According to artist Carmen Schabracq (Amsterdam 1988) we stand on the shoulders of giants. Our ancestors determine much of our story, knowledge and identity, and we shape the story of our children. In her first solo exhibition at Galerie Fleur & Wouter, Schabracq shows a new series of textile works, sculptures and paintings around this theme.
The starting point was an investigation into her own family history. Her father's family came to Amsterdam in the 18th century from the Czech town of Zebrak. Pronounced in Yiddish, Zebrak resembles Schabracq, old Dutch for horse blanket, and thus the family name was born. The horse and horse blanket, still known by the word sjabrak, became the symbol of the carrier of the migrant in her new works.
The artist translated this research into artworks during a residency at Lotto Zero in Prato, Tuscany, Italy. She chose the textile industrial city of Prato because there is a rich tradition of sjabraks in Tuscany associated with the “Palio” horse races in Sienna. Prato traditionally produced the finest textiles that were used worldwide. Inspired by those traditional blankets, she created her own works in the textile lab of Lotto Zero, which tell small family histories, with universal meaning.
Textiles often play an important role in the transmission of unwritten (family) histories. Working with textiles is therefore a substantive choice, in which Schabracq investigates the power and redefinition of patterns and layering. For example, a sjabrak with a pattern of hands, representing the crafts that were common in the family: diamond cutting, wood and steel working and (textile) trading. The hands also represent the importance of passing on knowledge.
In the gallery, sjabraks are carried by horse sculptures that float through the space and stand on the floor. Fabric and papier-mâché horse masks adorn the walls. These refer to stories from the artist's family history. For example, the textile horse head “Gracia. This was made based on a dramatic newspaper article from 1891, about Gracia, an ancestor of the artist, who, as a young mother of seven children, committed suicide by jumping into a canal. Tears are embroidered and sewn on the head. You see this kind of repetitive pattern in all her work. For example, in the artist's ceramic works, a series of skulls and stacked heads, symbolizing death and the people who were there before you.
Motherhood, the giving of new life, and death, these are recurring themes in Schabracq's oeuvre. Becoming a mother prompted this research into her ancestry. This all comes together in the work “Piece of a Lifetree,” which is the first piece of a tree of life consisting of women giving birth, thus representing life as a cyclical movement.
Carmen Schabracq was born in Amsterdam (1988), where she now lives and works. She did her bachelor of fine arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Accademia de Belle Arti in Rome. She obtained her MA in theater costume design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. In late 2019, Carmen spent two months in an artist in residency in Mexico where she researched local masks and coping with death. In 2020 she worked as a resident at the Van Gogh AiR in Zundert, in 2021 she did a residency in Bulgaria and at Kunsthuis Syb, in 2022 at BijlmAIR and in 2024 at the Lotto Zero textile center in Prato, Italy. Schabracq exhibited in the Netherlands in several museums such as the Amsterdam Museum, Museum tot Zover, Marres and NEST The Hague. Her work is included in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum, Vincent van Gogh Huis, AkzoNobel Art Foundation and VU Amsterdam collection, among others.
Apotropaic objects have the power to avert evil influences or bad luck. The mask is also inspired on the Bulgarian ‘Kukeri’ masks. Colorful and or hairy devil like mask figures who scares away devils that might come in your space.
This mask is inspired on Baba Yaga, an ambiguous character in Slavic folklore and mythology. One story tells she is three Baba Yaga sisters in the same time, a virgin, a mother and death. I’m intrigued by this layered figure, she is both good and evil. She has the answer on all your questions, but every time you ask her one she gets a year older. And she lives in a hut on chicken legs. In the West we would call her a witch.
This mask is inspired by the sculpture of the Artemis of Ephesus, or the woman of Ephesus. A mother goddess, with a bunch of round shapes on her chest, which have been interpreted in different ways: The Greeks had given her the nickname Polimastos (many-breasted). Others claim that they are eggs, as a sign of fertility. But it is also claimed that they are the testicles of sacrificed bulls. Artemis was indeed also known by the nickname Tauro. And in Tauris (Crimea), in mythical times, the priestesses of High Priestess Iphigenia sacrificed all the men who set foot there.
