Gesichter Geschichten… Stories of faces

Paper Magic and Poetry

Laborer of the imaginary, and magician in her paper universe, Horta Van Hoye gives flesh and life to her creation, born to her hands. She is simultaneously the fairy and the wand, the creator and spectator of her characters, emotionally animated and kneaded with love, who inhabits the space of life through dialogs made of intermixed languages.

Like a clown prancing through its fantastical universe, inimitable, she whispers her secrets to her spectators of all ages, captivated and conquered by her creative, fragile and ephemeral work.

Originally from Belgium, she has lived in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and is now established in Quebec (Canada). For more than thirty years, she has strolled across the world within the realms of her recycled paper universe, because she works with newspaper remains and it seems she is not yet at the end of her roll…

Biography

Born in 1946 in a small Flemish village in Belgium, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Leuven (Louvain) and in  Antwerpen (Antwerp) where she specialized in sculpture. Along this time, she also became Belgium’s artistic gymnast champion and participated in Mexico’s 1968 Olympic Games, representing her country. In 1972, she pursued her studies in eutony, pedagogy and therapy at Gerda Alexander’s school in Copenhagen to deepen the authentic movement through body consciousness.

In 1978, her career as a professional artist asserted itself and it was in Zurich, a region of Switzerland where she spent several years, that she exhibited and set up multiple installations. It is also where her solo acts were created, including La Clownessa, where her visual artist talent and acrobatic capabilities merged. At the beginning of the 90’s, she developed her performance using paper that would become Gesichter Geschichten… Histoires de Visages. This show has up until now been presented in 17 countries and never ceases to astonish adults and children with its simplicity and creativity.