Line by Line: Marbod Fritsch Presents the 2026 Xmas Edition "Konstruktionen".
For Marbod Fritsch, it all begins with an everyday tool: the ballpoint pen. It is his preferred instrument, and he works with it line by line. Watch our video artist portrait to see how Marbod Fritsch created this year’s artwork and the limited-edition Caran D'Ache pen.
We share a special connection with the Vorarlberg-based artist Marbod Fritsch: in 2023, together with him, we held the 70th exhibition of our art programme in Dornbirn and Feldkirch. This year, he has created the foryouandyourcustomers Christmas edition “Konstruktionen” (Constructions). What first appears strict and geometric gradually condenses, overlaps and finally dissolves under his hand.
Marbod Fritsch has a particular fondness for the ballpoint pen. What sounds like an ordinary tool becomes, in his hands, an instrument of both precision and poetry. Line upon line, structures build up and overlap in his works until something new arises from seemingly rigid geometric orders. Marbod is drawn to the moment when the precisely constructed begins to dissolve, leaving room for feeling, movement and personal interpretation.
His works are quiet, focused and meditative. They invite us to look more closely and to follow the shift between construction and dissolution for ourselves. Time and again, Marbod draws on textual and symbolic codes to explore how reality takes shape and falls apart again.
A Ballpoint Pen as a Work of Art
This year, the edition comes with a special addition: a limited-edition Caran d’Ache ballpoint pen designed by Marbod Fritsch. Caran d’Ache, the Swiss manufacturer of premium writing instruments, has been crafting its products in Geneva since 1915. The lettering “ICHBINWERBINICH” wraps around the barrel. Roughly “IAMWHOAMI”, it is an endless loop between “I am someone” and “Who am I?”, and it turns the artist’s own tool into a work of art that invites its owner to keep drawing, writing and thinking.
About the Artist
Marbod Fritsch was born in Bregenz in 1963 and studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His work ranges from serial ballpoint pen drawings and site-specific installations to conceptual projects, often in the public space. He lives and works in Bregenz and Vienna.
