Running Water series

The Eau vive series developed by Sabine Cibert between 2014 and 2021 is made up of four monumental works which are themselves made up of thousands of 3 or 6-centimeter-long textile pieces patiently assembled by hand.

This series, which is the result of seven years of work and forty years of practice, is presented in its entirety for the first time, in a space adapted to its amazing size.

The series is presented opposite the first two Pastrana tapestries depicting the landing and the siege of the city of Arzila.

The landing of 1471 looks like sheer fury. The masts of the boats are entangled and men are drowning while the king lands. The water, shown in a repetitive pattern, carries the men. For the siege of the city, the water has disappeared. We can only guess its presence through the masts in the distance. The scene is confused, compressed, with men fighting elbow-to-elbow.

If water was only a means of military landing on the two Pastrana tapestries, it invades everything in Sabine Cibert’s work. The slow sliding of frozen water from a thousand-year-old glacier comes in contrast with the contemporary history of a quick and brutal medieval mission. The guiding idea, identical in each of the four works, repeats itself like the quivering of water flowing from a torrent.

The ancient tapestries and the contemporary compositions are both monumental works which took infinite patience and time to be made.

Thomas Leveugle

Guimarães Ducal Palace for the France-Portugal 2022 Season

traduction FITE 2022