Chiara Pastoor is a filmmaker, photographer, writer and singer. She continuously plays with the mixture of surrealism, erotica and comedy, creating an almost recognisable reality. A non-judgemental safe haven for herself and her audience to escape into. Where vulnerability, shame and pleasure can freely exist. In the Summer of 2022 she graduated from WdkA (fine art/ photography) with her first short film. ‘Directed by’ is an experimental short film, showing a collection of erotic, surrealistic and humorous self-portraits, reflecting on the notions of the male gaze, the female gaze and the internalised male gaze. In the two years after graduating Chiara completed two new short films, an ongoing photography series and screened her work at exhibitions and filmfestivals. In this article we will dive into one of her ongoing projects called KOORTSDROOM.
Chiara Pastoor
What is the series KOORTSDROOM all about?
“KOORTSDROOM (translates to ‘fever dream’) is an ongoing, photography series including self-portraits and portraits of others. The series invites you, as a viewer and participant, to step onto the gravel of your own unspoken insecurities and scratch open the desires you have hidden. The photography is focused on visual narrative, the stories remain cryptic and unexplained, such as your dreams at night. Dreams can confront you with blatant truths of your daily life; someone you desperately long for, a shameful moment you pushed away or a childhood memory that you only seem to remember subconsciously. Simultaneously, it offers us a conflict; are we escaping by falling asleep or existing in an inescapable dream? Soon I will be sharing the second chapter of the series, I plan to share a new chapter every few months.”
How did you came to this concept?
“Last September I started this photography series. I had been working exclusively with self-portraiture in the three years before that and was struggling a lot to finish two self-portraiture projects. The beauty and risk of focusing most of your creative energy on certain themes or visual styles, is that it gets harder to not consistently identify yourself with it. For me at least, there must be a ton of artists who are way more flexible about this! Just kept feeling that I had been making ‘certain looking’ work for so long, I should always be continuing that right? The year after graduation I struggled with that and finally got so fed up with my own narrow-mindedness, that I decided to create something that I was not allowed to put any fences around. If I thought of an image, I would go create it without overthinking it. I also truly missed photographing other people at this point. The wish to collaborate again and to create with less control, lead to KOORTSDROOM.
Can you tell us something more about the creative process?
“How I work for this series is very intuitively (I try to remain this working method for this specific series), I collect images in my head and sketch them out. I usually know who I’d like to cast for certain imagery and when the other person is also interested, we talk it through and meet up at a photo studio or external location. The editing, I like to do all my post-production myself, is the most intuitive part of it. I like to use post-production as if I am working on a painting.”
Do you want to now more about Chiara’s work and stay updated on the KOORTSDROOM series? Make sure to follow her on Instagram and keep an eye on her website.
