Artist Statement

Noé Duboutay (he/they) is a visual artist based in Berlin and Luxembourg. Noé performs, writes, and makes installations and objects. His practice draws on historical and fictional narratives, borrowing imagery and language from different eras. Noé approaches queer historiography not as a definitive account, but also as a speculative, embodied practice – an attempt to seek out what and who have been silenced, or systematically erased. Their work draws from experiences in/with a transmasculine body to question and navigate societal implications of masculinity, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, among others. Non-human and animal-like beings often represent personal worlds of experience, and the materials used are a direct reference to the narratives. As much as it is a critique, Noé’s work also seeks queer allyship and kinship – with a focus on vulnerability as a form of resistance and connection.

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Bio

Born and raised in Luxembourg, after a Bachelor from HBKsaar in 2019, and a Master from ZHdK in 2021, they finished their performance studies in Live Art Forms at AdBK Nürnberg in 2023.

Noé won the Akademiepreis AdBK Nürnberg in 2022 and received the Bourse Auguste van Werveke-Hanno the same year. In 2023, Noé published his first literary publication, “mud and the bros” with Lemon Press Zurich and was the laureate 2024 of the residency at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris. Last year Noé was resident at Künstlerhaus Bethanien.

Education

2021-2023 Master Live Art Forms, AdBK Nürnberg (DE)

2019-2021 Master of Fine Arts, ZHdK (CH)

2019 inoctober school (inoctober.org) in Mexico City (MX)

2018-2019 6 months Erasmus+, Sint-Lucas Gent (BE)

2015-2019 Bachelor of Fine Arts, HBKsaar (DE)

2014 diplôme de fin d‘études secondaires, LTAM (LU)

2011-2015 continuing education for children and youth work, Young Caritas (LU)

Exhibitions & Performances

(selected)

(upcoming) 2026 Armour Down!, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (DE)

(upcoming) 2026 Common Ground Triennale Jeune Création, Rotondes (LU)

2025 What a Hero?!, Schaufenster Berlin (DE)

2024 Open Studio, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (FR)

2024 GOSSIP, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken (DE) & Cercle Cité (LU)

2023 & 2024 mud and the bros, AdBK Nürnberg (DE), sic_elephant Luzern (CH), Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken (DE), Casino Display (LU)

2023 wet dusk, Zentralwäscherei Zürich (CH)

2023 trans space performance, Baby Angel (CH)

2022 Lust*Art, Kunst Tage Basel (CH)

2022 Woven In Vegetal Fabric: On Plant Becomings at Casino
Display (LU)

2021 There is always tomorrow, Löwenbräu Kunstareal Zürich

2020 human worm, The Lab Program Mexico City (MX)

2019 Allez Allez graduation show, Saarbrücken (DE)

2019 Hager-Preis, HBKsaar Galerie & Saarländische Galerie Berlin (DE)

2019 Synesthesia, Gouvernement Gent (BE)

2018 matters manners, UG im Folkwang Essen (DE)

Publications

2023 mud and the bros, Lemon Press Zurich

2022 Woven in Vegetal Fabric: On Plant Becomings (LU)

2021 embodying worm, Master Thesis ZHdK (CH)

2020 human worm, self-published, The Lab Program (MX)

Prizes & Grants

2024-25 Carte Blanche, Theater Kaleidoskop (LU)

2022 Akademiepreis AdBK Nürnberg (DE)

2022 Bourse Auguste van Werveke-Hanno (LU)

2020 ZHdK-AVINA Projektfonds für Studierende (CH)

Residencies

(upcoming) June-July 2026 Squatfabrik Kulturfabrik Esch (LU)

July-December 2025 Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (DE)

September-November 2024 Cité Internationale des Arst Paris (FR)

December 2023 & February 2024 ArtMix residency neimënster & Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken (LU/DE)

November 2020 residency The Lab Program in Mexico City (MX)

December 2020 residency imGrafenhag in Winterthur (CH)

Press

L’arc de Noé Duboutay
2025

Noé Duboutay est-il un héros ?
2024

Catherine Duboutay - Vum Studium zum...
2021

Noé Duboutay

pronouns: they/he
based in Berlin and Luxembourg

Omni Love Bar x Armour Down!

