Biography
Augusto Corrieri was born in Milan (Italy) in 1980.
He first trained as a close-up magician, studying and performing card and coin magic; a member of the Magic Circle, in 1998 he won first prize at the National Magic Competition (Italy) and second prize at the International Magic Competition (London).
In 1999 he moved to England to attend a degree in Theatre at Dartington College of Arts, after which he co-founded and worked with Deer Park performance company: their dance-theatre piece See you swoon toured the UK, was presented in Germany and Belgium, and won 'Best devised show' at the National Student Drama Festival 2003.
In 2004 Augusto joined propeller, a performance and research collective based in Devon (UK), working on ideas of ecology, perception and orientation. Works include the performance-lecture We are the rivers we swim through, and the 2009 collaboratively written book Five rooms.
In 2005 Augusto began his solo-led performance practice, beginning with Quartet (for Anna Akhmatova), in which it is the spectator who imagines and choreographs the show.
The 2007 sequel, Quartet #2 (for Anna Akhmatova) - identical to the first but performed by Donna Shilling - is a 'ready-made show', a photocopy of the original.
From 2007 to 2008 he embarked on Continuous Project, a series of 'group' performances made without standard processes of rehearsal: for example in Solo duet solo a spectator is invited on stage to watch, learn, and finally perform a dance solo; the piece Dance company uses online videos to teach a choreography to 10 people who only meet the day before performing the show live.
In 2008 he made two performance installations: Photographs of a dance rehearsal (May 2008, for London's Camden Arts centre) and The Glass Room (Nov 2008, for Winchester's Cornershop). Both works cannot be seen by the audience: the performance stops, or "disappears", as soon as it is approached.
In 2009 he was artist in residence at La Casa Encendida (Madrid).
His performance practice goes hand in hand with writing and research. 2010 publications include the essay Describing Exhaustion (for the upcoming Lone Twin Book) and a self-interview on Jérôme Bel and Xavier LeRoy (for an upcoming book on French Theatre and Performance, ed. Carl Lavery, Palgrave Macmillan).
Since 2003 Augusto has taught workshops and given lectures on several BA and MA performance courses, including at Laban, Dartington College of Arts, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Winchester University, Salford University, Brighton University, and Chichester University.