The Birth was inspired by the story of Lilith, Adam's first wife, who was banished from paradise only because she was equal to Adam. Since then, she has been collecting the "wasted" sperm from men and is always giving birth. They say she gives birth to little devils, but maybe they look like little donkeys. The donkey is the most melancholic animal Carmen knows, and her favorite animal at the moment. This is the first tufted tapestry she made, she sees it as a painting made of yarn and wool.
Every month women have to deal with a bad mood and pain because of their menstruation. Perhaps all this suffering is because of the loss of an egg. This is the first painting the artist painted with egg tempera.
This work is a self-portrait, inspired on the 'Madonna Lactans, the late Middle Ages paintings of Madonna's feeding Jesus. It is also a self-portrait where Carmen shows how she's feeding herself. As long as she doesn't have children, she is feeding herself with making art, with inspiration from within, with the milk of dreams -after Eleonora Carrington's story, and the title of this year's main exhibition of the Venice Biennale with almost only female artists-.
Masks of the goat are used in several masquerade rituals in different places in Europe. The horned one sometimes represents a connection to the devil. In some rituals the goat stands for fertility and in others it is a scary character. It is an important animal in many cults: in the bible, and in ancient Syria. In Greek mythology the god Pan is half human half goat, in Romania there is a traditional goat dance and in Bulgaria the goat accompanies the Kukeri in their masquerade rituals. For this mask the artist used three different techniques: papier-mâché, basketry of willow branches and crochet of wool.
In the summer of 2021 Carmen did an art residency in a small village in the middle of Bulgaria, Vishovgrad. She wanted to do research on the rich masquerade tradition of Bulgaria, where the main masked figures are called 'Kukeri, who chase the evil spirits of the winter away and welcome spring and fertility, accompanied by a goat and other characters to scare the devil. Since she was there in the middle of the summer and the Kukeri only appear in winter time, she decided to paint them in the bar, where the locals were drinking and spending their summer, which was also her entrance to the local community.
Carmen Schabracq, 1988, Amsterdam, NL
Education
2014-2015 MA of Arts, Theatre costume design, Royal Academy of Art, Antwerpen B
2008-2012 BA Fine Arts, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam NL
2011 Erasmus exchange Fine Arts, Sint Lucas Academie, Gent B
2007-2008 Painting, Academia di Belle Arti, Roma IT
Grants
2020 Amarte fund - project & development funding, working period Hembrug Terrein
2017/2018 New Makers development subsidy, FPK - Performing Arts Fund, NL
2017 Voor de Kunst crowdfunding for the publication of my book Is your body the pedestal of your head? With contributions of Amsterdam Fund of Art (AFK) & The Mondriaan Fund
Residencies
2021 Artist in residency, Kunsthuis SYB, Beetserzwaag, NL (upcoming)
2021 Artist in residency, Zaratan, Lisbon, P (upcoming)
2020 Artist in residency, Vincent van Gogh Huis, Zundert, NL
2020 Artist in residency, Opium Atelier, Radio 4, Hilversum, NL
2019 Artist in residency, Casa Lü, Mexico City, MX
Collections
VU Amsterdam
Vincent van Gogh Huis
AkzoNobel Art foundation
Lea Marcaccini MX
Exhibitions selection
2023
Iemand, Niemand en Honderdduizend, Studio Seine, Rotterdam, NL (solo)
Sources of Wonder, Galerie Fleur & Wouter, Amsterdam, NL (group)
KunstRAI, Galerie Fleur & Wouter, Amsterdam, NL (solo)
2022
Vanwege Vincent, Stedelijk Museum Breda, NL (group)
2021
Extravaganza, Galerie Fleur & Wouter, Amsterdam, NL (group)
2020
Vincent van Gogh Huis AiR, Van Gogh Galerie, Zundert, NL (solo)
2020
20 jaar Zeeland Nazomer Festival, video & installation, Middelburg, NL (group)
