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benoît jacquemin
Benoît Jacquemin, born in Liège and trained in photography at La Cambre in Brussels, develops a practice shaped by material experimentation across wood, glass, metal, sculpture, and image.
Reframing colonial history through material and ornament. Benoît Jacquemin has long explored the lasting imprint of colonial history, in Belgium and beyond. For his residency at Scabal, he reflects on the Berlin Conference (1884–1885), a 104-day event that formalised the partition and division of the African continent among European nations.
Reinterpreting History Through Object. Through monumental plush sculptures, Jacquemin reinterprets the figures associated with this historical moment.The softness of the medium contrasts with the gravity of the subject, opening a reflection on memory and representation.
The work also includes plush flower sculptures subtly referencing King Leopold II’s camellia collection, alongside works inspired by the redrawn cartography of Africa emerging from these agreements.
Material as symbol: between ornament and alteration.At the heart of his work, questions of ornament and representation remain central. Velvet, traditionally associated with ceremonial dress, becomes the artist’s primary material. Here, the fabric undergoes a bleach treatment: a highly corrosive process that alters and discolours the fibres, revealing tension beneath refinement.
Body and ceremonial garment merge into a single form, where each element of the soft sculptures is carefully stitched and sutured, reinforcing the organic and scarred dimension of the work.
This panel carries the traces of thousands of fabric samples cut over time for the creation of fabric bunches. To reveal these marks, the artist applied imitation gold leaf traditionally used for the edging surrounding fabric swatches.
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