BLACK-OUT T
On the two weekends framing the OPENARTFOLKE 24 festival, the D:NA studio/gallery will turn into a pop-up tea room, serving a range of teas, home-made cakes/biscuits and a surprise menu of occasional mini performances (poems, flash fiction, soundscapes, sonic art, artists’ videos) + the odd episode of THE AVENGERS, the classic British spy spoof tv-series from the 1960’s. It’s free and it will be fun. There will be darkness, lights, quietude, a chance to listen (and to look), a time to talk, easy ways to participate (and, of course, the freedom to abstain). On the walls, works by Paul Dagys (photographer), Christopher Burke (painter) and some of their friends will clash (or harmonise) with remnants of previous exhibitions or decorating schemes. Since the space is small and will accommodate only 10-12 guests (on a first come – first serve basis), there will be an hourly turn-over (on the full hour) at which new visitors are welcomed. However, do check if places are available at any other time (it is a tearoom, after all), except when the PERFORMANCE IN PROGRESS sign is displayed on the door. The full programme will remain subject to a certain amount of improvisation and inspiration, though more substantial sections (with approximate starting times and durations) will be advertised in D:NA’s window each night.
Ernst Fischer is a German-born performance artist, whose practice explores gender identities and notions of the Uncanny, extending beyond the staging of subversive acts to the construction and investigation of temporary and fluid communities.
Ernst wrote his PhD thesis on “the queer space of living-room theatre and domestic performance” at Roehampton University, London (2004), where he was, until 2017, employed as Creative Research Fellow. He was a member of DARC (Documentation Action Research Collective) until its dissolution in 2024 and is artistic director of LEIBNIZ performance company as well as of D:NA (Dust: Narratives & Artefacts), a domestic performance space and archive, originally based in South London, but now – since his move in 2017 – relocated to his new home and gallery in Folkestone.
@D:NA
Amber Baker, through the use of performance, research and collaboration, investigates and challenges spaces through their relationship with sound. With a heightened focus on the practice of listening, she finds ways of encouraging the roles of performer and audience to dissolve and instead create an open and collaborative stage in formal as well as domestic spaces. Within her practice she aims to break norms of formal techniques and methods through experimentation, in order to encourage playfulness and access to her work and ways of working. She often uses alternative methods of recording, scoring and producing sound as well as other techniques that may be needed in her practice, such as writing, printmaking and documentation. Alongside her physical practice, she researches the development of social spaces and cities and how sound impacts our daily lives. How urban spaces can be adapted and how we can encourage alternative methods of education in order to strengthen and build community systems.
