Zoë Demoustier - Unfolding an archive

During this residency, Zoë Demoustier works on the creation Unfolding an archive. She unfolds a visual archive of 2O years of war reporting. The man behind the camera is Zoë's father Daniel Demoustier. It is a search for a relation to the images of world events she grew up with, as a form of movement from afar and nearby. In an attempt to reconstruct, she brings the visual archive to life, dismantling the mechanisms hidden behind the images her father captured, and at the same time submitting them to a critical intervention. Whose history is this? Who is represented? Along the way, she creates a choreography of poses and gestures on a broken timeline of physical memories.

Credits
Performance: Zoë Demoustier
Dramaturgy: Elowise Vandenbroecke
Sound: Willem Lenaerts
Design: Annemie Boonen

Zoë Demoustier (1995) is a choreographer and performer. She started her trajectory in 2002 with Dromen hebben veters, a performance by kabinet k and fABULEUS.

Zoë studied at the Amsterdam Hogeschool for the Arts, graduating in the Mime department in 2017. She went from dancer to performer in a broader sense, and created the performances Never ending Roads and nesten. In 2018 she was awarded a master at the RITCS Brussels, where she made the performance Regarding the Pain of Others for Kaaitheater and Ultima Vez. At the moment, Zoë is writing her master's thesis on the embodiment of conflict in contemporary choreography, within the Cultural Studies programme at the KU Leuven.

In recent years, Zoë has worked as an assistant to Michiel Vandevelde for the creation and tour of Paradise Now (1968-2018) and of choreographer Alma Söderberg for Entangled Phrases. Together with Anna Bentivegna and Ayrton Fraenk she created their graduation project nesten, a piece with fABULEUS for children 4 years and older about the search for a home.

Zoë has experience with working with children and youths in artistic projects and in accompanying their own artistic language. She has collaborated with fABULEUS, Bronks, Passerelle vzw, Okan and Danscentrum Aike Raes.

The body is the starting point for her visual performances. She links movement to contemporary and topical subjects, creating documentary choreographic work. Zoë often performs in her own creations and also works with professional performers, children, youths and vulnerable groups, depending on the context of the project. As a performer she has worked with a.o. Kabinet K, David Weber-Krebs, L Marcelo Evelin, Danielle van Vree, Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez, Sandra Delgadillo, Seppe Baeyens & Jef Vangestel.

Zoë founded Platform In De Maak, a platform for new makers in performing arts. In 2020 she was awarded the price for young promise from the city of Leuven.