Leyla de Muynck

Leyla de Muynck is a performance artist with a background in modern dance, graduating in 2014 from the Modern Theater Dance program at the AHK in Amsterdam. She creates visual work using her body as an instrument. This can take many different forms, such as film, sculptures, and performance, with the use of herself being central. In her performances, Leyla plays with authenticity. She creates a new world but will never pretend within that world.

Together with director Vincent Boy Kars, she made the film Drama Girl, which premiered at the IFFR in 2020. A film that dances between documentary and fiction. She told her life story to Vincent and gave him the freedom to base a script on it. She arrived on set every day without preparation or knowing what would be filmed, to capture real reactions and emotions in a constructed setting. She has previously collaborated with Lara Verheijden, Dimitri van den Wittenboer, Kirac, and Kasper van den Bergghe.

She worked on her project COCOON at A Bunder of Art. A cocoon, a delicate lattice of thin threads that slowly comes to life. From within, the lattice transforms into a shape that slowly metamorphoses into…? Yes, into what? COCOON is an artwork, a performance, a work in transformation and as a theme part of a larger work. The caterpillar dies and becomes a butterfly. In COCOON, Leyla explores her fascination and relationship with death.