Carmen Schabracq (Amsterdam, NL, 1988) creates paintings, sculptural installations, masks and performances in which the theatricality of life plays an important role. She gathers stories from various myths, traditions and her own experiences and uses them to create collage-like visual narratives. The mask is a recurring object and theme in her work, which she uses to explore the complexity of human identity. A mask is a tool within a ritual or performance, to become 'the other' and she plays with this in various ways.
Her work is also a form of escapism because of the characters she places in spaces of colour. A way to briefly escape from this world and imagine yourself in another, full of playfulness and humour, to deal with the layered reality of life and death. Just as folkloric rituals and traditions do, for instance in the celebration of the seasons, to propitiate the gods, scare off demons and devils or celebrate fertility. Schabracq's work is a stylised theatre of her own cosmos, with references from art history and folklore such as costumes.
Carmen was born in Amsterdam (1988), where she now lives and works. In 2012 she obtained her BA in fine arts from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, after a year of painting studies at the Academia di Belle Arti in Rome. In 2015 she obtained her MA in theater costume design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, with a research and body of work she called 'naked masks'. In 2017-2018 she received the ‘new makers subsidy’ from the Performing Arts Fund NL, with which she made two in situ performances in Zeeland. Her work has been shown in several museums, like Stedelijk Museum Breda, Museum Tot Zover, Amsterdam and Nest, The Hague.
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-.
This painting is inspired on the opera production 'I have missed you forever, which Carmen worked on last winter with the Dutch National Opera. She collaborated on the creation of the concept and designed the costumes and fourty masks. With the mask design she created the shifting characters based on the archetypes: the dog, the devil and the ghost. The Dinner Party is a festive gathering of these characters, somewhere in between the world of the living and the world of the death.
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.
Carmen made this painting during an art residency at Kunsthuis SYB in Beetsterzwaag in Friesland last winter. Here she did a research on the devil in Dutch folklore and stories. She found out that in Friesland there used to be a lot of 'devil banners, who helped to chase evil spirits away. This painting is based on a story of two brothers who died of too much drinking and became ghosts scaring people around Beetsterzwaag. The best devil banner of the area came with his horses and wagon and took the ghosts with him, drove far north placed the ghosts of the brothers in the field and drew a circle around them with his clump. When the grass was grown the ghosts dissolved and found rest.
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