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
For months Karin had been recording videos of the accordeonist who sat across the street from the window of her atelier. Apart from a few intervals he sat there for days and weeks in a row playing the same melody on a loop. She found it maddening and fascinating at the same time. Music making meets assembly work, repeating the same gestures for hours over and over again.
The accordeonist quickly become part of the small talk in the building. Several times people demanded him to leave, at times he did, to return after a shorter or longer absence.
At some point when the fall had turned into winter it seemed he had disappeared altogether. Then on 14 november 2015 17:02 u. the day after the Attentats du 13 novembre 2015 there he was again sitting and playing there as if it was just another day. In the midst of the shock from the horrors, chaos and drama that had unfolded the night before, it suddenly was comforting and reassuring to hear the music and see the repeating gestures as time passed by.