Donatella Barbieri | University of the Arts London (original) (raw)
Papers by Donatella Barbieri
Bloomsbury T&T Clark eBooks, Feb 11, 2015
This paper interrogates approaches to the curation of scenography that inevitably privilege the p... more This paper interrogates approaches to the curation of scenography that inevitably privilege the performance space over the body thus contributing to the lack of discourse around costume. It compares this to the road travelled over the last decade by fashion curation, focusing in particular on exhibitions such as 'Addressing the Century', ' Specters' and the 'Art of Fashion' which have articulated the performative values of dress as art and thus influencing discourse on dress. The intention is to engage the national curators into debate around the costume body, at the centre of the scenographic construct, and through this to scholarly and practice-based debates on performance practice. At the two day-symposium Scenography Expanded in Amsterdam, which was hosted by Theaterschool Amsterdam and Peter de Kimpe, national curators and the PQ's creative team focused on an initial brainstorming event on regarding the curatorial concepts and artistic concerns for PQ 2011. PQ curators, coordinators, and other professionals connected to the PQ who gave a presentation were: Sue Gallagher (New Zealand), Susan Tsu (USA), Meta Hocevar (Slovenia), Donatella Barbieri (UK), Reija Hirvikovski (Finland), Yukio Horio (Japan), Tali Itzaki (Israel), Catarina Fortuna (Portugal), Christina Lindgren (Norway), Andrea Kralova (CZ), Peter Farley (UK), Nino Gunia-Kuznetsova (Georgia), Sergio Villegas (Mexico), and Opélie Bertout (France)
lightmap, Jan 9, 2011
Encounters in the Archive, devised and produced by Donatella Barbieri, and shot and edited digita... more Encounters in the Archive, devised and produced by Donatella Barbieri, and shot and edited digitally by Netia Jones', is a 17 minute long film about artist/researcher interaction with the archived, difficult to access objects, and in particular with ‘old’ costume and objects for performance. It was shown in the V&A as part of ‘Transformation and Revelation’, a series of displays produced by the Theatre and Performance Department in collaboration with the Society of British Theatre Designers. ‘Transformation and Revelation’ has already been presented in different guises and ‘Encounters in the Archive’ has traveled with it. This short film makes the research process the work itself, and places the V&A Theatre & Performance Archive as its scenographic space. It is the harbour of carefully stored-away ‘old’ costumes, which, once brought out into the light, unravel stories, secrets and images that feed the creative imagination, projecting new meanings into the future. In this film the costumes, normally inaccessible, encounter six artists, designers and writers. Their responses during these intimate encounters reveal the thoughts that are triggered by fragments of old performances. For example, costume designer Nicky Gillibrand meets work by Giorgio De Chirico and Mikhail Larionov, while author Amy de la Haye has access to Chanel. Darren Cabon, fashion designer, finds connections with Victorian clowns, and Charlotte Hodes, fine artist, becomes acquainted with 18th Century ballet de court costumes. The film was part of a practice-based research project titled ‘Encounters in the Archive’,conceived in collaboration with the London College of Fashion Research Department and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Drawing attention to the methodological use of the camera as both questioning and recording tool in the context of this research project, it focuses on selected responses to objects in order to articulate specifically the performativity of costume, as fragments of past performances, retained in their collected and conserved state. See also https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/5802
Performing with materials 12:20 PILVI PORKOLA (30 MIN+10) Objects, performance and performativity... more Performing with materials 12:20 PILVI PORKOLA (30 MIN+10) Objects, performance and performativity 1:00 LUNCH 60 MIN 2:00 ALI MACLAURIN(30 MIN +10) But what do stage designers make?
Studies in Theatre and Performance, 2016
The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users ar... more The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record.
Studies in Costume & Performance, 2016
The ideas behind this fellowship emerge from teaching the subject, from the research into contemp... more The ideas behind this fellowship emerge from teaching the subject, from the research into contemporary practice undertaken and also from my own practice as a costume designer. The aim was the creation of an international network that will facilitate the exchange of information, student exchanges, collaborative projects, and research projects to raise the profile of the subject.
