Laura Vandewynckel
Belgium

Laura’s background in theatre, animation film and literature echoes in her work. She graduated with Paradise in 2014. This stop-motion puppet film is a light-hearted yet critical reflection on the ethics of tourism. It got selected for La Cinef Cannes and TIFF. The hybrid short Pharmakos (2017) documents a participative reenactment of the ancient Greek Pharmakos ritual with the citizens of Sifnos. Le Crépuscule (2023), a 3D animated loop, deals with the effect of nightmare news on our collective mind. In 2018 and 2022, she worked as an artist in residence at Sacatar Foundation Brazil developing the hybrid documentary Let the sea take away all evil. Currently, she is conducting a PhD research at VUB and Ritcs, investigating the potential of automata (puppets, robots, and kinetic sculptures) as social game changers. In a series of videos and theatrical installations she retells ancient and actual scapegoat myths from the point of view of the scapegoat, publicly staged as an automaton.

Project: Let the sea take away all evil