texts: their relationship to space, material, time, and the body. In her text graphics, installations, and audio pieces, Helen Brecht combines and condenses scientific research, theory, and poetics into “nests of fragility.”

The exhibition at Museum Morsbroich features several bodies of work by the artist from the past three years, including the research-based text installation Archives & Butterflies (2025), the audio-video installation Heute machen wir die Augen zu und sehen noch genau so viel (Today we close our eyes and see just as much, 2023)—which draws on texts by women with and without dementia—, and the installation Stilllegung eines Öltanks (Decommissioning of an oil tank, 2022), created in collaboration with Tanja Kodlin.

Helen Brecht studied Applied Theater Studies at Justus Liebig University in Giessen and then Literary Writing at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), graduating with a diploma in 2025. She is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Institute for Theater Studies at Ruhr University Bochum.

The KHM Sponsorship Award for Artists (FLINTA*), endowed with 1,000 euros, has been established between the KHM's Equal Opportunities Department and the Museum Morsbroich since 2020. The aim of the award is to support, network and present emerging female artists* on their transition from art school to the free market and to a broad audience.