This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding ... more This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding associations between contemporary practices and historical manifestations, costume is explored in six thematic chapters, examining the transformative ritual of costuming; choruses as reflective of society; the grotesque, transgressive costume; the female sublime as emancipation; costume as sculptural art in motion; and the here-and-now as history. Viewing the material costume as a crucial aspect in the preparation, presentation and reception of live performance, the book brings together costumed performances through history. These range from ancient Greece to modern experimental productions, from medieval theatre to modernist dance, from the 'fashion plays' to contemporary Shakespeare, marking developments in both culture and performance. Revealing the relationship between dress, the body and human existence, and acknowledging a global as well as an Anglo and Eurocentric perspect...
Since 1967 The Prague Quadrennial (PQ) has been instrumental in creating connections and collabor... more Since 1967 The Prague Quadrennial (PQ) has been instrumental in creating connections and collaborations between practitioners and educators from across the world. Scenofest is the new, interactive part of the exhibition, aimed at both students and practitioners. Having been awarded the UAL Teaching and Professional Practice Fellowship in 2004/5, with a mandate to create an international network of costume related practitioners and academics, with the aim to raise awareness of the contribution that costume makes to performance, I positioned myself within the Scenofest steering group, and led the ‘Costume Project’, becoming instrumental in developing the themes, ideas and structuring of Scenofest 2007 in a way that costume became central to it. I was responsible for leading and coordinating events related to costume, including six three day workshops and five presentations of current research, led by key international practitioners, including Lucy Orta and Suzanne Raschig. As part of ...
I wrote this paper to challenge the way costume design is taught and debated. Conventional design... more I wrote this paper to challenge the way costume design is taught and debated. Conventional design teaching aligns itself – often for practical reasons - to the text-based, director led theatre - favouring a Stanislavsky based approach to physical theatre/movement based creative development. This can result in a responsive rather than a proactive practice, or an illustrative approach to design. The paper examined the Laboratoire d'Etude du Mouvement (LEM) pedagogy and its application to the teaching and practice of costume design. It also referred to the co-production, between London College of Fashion and DAMU (Theatre Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts, Prague), of a costume–based performance in Prague in April 2006, which created a common language via the exploration of the dynamics of the costumed body in movement. It analysed how the visual dialogue about the body as a dynamic sculptural expressive form in movement – and the idea of the costumed, scenic body as a universal ...
Rigoletto is disabled and vengeful; his daughter, whom he imprisons, falls victim to the sexually... more Rigoletto is disabled and vengeful; his daughter, whom he imprisons, falls victim to the sexually predatory Duke, whose aria ‘la donna e’ mobile’ is possibly both the most misogynist and the most famous arias in the history of opera. With its romantic music, productions of this opera have easily become ‘pictorial’. I see myself as a designer whose work visualises the central themes of the piece. The costumes I designed for the Opera Holland Park production, which sited its hedonistic court in a contemporary Holland Park, with its themes of sexual exploitation, discrimination and social division, were initially problematic in the eyes of the producers. However, far from alienating the Holland Park audience, this production was so well received that the run was extended. The research process included defining the archetypal Rigoletto’s jester’s outfit – his trade uniform - through trawling the Royal Opera House and the Theatre Museum archives for historical representations, while also...
