Dr Ernst Fischer

 

Job Title: Research Fellow Qualifications: BA, MA, PhD Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 3000 ext 4133 Email Address: E.Fischer@roehampton.ac.uk

Brief biography

Ernst Fischer was born and brought up in Munich, Germany,
where he studied chemistry, social work and puppetry and
was a member of the Freies Theater München for two
years. After relocating to London in 1979 he obtained an
Honours degree in Performing Arts at Middlesex
University (1986), an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies at
University of London, Royal Holloway and Bedford New
College (1991), as well as a diploma from the Ivor
Spenser International School for Butler Administrators
(London, 2001). He wrote his PhD thesis on ‘the uncanny
space of living-room theatre and domestic performance’ at
Roehampton University (2003), where he is currently
employed as a Creative Research Fellow.

Statement

As both, a gay man and as a foreigner in this country, I am
particularly concerned with issues of belonging, domesticity
and homeliness. In general terms, my work seeks to explore
how we occupy as well as ‘uncannily’ disrupt a variety of
spaces – from our own bodies to social conventions and
political/ideological systems.
My performance work – generally categorised as ‘live art’ or
‘body art’ – has been heavily influenced by Butoh, which I
studied in Japan, London and Vienna. More recently,
however, the focus of my work has shifted to collaborations
with exiled writers and asylum seekers on issues relating to
race, diversity and Human Rights.

Performance Practice

Ernst has been actively involved in theatre and performance making for more than three decades and in a variety of roles and genres:

• Body/Live Art: From working with, now legendary, Austrian Happening artist Herman Nitsch in the 1970's to collaborating with/assisting contemporary body art practitioners Franko B. and Kira O'Reilly (1996 -2005)to performing his own very successful solo shows (most recently at the Hayward Gallery, London and at ANTI Festival in Kuopio, Finland, 2006)

• Queer Performance: From co-founding Pink Feet-Warm Bodies (1986), a "influential" (City Limits, (1987) gay dance company to touring Britain and the USA with Gay Sweatshop (1997) to appearing regularly at Duckies' cabaret at the Vauxhall Tavern, London (1998-2001)

• Domestic Performance: Staging - between 1986 and 1997 - some 13 performances with friends and neighbours in his flat in Brixton, South London, which, for the occassion, was renamed Brixton heArt Room

• Butoh: Performances at a number of International festivals (Riverside Studios, London, 2002; Jackson's Lane Theatre, London, 2000; Snia Viscosa, Rome, 1996; Schloss Broellin, Germany, 1995;Chisenhale Dance Space, London (1994)

• Acting: From appearances in several independend films (Germany, 1985; Britain, 2000 and 2002) to the portrayal of both Rosenkranz and Guildenstern in Hamlet?, directed by Julia Bardsley at the Young Vic Theatre(1994)

• Mime & Physical Theatre: From appearances at the London International Mime Festival (1995 and 1997) to performing at the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) in 1999

• Performance/Photography: Long-term collaboration with photographer Manuel Vason, exploring issues of performance collaboration and documentation (2000 to present)

• Socially engaged Performance: Co-founding (with Helen Spackman) Leibniz, a fluid group of international artists and performers, with whom he has so far created two major large-scale projects - The Book of Dust (London 2004 and 2005; Glasgow 2007) and The Book of Blood (London, 2006; Nottingham, 2007; Glasgow and London, 2008).
The company has been invited to develop a site-specific performance project for an international theatre and live art festival in Anzio, Italy in August 2008 and to take part in Deformes, the 2nd International Biennale of performance in Chile, November 2008.
Dr. Fischer also has a close working relationship with the London-based organisation Exiled Writers Ink, for whom he has so far directed two theatre producions:

• AND THE CITY SPOKE (in collaboration with eight writers exiled in various European countries) - The Space/Hampstead Theatre, London, 29&30/10/04;Mazowiecki Centrum Kultura, Warsaw (Poland), 22/3/05; Wybrzezak Theatre, Gdynia (Poland), 23/3/05; Centro di promozione Sociale "Il Quadrifoglio" - 4th Convegno Nazionale "Culture e Letteratura della migrazione", Ferrara (Italy), 15/4/05

• A MOUTHFUL OF AFRICA (a dinner performance for Africa Beyond), Oxford House, London, 7. June 2007.

Publications and Reviewsof Work

PUBLICATIONS

• "Writing Home: Postmodern Melancholia and the Uncanny Space of Living-room Theatre", Psychoanalysis and Performance, ed. by Adrian Kear and Patrick Campbell (London & New York: Routledge, 2001)

• "Playing with Fire", M. Vason, Encounters(Bristol: Arnolfini, 2007)

INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS OF WORK

• Art Monthly, #305, April 2007:30-31

• Dance Theatre Journal, Vol.22, #2, 2007:7/8

• Metro (national newspaper, UK), 11. May 2007

• Savon Sanomat (local newspaper, Kuopio, Finland), 1. November 2006

• Total Theatre, Vol.VI, Issue 4, winter 2006/2007

• Evening Standard (national newspaper, UK), 4. April 2002

• Dance Theatre Journal, Vol.20, #4, 2005:12-19

• Exposures, Manuel Vason (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2002)

• Virus Mutations, No. 10, March 2000, Milan

• Circa(Irish and International Contemporary Visual Arts), No. 91, spring 2000, Belfast

• Total Theatre, Vol. 11, Issue 4, winter 1999/2000, London

• Live 4: Freedom Machine, David Tushingham, ed. (London: Nick Herne Books, 1996)

• Dazed & Confused, Issue 24, September 1996, London

• Babilonia, No. 137, October 1995, Milan

• Art & Design, Performance Issue, London 1994

• New Moon, London, July 1991

Conferences and Symposia

• Speaker at symposium: Performance/Photography/Collaboration, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, 7. June 2007

• Speaker at symposium: Sensitive Skin, Future Factory with Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, 12. May 2007

• Speaker/workshop leader (with Joe Kelleher & Adrian Kear): Doctoral Research Training in Psychoanalytical Theory in Art and Performance (AHRC funded), Wimbledon School of Art with Brunel University, London, 29. March 2006

• Performance at conference: The Enactment of Thinking: Creative Practice Research Degrees, University of Plymoth, 5/6. July 2001

• Performance at symposium: Performance as Research, St. Martin's College of Art and Design, London, 6. November 1999

Research Expertise

Dr. Fischer is available to supervise PhD theses in the areas of Domestic/Private Performance, Intimacy and Performance, Performance Documentation, Live Art practices, Butoh and Physical Performance, Practice-based Research.

Teaching Expertise

Dr. Fischer has taught Asian Theatre Forms and Feminist/Queer Performance as well as directed many practical performance projects at Middlesex University (1987 - 2002); he was a visiting lecturer/skills tutor (Butoh & Physical Theatre, Social Aspects of Performance) at London Metropolitan University between 2000 and 2005 and, as associate lecturer at Roehampton University, taught on the Performance Ethics, Thinking Through Theatre, Studio-based Theatre Production and Advanced Theatre Practice modules.
At the moment he teaches on and supervises two practical performance modules: Independent Performance Project (IPP) - autumn semester - and Studio-based Theatre Production (STP) -spring/summer semester - as well as supervising extended dissertations. In addition, he is working on developing and publicising his own practical research work (performance, exile and Human Rights
and performance documentation) as solo performer and with his company Leibniz.

Undergraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies