27 december 2023, Wouter van den Eijkel
The studio of... Daniela Schwabe
Daniela Schwabe has had temporary studios for 15 years. Despite the impracticality, she has grown to love having a new space time and again.
In her work, she focuses on the functioning of human memory and family history. For the exhibition SAD SONGS, currently on display at galerie dudokdegroot, she created small paintings based on photos from her own archive and images that, like some music, are part of our collective memory. She then added a soundtrack to it. “SAD SONGS is about images that stay with us and accompany us, much like how music accompanies our different moods.”
Last year, Schwabe had a solo exhibition at the Villa Mondriaan museum. That exhibition, ORIGINE, will be on display at the gallery in April. She also hopes to find a permanent studio space in Amsterdam in 2024.
My current studio is a temporary workspace in the De Pijp area of Amsterdam. It is a residential house that served a commercial function for many years. It is now being converted into a residential property but until then, I can work here in a rather small space that feels very intimate. I use other rooms for storage or specific projects. I also sometimes work in other locations, like last summer when I created a solo exhibition for Villa Mondriaan in Winterswijk. Like Piet Mondriaan, I grew up in Winterswijk, so I decided to dedicate an exhibition to him and his work. I am especially fascinated by his vision of the studio itself and how he arranged the space according to his own ideas. In an old textile factory, several artists and myself have created installations that responded to the work and ideas of Piet Mondriaan, which I have then transformed into paintings.
Because I've had so many temporary spaces, I'm used to quickly making a place my own. In some spaces in Amsterdam and Berlin, I have also lived in my studio, so it's important that it's large enough to create some distance. Also, I can't stand clutter when I need to think, so having the option to store things out of sight is nice.
What does a typical studio day for you? Do you have routines, play music or prefer silence? Do people visit or do you like to keep the outside world at a distance?
I prefer to work late, so I usually don't arrive at my studio until 10 in the morning. My workday begins by listening to podcasts while doing practical things in the studio: cleaning up, preparing, calculating, writing emails, etc. When I finally start painting, I often switch on some music. I've created special playlists on Spotify that I listen to and sometimes, I even dance. If I’m having a productive day, I’ll cook in the studio, often the same thing every day, and then work until as late as possible. I like to call friends while painting, but I prefer to have my internet/phone switched off.
Two important themes in your work are the functioning of human memory and family history. Your new show, SAD SONGS, is about our collective memory. I assume requires selecting a different kind of images. How did you select them and what can we expect?
The newest series, SAD SONGS, is about images that stay with us and accompany us, much like how music guides us through different moods. I had been looking for a way to translate the synergy between image and sound into an autonomous series. In 2019, I collaborated with the band SAD SONGS FOR HAPPY PEOPLE and created miniature paintings as part of this. The SAD SONGS series emerged from this collaboration, with photography as the main element. The images are personal ones from my own archive combined with images from our collective memory that have left an indelible impression on me. The selection of images and final playlist were chosen very intuitively and can be traced back to personal impressions from the past year.
It's more about the collaboration between image and sound. Because both are so important to me, I wanted to try to merge them. The playlist associated with the exhibition comes from a very specific angle, but I actually have a wide range of musical tastes. I listen to various genres, but this series is quite specific.
Absolutely. The human memory fascinates me to no end: what disappears, what lingers, what haunts you. I try to delve into the same theme in different series, but in very different ways. By working with AI a few years ago for the DEEP KIN series, I had the opportunity to conceptually explore what would happen if you applied a new technique to a (visual) past, like that of my German ancestors. With SAD SONGS, I look at the past from a more personal perspective in relation to something that is even closer to me than my family history. Music accompanies us in daily life, but often nostalgically refers to the past. In terms of content, it's about how we look back on what shapes us.
If I were to give you carte blanche, what project would you immediately carry out?
I find it quite amazing that as an artist, you actually spend the least amount of time with the work you create. I'm okay with this, but I'm just curious about how the works live on in a different place and different environment and become part of a new story. I would like to create a photo book with this as the starting point and photograph the works in their new surroundings.
Yes, definitely. After reading 14 books about Mondriaan and visiting his work everywhere, my perspective absolutely changed. Our work is very different, but I think we both highly value painting in a time when it's not as self-evident.
In April, the exhibition ORIGINE from the Villa Mondriaan museum will be shown at the galerie dudokdegroot in Amsterdam. I will be creating a few more works for this and in the fall, I would like to do another residency in Leipzig. I was there for six months before was recently offered a studio followed by exhibition for the fall and I look forward to returning to Leipzig. And maybe find a permanent studio in Amsterdam.