I chaired and helped organise three costume based sessions on 17th 18th and 19th June as part of ... more I chaired and helped organise three costume based sessions on 17th 18th and 19th June as part of Prague Quadrennial at Veletržni Palace - National Gallery. Speakers included Caroline Evans, fashion theorist (UK),Rosane Muniz, author, designer and curator (BR), Lucie Loosova, designer and curator (CZ), Rosalinda Lourens, costume artist The Nederlandse Opera (NL), Rolando De Leon costume designer from the Philippines, Pat Olezko, multidisciplinary artist (USA) Misha Le Jen, live artist (RU) Mareunrol’s, fashion design duo (LV),
Bloomsbury T&T Clark eBooks, Feb 11, 2015
This paper interrogates approaches to the curation of scenography that inevitably privilege the p... more This paper interrogates approaches to the curation of scenography that inevitably privilege the performance space over the body thus contributing to the lack of discourse around costume. It compares this to the road travelled over the last decade by fashion curation, focusing in particular on exhibitions such as 'Addressing the Century', ' Specters' and the 'Art of Fashion' which have articulated the performative values of dress as art and thus influencing discourse on dress. The intention is to engage the national curators into debate around the costume body, at the centre of the scenographic construct, and through this to scholarly and practice-based debates on performance practice. At the two day-symposium Scenography Expanded in Amsterdam, which was hosted by Theaterschool Amsterdam and Peter de Kimpe, national curators and the PQ's creative team focused on an initial brainstorming event on regarding the curatorial concepts and artistic concerns for PQ 2011. PQ curators, coordinators, and other professionals connected to the PQ who gave a presentation were: Sue Gallagher (New Zealand), Susan Tsu (USA), Meta Hocevar (Slovenia), Donatella Barbieri (UK), Reija Hirvikovski (Finland), Yukio Horio (Japan), Tali Itzaki (Israel), Catarina Fortuna (Portugal), Christina Lindgren (Norway), Andrea Kralova (CZ), Peter Farley (UK), Nino Gunia-Kuznetsova (Georgia), Sergio Villegas (Mexico), and Opélie Bertout (France)
lightmap, Jan 9, 2011
Encounters in the Archive, devised and produced by Donatella Barbieri, and shot and edited digita... more Encounters in the Archive, devised and produced by Donatella Barbieri, and shot and edited digitally by Netia Jones', is a 17 minute long film about artist/researcher interaction with the archived, difficult to access objects, and in particular with ‘old’ costume and objects for performance. It was shown in the V&A as part of ‘Transformation and Revelation’, a series of displays produced by the Theatre and Performance Department in collaboration with the Society of British Theatre Designers. ‘Transformation and Revelation’ has already been presented in different guises and ‘Encounters in the Archive’ has traveled with it. This short film makes the research process the work itself, and places the V&A Theatre & Performance Archive as its scenographic space. It is the harbour of carefully stored-away ‘old’ costumes, which, once brought out into the light, unravel stories, secrets and images that feed the creative imagination, projecting new meanings into the future. In this film the costumes, normally inaccessible, encounter six artists, designers and writers. Their responses during these intimate encounters reveal the thoughts that are triggered by fragments of old performances. For example, costume designer Nicky Gillibrand meets work by Giorgio De Chirico and Mikhail Larionov, while author Amy de la Haye has access to Chanel. Darren Cabon, fashion designer, finds connections with Victorian clowns, and Charlotte Hodes, fine artist, becomes acquainted with 18th Century ballet de court costumes. The film was part of a practice-based research project titled ‘Encounters in the Archive’,conceived in collaboration with the London College of Fashion Research Department and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Drawing attention to the methodological use of the camera as both questioning and recording tool in the context of this research project, it focuses on selected responses to objects in order to articulate specifically the performativity of costume, as fragments of past performances, retained in their collected and conserved state. See also https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/5802
Performing with materials 12:20 PILVI PORKOLA (30 MIN+10) Objects, performance and performativity... more Performing with materials 12:20 PILVI PORKOLA (30 MIN+10) Objects, performance and performativity 1:00 LUNCH 60 MIN 2:00 ALI MACLAURIN(30 MIN +10) But what do stage designers make?
Studies in Theatre and Performance, 2016
The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users ar... more The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record.
Studies in Costume & Performance, 2016
The ideas behind this fellowship emerge from teaching the subject, from the research into contemp... more The ideas behind this fellowship emerge from teaching the subject, from the research into contemporary practice undertaken and also from my own practice as a costume designer. The aim was the creation of an international network that will facilitate the exchange of information, student exchanges, collaborative projects, and research projects to raise the profile of the subject.
