Is a space for artistic research, experimentation and imagination. Set up by Bartels in an attempt to articulate and enclose the fringes in the scope of her artistic practice. To explore the absurd, bizarre, boring and (un)usual fascinations at a certain point in time. To dive into the potential of fragmentary bits an pieces, creating analogies between
concepts, questions and ideas. Blurring fiction and reality, where nothing is what it seems and vice versa.
Serious play or playful seriousness.
Schmilblique derived from Schmilblick
The Schmilblick is an imaginary object created by the French humorist Pierre Dac during the 1950s. It is absolutely useless, and can therefore be used for anything, being rigorously entire. Pierre Dac himself credits the brothers Jules and Raphaël Fauderche with its invention.
The word quickly became very popular in French language and was sometimes used as a synonym for thing or stuff, or something designating a strange or unknown object. Nowadays, this word is frequently used to refer to some limited help provided by someone to solve a difficult problem. The idiom is actually 'Faire avancer le schmilblick' (To make the schmilblick move/get ahead, literally). Also, advancing a subject.
Ouvroir | Faire avancer le schmilblick
is a space for artistic research, experimentation and imagination. To explore the absurd, bizarre, boring, the (un)usual. To dive into the potential of fragmentary bits an pieces, creating analogies between concepts, questions and ideas. Blurring fiction and reality, where nothing is what it seems and vice versa. Serious play or playful seriousness.
Set up by Karin Bartels in an attempt to articulate and enclose the fringes in the scope of her artistic practice.
Website in Process
In search of the lost brooch. The brooch "Queen of Hearts/Dame de Cœur" was a key piece in the project Chance Encounters | a Gesture, an Object, a Décor. Then on sunday the 12th of october around 10 in the morning Karin discovered the brooch was gone after wearing it the day before. Although it was a worthless piece in material value, the emotional connection to the piece was priceless. The disbelief of losing the piece made her extremely eager to find it back. After al the brooch was to her like “la madeleine de Proust”.
By retrieving the steps and actions of saturday the 11th of october 2014 - the day the piece got lost - she tried to figure out where the piece might be found again. With this information she created a narrative of that particular day
in googlemaps. Questioning al the time whether she was actually still wearing the piece during a certain point in time of that day. Then she shared the story along with a collage that captured her look and the brooch she wore on that particular day via social media, email and spread
posters along the route of the day that she lost the piece.
This event brought her the first encouter with Le service des objets trouvés in Paris.
« La madelaine de Proust » is a common expression in the French language. It refers to a passage in Marcel Proust’s novel, A la recherche du temps perdu / In Search of Lost Time. In this passage, the narrator examines the notion of involuntary memory, a conception of human memory in which cues encountered in everyday life, like enjoying a petite madeleine with one’s tea, evoke recollections of the past without any conscious effort on the part of the individual.
« Proustian memory » refers to how powerful unconscious memory can be and how it can resurface in a very strong and irrational way. The passage goes on to analyze how such memory should enable one to reconnect with one’s youth, to cherish it and the memory of it.
/ A minor act carrying a strong emotional charge
Perdu/Lost ma #broche/my brooch samedi/sat 11 oct à #Paris. Please help me find it! Merci beaucoup! #PerduàParis #♣♥♦♠
My beloved jewellery piece called "Queen of Hearts"/"Dame de Cœur" is a brooch consisting of a suit of cards, clubs ♣, hearts ♥, diamonds ♦ and spades ♠. The original closing broke, so there is a pin glued to the back. It is worth nothing, yet it is one of my most precious pieces. The piece tried to slip away from me earlier last week, but we where reunited. Last saturday 11 oct I lost it for real in the streets of Paris. I'm hoping for a miracle. Please help me find it. Merci beaucoup! https://twitter.com/Broche_Perdu
À la recherche du broche perdu, project, public space, Paris, (FR)



















