Biography
Born in Milan (Italy), Augusto Corrieri 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. He then co-founded and worked with Deer Park performance company: their show See you swoon toured the UK and Europe between 2002-2004.
In 2004 he joined propeller, a performance and research collective 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.
Other companies and artists he has worked with include Lone Twin, MK, and Blind Ditch.
In 2005 he 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 Youtube videos to teach a choreography to 10 people who only meet the day before performing the show live.
Between 2008 and 2010 he made three performance installations on commission: Photographs of a dance rehearsal (for London's Camden Arts centre), The Glass Room (for Winchester's Cornershop) and The Lasting Image (for the Whistable Biennale). These 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). In 2010, commissioned by What If festival London, he made the solo performance Musical Pieces, an ongoing work-in-progress which showed across the UK, Germany and Spain.
His performance practice goes hand in hand with writing and research. Upcoming 2011 publications include the essay Describing Exhaustion (for the Lone Twin book, 'Good luck everyone'), and Jérôme Bel and the classical theatre (for a book on French Theatre and Performance). He is also working as a researcher with Performance Matters (2009-2012), a creative resarch project investigating the cultural value of performance.
Since 2003 Augusto has taught workshops and given lectures on several BA and MA performance courses, including at Laban, Dartington College of Arts, Aberystwyth University, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Winchester University, Salford University, Brighton University, and Chichester University.