This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding ... more This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding associations between contemporary practices and historical manifestations, costume is explored in six thematic chapters, examining the transformative ritual of costuming; choruses as reflective of society; the grotesque, transgressive costume; the female sublime as emancipation; costume as sculptural art in motion; and the here-and-now as history. Viewing the material costume as a crucial aspect in the preparation, presentation and reception of live performance, the book brings together costumed performances through history. These range from ancient Greece to modern experimental productions, from medieval theatre to modernist dance, from the 'fashion plays' to contemporary Shakespeare, marking developments in both culture and performance. Revealing the relationship between dress, the body and human existence, and acknowledging a global as well as an Anglo and Eurocentric perspect...
Since 1967 The Prague Quadrennial (PQ) has been instrumental in creating connections and collabor... more Since 1967 The Prague Quadrennial (PQ) has been instrumental in creating connections and collaborations between practitioners and educators from across the world. Scenofest is the new, interactive part of the exhibition, aimed at both students and practitioners. Having been awarded the UAL Teaching and Professional Practice Fellowship in 2004/5, with a mandate to create an international network of costume related practitioners and academics, with the aim to raise awareness of the contribution that costume makes to performance, I positioned myself within the Scenofest steering group, and led the ‘Costume Project’, becoming instrumental in developing the themes, ideas and structuring of Scenofest 2007 in a way that costume became central to it. I was responsible for leading and coordinating events related to costume, including six three day workshops and five presentations of current research, led by key international practitioners, including Lucy Orta and Suzanne Raschig. As part of ...
I wrote this paper to challenge the way costume design is taught and debated. Conventional design... more I wrote this paper to challenge the way costume design is taught and debated. Conventional design teaching aligns itself – often for practical reasons - to the text-based, director led theatre - favouring a Stanislavsky based approach to physical theatre/movement based creative development. This can result in a responsive rather than a proactive practice, or an illustrative approach to design. The paper examined the Laboratoire d'Etude du Mouvement (LEM) pedagogy and its application to the teaching and practice of costume design. It also referred to the co-production, between London College of Fashion and DAMU (Theatre Faculty, Academy of Performing Arts, Prague), of a costume–based performance in Prague in April 2006, which created a common language via the exploration of the dynamics of the costumed body in movement. It analysed how the visual dialogue about the body as a dynamic sculptural expressive form in movement – and the idea of the costumed, scenic body as a universal ...
Rigoletto is disabled and vengeful; his daughter, whom he imprisons, falls victim to the sexually... more Rigoletto is disabled and vengeful; his daughter, whom he imprisons, falls victim to the sexually predatory Duke, whose aria ‘la donna e’ mobile’ is possibly both the most misogynist and the most famous arias in the history of opera. With its romantic music, productions of this opera have easily become ‘pictorial’. I see myself as a designer whose work visualises the central themes of the piece. The costumes I designed for the Opera Holland Park production, which sited its hedonistic court in a contemporary Holland Park, with its themes of sexual exploitation, discrimination and social division, were initially problematic in the eyes of the producers. However, far from alienating the Holland Park audience, this production was so well received that the run was extended. The research process included defining the archetypal Rigoletto’s jester’s outfit – his trade uniform - through trawling the Royal Opera House and the Theatre Museum archives for historical representations, while also...
I chaired and helped organise three costume based sessions on 17th 18th and 19th June as part of ... more I chaired and helped organise three costume based sessions on 17th 18th and 19th June as part of Prague Quadrennial at Veletržni Palace - National Gallery. Speakers included Caroline Evans, fashion theorist (UK),Rosane Muniz, author, designer and curator (BR), Lucie Loosova, designer and curator (CZ), Rosalinda Lourens, costume artist The Nederlandse Opera (NL), Rolando De Leon costume designer from the Philippines, Pat Olezko, multidisciplinary artist (USA) Misha Le Jen, live artist (RU) Mareunrol’s, fashion design duo (LV),