Rothko Museum to host public event with French textile artist Sandrine Thiébaud Mathieu Culture news

At 4 p.m. on Thursday, 7 November, the Rothko Museum will host a public event with Sandrine Thiébaud Mathieu, a French textile artist, who will present her latest project made this autumn during her residency at the museum.

Born into a family of textile mill workers in Troyes, Champagne-Ardenne, Thiébaud Mathieu grew up amidst the decline of textile factories, witnessing the fraying of social ties in a once-thriving town reshaped by post-industrial realities. This background has led her to return repeatedly to themes of social fabric, familial connections, change, time, and the interplay of personal and collective memory. 

Inspired by Latvia’s unique historical and social fabric, with its distinctive, vibrant threads of different ethnic and religious groups, Thiébaud Mathieu’s residency at the Rothko Museum focused on a community-rooted project. Over nearly two weeks, she worked with pre-loved and pre-worn textiles donated by local residents, incorporating meaningful pieces with personal histories into an artwork that reflects individual and collective identity, remembrance and forgetting, shared and private history, and life today.

“I love the idea that from “a little,” we can create “a lot”; that the “discarded” or “worn” can be transformed and elevated; that “the past is also tomorrow” and that “tomorrow is already today.” I hope my work can subtly change how we view ourselves, others, and our connection to the world,” the artist says.

The event will take place in the Rothko Museum’s concert hall. Participation is free of charge and open to the public.

Sandrine Thiébaud Mathieu’s residency at the Rothko Museum is supported by the French Institute in Latvia, Air Baltic, and Axon Cable.

Originally a painter, Sandrine Thiébaud Mathieu transitioned to textile and fibre, where she felt more meaning and connection. She studied art and literature at the Panthéon-Sorbonne and completed the courses at the Ateliers des Beaux-Arts de Paris. The artist has worked with French galleries and exhibited in her native France as well as Serbia, Montenegro, and China. Her pieces are held in several museum collections.

Publicity photo: thiebaud-mathieu.com

Contacts:

Inga Gedžūne

inga.gedzune@daugavpils.lv

+371 654 30279