Salon, Basel (2026)

Omni Love Bar x Armour Down! ©Saturne Camus-Govoroff

performance: 60 min

in collaboration with Veronika Haller
curated by Emily Mary Whitaker & Salphinah Savin
pictures by Saturne Camus-Govoroff

The Omni Love Bar is a continuing concept of Veronika Haller.
For this iteration Noé and Veronika collaborated on a performance that stages a love lovers queer bar for everyone. Omni Love Bar is a space that is always created from an antifascist stand: to show up, to embrace, spark joy and tell our stories. From the bottoms of broken hearts Noé and Veronika warmly invite to the night‘s special; served with salty & sweet exquisites! Provided with liquids with and without! There is a story and an narration what is to be told, reading from Noé‘s texts Armour Down!
Every word and every drink is served in an campy, foolish & sassy manner.

What a Hero?!

Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (2024)

Schaufenster Berlin (2025)

What a Hero?! ©Cy Klock

performance: 30 min

pictures and video recording by: Cy Klock

Back when the earth was flat – everything was easier! But what if our hero turns out to be trans?

The performance What a Hero ?! retells the story of Silence – a French romance story from the 13th century. Silence is the hero of the story and embodies exemplary male roles in society, such as minstrel, knight, heir, and revered pretty boy. However, Silence was assigned female at birth. Silence questions their gender identity and is torn with their love interest – the queen. Through mixing non-linear temporal clues, in What a Hero?!, the story of Silence becomes part of a larger weaving of trans lineages.

many a knight unhorsed by Silence

GOSSIP - matters hard to grasp, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken (2024)

Cité des Arts International Paris (2024)

Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin (2025)

Common Ground - Triennale Jeune Création, Rotondes (2026)

many a knight unhorsed by Silence ©Noé Duboutay

installation: harness, chains, silver casting of snail shells

commissioned by ArtMix
funded and supported by Ministère de la Culture Luxembourg, Cercle Cité, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Casino Display
curated by: Katharina Ritter

many a knight unhorsed by Silence is influenced by drawings of snails in the margins of medieval manuscripts. Here, human-sized snails and knights meet at eye level. The knight shrinks away, afraid. One interpretation is that the snail‘s threat is a criticism of heroic masculinity, as the knight, who embodies ideal masculinity, shrinks away from it.

In many a knight unhorsed by Silence, the snail shells become silver armor attached to harnesses. In „Le Roman de Silence“, the hero of the story, Silence, is assigned female at birth but lives as a man. Silence is reminded that they do not have the „right equipment“ to be a man. The work knight and snail picks up on this idea and uses the harnesses, which allow “equipment” to be attached to the body, to distinguish gender identity from classified anatomical genitals. The snails, which are often hermaphrodites, also pick up on the versatility and fluidity of sex(es).

it is our hearts, the lines we break

GOSSIP - matters hard to grasp, Cercle Cité (2024)

Young Luxembourgish Artists, BIL (2025)

aluminium sheets, hammered, 100x60 cm

commissioned by ArtMix
funded and supported by Ministère de la Culture Luxembourg, Cercle Cité, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Casino Display
curated by: Anastasia Chaguidouline

Quotations are hammered into aluminum sheeting in a font inspired by the 13th century. The sentences come from stories about Silence. ‚Le Roman de Silence‘ is a French romance story from the 13th century. Silence is the hero of the story and embodies exemplary male roles in society, such as minstrel, knight, heir and revered pretty boy. However, Silence was assigned female at birth, which is revealed in the end. The excerpts from the original text, translations, and retellings hammered onto aluminum sheets here take up the queer side of the story. Even if „queer“ was not yet a term at the time, the narrative of Silence serves the queer historiography and the visibility of queer and trans people. Silence struggles with their own gender identity, and their desire for the queen. In it is our hearts, the lines we break the non-linear mixing of temporal clues (material, language, writing, source of citations), the story of Silence becomes part and method of a larger weaving of trans lineages.

mud and the bros

AdBK Nürnberg, Abschlussausstellung (2023)

sic_elephant, Sweet Spots for Soft Bodies (2023)

Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Erschöpfung 2023

Casino Display, GOSSIP matters hard to grasp 2024

performance 60 min

graduation work from Live Art Forms MA, AdBK Nürnberg
pictures: Gilles Kayser

in mud and the bros, Noe performs as the Amphibian, who shapeshifts and reads different accounts of desire and lust. the Amphibian brings stories about his relationships to Gender and Bread, fantasies and experiences, dust that becomes mud, gel that becomes waves, voices, and whispers to the space to understand his longing for change.

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