Monique Van den Bulck was born in Bukavu in the Congo and came to Belgium at the age of seven. After studying interior design and decoration, she worked in the costume department of the Théatre National de la Monnaie in Brussels for Maurice Béjart’s Ballets du XXe Siècle. After Béjart founded the Béjart Ballet de Lausanne in Switzerland in 1987, she continued to work with him as head of the costume department of the new dance company, which she accompanied on world tours on four continents. For the company, she collaborated with fashion designer Gianni Versace.
Monique has lived in Berlin since 1995, where she works as a freelancer in the Arabesque fashion and costume studio. She has also worked for various Berlin institutions such as the Hebbel-am-Ufer-Theater, the Akademie der Künste and the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
In 2005 she collaborated with Herma Auguste Wittsock in the performance Gifted Generation (directed by Marina Abramovic). As part of the Tanzfonds Erbe, Monique worked with Reinhild Hoffmanns (Vor Ort), Christina Ciupke and Anna Till (Rekonstruktion im Rahmen des Projekts undo, redo and repeat). She has also worked with Electra de Salvo (Omiicidi Acrobaticici), Amigo (Zeybreak) and Mikael Laub (Asutorito Endoruwaito, Fassbinder, Faust and the Animists). She was also costume designer for several children’s operas at the Berlin State Opera from 2010 to 2012 under the direction of Sarah del Lago. Monique designed the costumes for various events, such as Ducknaton & Duckfretete, Ocean Birds, Paradisvögel and Mövenmobilee. In 2016, she became head of the costume department at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
At Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Monique made the costumes for Auf meinen Schultern (2019) by Raphael Moussa Hillebrand and STRICKEN (2019) by Magda Korsinsky.