Sighing Masks, etalage installation & show, CBK Amsterdam, NL
2019
La Realidad del Perro, group show, Casa Lü, Mexico City, MX
Ambassade van de Noordzee, lecture & group show, Stroom Den Haag & strand Scheveningen, NL
Dicke Mädchen, group show with Rosa Schützendorf & Jack Davey, Antwerp Art Weekend, BE
2018
Kustpijn Paardenkracht, installation, Kloostergang Abdij plein, Middelburg, NL
2017
Maskerade, Masks in art and the art of the mask, Stichting Polderlicht, Amsterdam, NL
Imagine Film Festival, installation, Eye Film museum, Amsterdam, NL
2016
De Bonte Duif en het Zwarte Padje, Bellamy Kabinet, Amsterdam, NL (group)
XII, 12 hour exhibition XII, W139, Amsterdam NL (group)
Conceal to Reveal, Weekender, Punt WG, Amsterdam, NL (solo)
Occultare per Mostrare, Galleria Grefti, Umbertide, IT (solo)
Performances selection
2020
Xolotl guide to the underworld, performance in collab. with Project Wildeman, Amsterdam NL
Listening to the political voice of the sea, Ambassade v/d Noordzee, Frascati, Amsterdam NL
2019
Minotaurus, interactive installation in colab. with BREI, Festival Boulevard, Den Bosch NL 2018 Kustpijn Paardenkracht, performance, Zeeland Nazomer Festival, Zoutelande NL
2018
De Poesie Bar, Eddie and the Eagles, Bimhuis, Amsterdam NL
2017
Sint Nicolaas (hij komt, hij komt), performance show, Sint Nicolaas kerk, Brouwershaven NL
So you think you can DaDa?, group performance show, Leidse Schouwburg, Leiden NL
Heroines Circus, performance night curated together with Renske van Enckevort, Sociëteit Sexyland, Amsterdam NL
2016
Is your body the pedestal of your head?, 12-hour performance, XII, W139, Amsterdam NL
Publications
2020 We are the collection, AKZO NOBEL Art Foundation 25 years of collection magazine
2020 Jaarpublicatie 2019, Luisteren naar de Noordzee, Ambassade van de Noordzee 2020 Beroepsvereniging Beeldende Kunstenaars Magazine, #1
2018 Is your body the pedestal of your head?, Book about my masks, in collaboration with Paul Koeleman, with introduction by Alex Mallems and an interview by Renee Padt. 2018 Faceless Re-inventing Privacy Trough Subversive Media Strategies Ed. By Doringer, Bogomir / Felderer, Brigitte.
2018 From a creative nest: Carmen Schabracq, online article, ID magazine 22/02
2017 Samen eten we Sint Nicolaas op, newspaper article, 1/12 Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant
Galerie Fleur & Wouter
About the gallery
The aim of Galerie Fleur & Wouter is to bring young people into contact with art, to make them feel at home in the gallery and to motivate them to start collecting. This philosophy of an accessible and inclusive gallery is reflected in all our activities. We try to communicate in an accessible way and tell clear stories.
We present artists with a strong story, who create works of art that have an immediate appeal, but then turn out to have many other layers as well. Our artists work in different art forms and we are always looking for cross-links outside of the visual arts. For example by showing fashion designers like Lieselot Elzinga and Bas Kosters. The gallery gives them the opportunity to move in the direction of fine art. Artists who have been ignored by general art history, such as Outsider artists, are also given a platform in the gallery.
The majority of our artists are young and they will grow with the gallery in the coming years. But we also work together with mid-career artists like Jan Hoek and Mai van Oers. We see the gallery, its artists and supporters as a family that, in addition to making a profit, aims to help grow the artists' careers, and increase the appreciation of art in general.
Gallery owners: Fleur Feringa & Wouter van Herwaarden
Feel free to contact us for any questions.
e-mail: info@galeriefleurenwouter.com
telephone: +31 6 57748299
Van Ostadestraat 43A, Amsterdam
Thursday - Sunday 12.00 - 18.00 hrs
Photography by Jan Stads, Jonathan de Waart, Cleo Goossens