CLARISSE DEGENEFFE (Belgium)
A Belgian native, Clarisse began her artistic journey at the Kleine Academie (Jacques Lecoq) before training as an actress at the National Institute of Audiovisual & Performing Arts (INSAS) in Brussels. She then pursued studies in Philosophy and Art History at the Catholic University of Leuven, before completing a Master’s degree at Panthéon-Sorbonne while attending evening courses at the École du Louvre.
Her academic research delved into themes such as female performances in the 1970s, the marketing of femininity during the Riot Grrrl punk era, the demonic figure of female rage in the works of Dostoevsky and Freud, and the role of violence in art and modern cultural systems through the lens of Antonin Artaud. Specializing in Cinema History, she wrote her thesis on feminine archetypes in the philosophical and cinematographic work of Pier Paolo Pasolini.
After her studies, Clarisse joined the Cinema Department at Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR) for a few months, under the supervision of Juliette Duret, Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. Soon after, she worked at Mix Brussels – Gym&Wellness located in the Royale Belge, where she developed strong physical discipline and took charge of a curatorial project guided by the artist designer Lionel Jadot.
Clarisse has trained with renowned artists such as Peter Brook, Robert Wilson, Damien Jalet, and Falk Richter, and participated in intensive physical workshops at P.A.R.T.S., DeSingel and Troubleyn in Belgium, or l’Ecole du Jeu and La Cartoucherie in Paris. In addition, she has earned three certificates : the Shakespeare Intensive from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London (where her French accent nearly vanished and her love for English poetry deepened), the Filmmaking Certificate from the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield (specializing in screenwriting), and a Sacred Dance Mentorship Certificate with Aradia Julia Sunseri (focused on integrative therapies, somatic belly dance, Ayurveda, and women’s vitality practices, which introduced her to ancient traditions and new psychic territories).
Clarisse enjoys running early in the morning when the birds sing and the foxes roam, but what really fuels her spirit is hiking in the mountains. At night, she often gazes at candles for hours, accompanied by the same song on repeat, a piece of paper and a pencil to capture what her soul needs to whisper.
When nostalgia or melancholy arise, she turns to music, singing what’s here to be channeled, accompanied by her bass guitar. Today, she mainly aspires to work as a music performer, finding solace in writing bridges between poetry, animism, art-pop and rock ’n’ roll.
