About Charlotte Bouckaert

Charlotte Bouckaert (Brussels, 1983) is a visual artist, scenographer and performance artist.

Over the past 20 years, she has been developing a visual language at the interface between visual art and live performance. By staging images as a changing process, she invites her audience to become aware of the impact of their own perception. Her work takes on various forms such as shows, installations, performances and videos.

Her theatre practice started in 2012 in Brussels, in collaboration with Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek and Beursschouwburg, with the performance The photographer left, he told the truth, for which she received the Dioraphte Price at the Festival Cement in the Netherlands.

From 2014 until 2019 she was part of the collective Atelier Bildraum, in which she staged several theatre performances; Bildraum, In between violet and Green and Icon produced by Lod Muziektheater (Gent, Belgium). Bildraum won the Big in Belgium Award at Theater aan Zee in 2015 and in 2016 the Total Theatre Award at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh.

Since 2020, she performs 11 SECONDS where the audience watches for 55 minutes 1 picture. Since 2020 she is working on the topic still life. She presented the online live performance Still life with Chair, and in Groeninghemuseum in Bruges she explored the museum as an open studio in front of their still life collection.

During Playground in Leuven in November 2023 she created THING, a performance installation around still life in a museum context.

In 2024 her theatre performance YOU ARE AN OBJECT TO ME will premiere 22 and 23 March in KVS. While in 11 seconds the static image took center stage, in You are an object to me, everyday banal objects and their starting point of stillness and immobility will be challenged.

With her multidisciplinary work she wants to question and activate the act of looking: what do we see and what not? How do we watch and why? The time of looking, the unexpected and the imagination. The greatest enemy of looking is that we think we already know in advance what we are looking at. 

“A photograph stops time,
a drawing encompasses time,
a play reinvents time, every evening.” 

Charlotte Bouckaert (based on John Berger) 

Education

• 2005 Master in sociology, Kuleuven
• 2009 Photography, Academie Gent
• 2010 Graduate degree Scenography/Performance, A.PASS, DeSingel, Antwerpen

Awards

• 2016 Bildraum Total Theatre Award Edinburgh Fringe Festival (UK)
• 2015 Diorapthe price Festival Cement, ’s Hertogenbosch (NL)
• 2014 Bildraum Big in Belgium Award, Oostende (B)
• 2011 Photography Award, Bozar Brussels (B)

Residences

• Artlab ZSenne, Brussels (B)
• Dommelhof, Pelt (B)
• Workspacebrussels, Brussels (B)
• Lod Muziektheater, Ghent (B)
• Be-part, Waregem (B)
• Gouvernement, Ghent (B)
• Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee (B)
• WpZimmer, Antwerp (B)
• Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, Brussels (B)
• Stuk, Leuven (B)
• Cité des Arts, Paris (F)

Workshops 

• Istanbul ITF (TR)
• College Roeselare ism De Spil (B)
• Be-part, Waregem (B)
• Summer Academy Campo, Gent (B)
• Dag van de scenografie
• Toneelacademie, Maastricht (NL)
• Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek (B)

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PERFORMANCES

Thing (2023)

Opening night: Playground festival, Leuven.

Mary Ventura (2022) by Dolores and Charlotte Bouckaert

Commissioned by Europalia. Bozar Brussel, Nona Mechelen.

11 Seconds (2021) 

Opening night: Toneelhuis Antwerp 2021, Theater aan Zee, C-TAKT festival C-Mine, De Brakke Grond, Playground Stuk, De Spil Roeselare, Kaap Brugge, Theatre de Gennevilliers (F), KVS Brussels, IFT Istanbul (TR).

Still life with chair (2020) — online live performance 

Brakke Grond, Beyond the Black Box Online Festival, online festival De Spil Roeselare.

Icon (2018)

Opening night: Next Festival Buda Kortrijk, Vooruit Gent, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Théâtres de la ville de Luxembourg, Gulbenkian Foundation (PL), De Singel Antwerpen.

Reflector (2018) — installation/performance

Gone West, Reflections on the great war, Linkeroever Oostende.

Sympathy for the devil (2018) 

Gouvernement in collaboration with Beursschouwburg Brussel.

In between violet and green (2017) 

Opening night: La Monnaie / De Munt Brussels, Malpertuis Tielt, De Brakke Grond Amsterdam, Nona Mechelen, De Grote Post Oostende, Theater Zuidpool Antwerpen, Campo Gent, De Spil Roeselare, CC De Ververij Ronse, Dresden (D), Cc Brugge, CC Hasselt.

Musée Moule (2015) 

Opening night: Beursschouwburg Brussels.

Bildraum (2014)

Opening night: Beursschouwburg Brussels, Bâtard Festival Brussels, Theater aan Zee Ostend, CC Gasthuis Aarschot, Festival Cement ’s Hertogenbosch, Operadagen Rotterdam, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Love at First Sight Festival Antwerp, Festival Off Avignon, Lod Muziektheater Gent, Schaubude Berlin, Cultuurhuis Maastricht, De Spil Roeselare, Cultuurcentrum Hasselt, Theater Malpertuis, La Rose des Vents Villeneuve d’Ascq (F).

Convergence (2014)

2M3 @ W-O-L-K-E Brussels.

Folder contains no images (2012)

In collaboration with Britt Hatzius. 2M3 Brussels.

The photographer left, he told the truth (2012) 

Beursschouwburg Brussels.

Being Apart Together (2011)

Festival Korte Metten, Vooruit Gent.

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VIDEO / INSTALLATION / PHOTOGRAPHY

Sympathy for the devil (2017)

Exhibition: Let their be light. Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, group show with i.a. Guillaume Bijl and Navid Nuur.

Waiting for the secret (2016)

Workspace Brussels, group show with Filip Berte, Erki De Vries, Kato Six, Karl Van Welden and Sarah Westphal.

Cumulus (2016)

Jozsa Gallery Brussels. Soloshow.

Landscape (2015)

Workspace Brussels, group show with Hans Demeulenaere, Navid Nuur, Erki De Vries, Gabriel Lester and Marc Nagtzaam.

Back again (2013)

Les Halles Schaarbeek. Video installation with Heike Langsdorf.

To look for noon (2012) 

Artlab ZSenne Brussels.

Gut Feeling (2011)

Gallery Jan Colle Ghent, group show with i.a. Dirk Braeckman, Fia Cielen, Charif Benhelima, Jan Van Imschoot and Vadim Vosters.

Opname (2010)

Ithaka Leuven, group show with i.a. Karen Vermeren and Egon Van Herreweghe.

Nesten (2008)

Promojeunes, Flagey Brussels.

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​SCENOGRAPHY

Antigone in Molenbeek & Tirésias (2020), Guy Cassiers

Set design & video. Opening night: Bourla / Toneelhuis Antwerp.

Walden (2023), Jonas Vermeulen

Set design. Opening night: De Studio Antwerpen