Sébastien Cuvelier

Projects

Commissions and residencies

Music
— Live

Books
Installation views
About me

Gypsy Queens2011-2013
“Gypsy Queens takes the surprised reader into an almost unreal world and turns the cliché about the Roma community on its head. Sébastien Cuvelier skillfully demonstrates this with one cliché for another.”

— Claire Mayer, Actuphoto (transl.)
According to the legend, Roma people were the gods’ favourite thanks to the sheer beauty of their women, whose long silky hair and sparkling eyes went unmatched.

All around Romania, wealthy Gypsies built ostentatious gleaming palaces in mixed architectural styles, incorporating popular culture influences. It took me numerous discussions, shared meals and photographic portraits offered as a token of my appreciation to be finally allowed to enter this unexpected and private world. 

Gypsy Queens focuses on the women in these communities. I felt there was something at the same time happy, sad, cringy yet touching about those mostly illiterate, stay-at-home moms pretending to live like fairytale princesses out of a MTV Cribs episode.

Exhibitions
Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej BWA, Katowice, 2015
Atelier 340 Muzeum, Brussels, 2014
Livre Aux Trésors, Liège, 2014
Galerie Nosbaum & Reding, Luxembourg, 2013

Book
Gypsy Queens, Husson Editions, 2013