“What’s up Next?” is a series of articles and interviews meant to better showcase the trajectories of our Next Talents.
We are meeting the 2024-2025 generation in two key moments: at the start of their trajectory – focussing on finding out more about the artists and what they expect from the program, and at the end of their course, discussing the things they picked up on the way.
With this first interview we are introducing you to filmmaker, photographer and writer Chiara Pastoor.
Chiara’s artistic journey started about ten years ago, when she decided she wanted to start a fashion blog. “I went outside with my tripod, digital camera and a bag full of clothing and would photograph myself for hours a day. Then I’d come home, sit behind my computer and would experiment with Photoshop. It felt like painting again. Over the years, this style of photography evolved in conceptual work and I started adding my writings and poetry to it. With a fascination for storytelling, imagery and still a burning love for fashion, I studied Allround Styling at Academy Artemis in Amsterdam. Here I discovered how much I loved the role of a director, both in photography and video work.
I continued my studies at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, studying Autonomous Visual Arts and Photography, where I graduated from in May 2022. During my studies at the art academy, I followed the minor Film at the Dutch Filmers Academy in Eindhoven. My time at the art academy is where I discovered my love for self-portraiture. I graduated with my first short film ‘Directed by’. The film has been screened at several film festivals, as well presented as a video installation, curated by Noorderlicht Photography Foundation.”
This project is still very close to Chiara’s heart. “With this film, I am taking agency of my body and sexuality and indulge in self-pleasure” she says. “Reclaiming the power as both the director and the woman in the image, therefore redefining self-portraits within the notions of the male, female and internalised male gaze.
I began creating self-portraits in 2018, after recovering from a chronic disease and grieving the sudden loss of a sibling a year prior. Photographing and filming myself nude and erotically started as an attempt to break through the dissociation I had felt towards my body and any feelings of sexual pleasure. The film had an immense therapeutic effect on me. It restored my desire for intimacy and created a healthier connection with my body.
Simultaneously, it deepened my interest in critical theory and I fell deeply in love with the medium of film because of it. It taught me that what I feel is the most important asset in my work. Every project, in whichever discipline, is birthed from a place of peeling of a new layer of vulnerability. I strongly believe that by sharing this, it creates a safe haven for me and my audience where we can connect through similar and even opposite life experiences.”
Talking about her inspiration, Chiara mentions the works of filmmakers Chantal Akerman and Maya Deren. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Bruxelles is the first film I ever saw from Akerman and it felt as a perfect reminder that film (or any other art form actually) truly does not have any rules. It is really just about the story and your trying to choose the best and most simplistic way of telling it without trying to hide or conforming in order to to be more likeable or less confrontational, etc.
This resonated with me so deeply. I try to constantly ask myself with every new project: ‘What layers am I adding to feel less vulnerable?’ That needs to be removed. ‘Am I complicating the project because I want to show off all that I can create?’ That needs to be brought back to what is necessary.
Maya Deren’s work is fascinating, I am still researching it a lot. She reminds me of Cindy Sherman, as both artists work with self-portraiture to reflect and critique the positions of women in society. Where Akerman’s work comes across quite clear in storytelling, Deren’s films are very surrealistic and philosophical. It make sense that these two filmmakers are the first artists I think about when it comes to inspiration, because I find myself in between them. Wanting to be truthful to myself and my audience, while simultaneously indulging in surrealistic imagery and loving the part where abstract work touches you and you have to work out for yourself why and how.”
We also asked Chiara about what she hopes to accomplish throughout the program. “A very personal goal I’d like to achieve through Next is to work on visibility, for both my work and me as an artist. I am prone to create projects, publish them on a ‘safe’ platform, like social media, and then continue to the next project. Given my desire to connect and share the vulnerability, I think it’d be of greater value and respect to the work, to share it with a wider audience and have it more seen.
Within the program, I also want to create a project combining multiple disciplines. So far my work has mostly been shown online. I want to imagine and create experiences that will exist in certain offline spaces as well as through out installations.
Having created my previous projects mostly on my own and with the image of myself, during this year I want to experience collaboration within a film project. Instead of taking on all the roles of a film project myself, I am curious what it is like to be, for example, only the writer for someone else’s project. Or if I am the writer and director, what is it like to work with someone else behind and / or in front of the camera?”
Talking about how she first learned of the program, Chiara recalled: “I read about Next Talent for the first time last year. When visiting some film festivals in The Netherlands, I researched several of the films shown and their makers. I found out that a lot of amazing films come from this region [Noord-Brabant]. Curious of how their film came about I think I stumbled upon one or two makers who had previously participated in Next Talent Program. Especially as a maker from Noord- Brabant it made me so happy to learn that this program existed. Reading that it is a year long trajectory, not only for makers to grow creatively but also to develop a sustainable career in the creative field, sounded absolutely perfect.”
We also asked Chiara who would be her dream mentor. “The first person I think about is writer Lidia Yuknavitch. Her book The Chronology of Water made a deep impression on me. I would choose her, because of her brutal honesty in writing and neglecting any form of ‘writing rules’. I admire, as with someone like Chantal Akerman, that the story guides the artist in what shape it should exist and it is not restricted to a certain form. It would be incredibly informative and inspiring to have a mentoring session with her. I believe it would help me to dig deeper in my writing, which will translates further into the imagery of a project.”
Challenging our perceptions regarding vulnerability and intimacy, Chiara’s projects manage to make us feel comfortable in our uncomfortable. We cannot wait to see the exciting paths she will explore during her trajectory!