Forster & Heighes
Biography
Ewan Forster & Christopher Heighes
The Lives of Buildings - partnership profile, C20 Magazine, journal of the Twentieth Century Society. (click PDF)
Ewan and Christopher studied theatre making at Dartington College of Arts, a radical institution (now, sadly no longer in existence) which nurtured collaborative learning and experimentation across art forms from 1961-2008.. In 1993 they formed an artistic partnership with the specific aim of seeking out opportunities for creating innovative and unusual theatre events in and about some of Europe’s most intriguing and neglected architectural sites.
The partnership’s aim is to develop building based artworks that claim a proper relationship with a location, but also challenge notions of what is original and fixed. The work seeks to disrupt routine and common-held perceptions of the built environment by actively exploring how space is read and experienced.
They have present work at The Union Chapel London; Mary Ward House, London (LIFT London International Festival of Theatre); Hebbel Theater (HAU), Berlin; Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, and Space Gallery, London
By means of installation, performance, film, structural intervention, and cross-disciplinary partnerships, a many-layered model of ideas and relationships is formed that actively ‘rewrites’ a building. By addressing the in between and neglected aspects of a site the aim is to present multiple viewpoints and encounters with its history and the philosophies that formed it.
Ewan is also a BAFTA winning screenwriter (The Portrait 2014) and a producer of independent theatre projects. Previous projects include work for the Royal Court Theatre, London (winner of a Barclays New Stages Award), the Stadsschouwberg, Utrecht, Arnolfini Bristol and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow,
Christopher was a co-founder, with Nicola Malin, of The Damned Lovely performance company and has presented work at the ICA, National Review of Live art, and the Singapore Arts Festival. Recent solo work includes Hors de Saisaon (Guernsey Arts) and Pitch (High Fidelity - Chisenhale Dance Space and Syracuse University, London)
They have worked as visiting lecturers at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Bristol University, York St John University, Nottingham Trent University, Wimbledon College of Arts and King's College London.
From 2006- 2022 Forster & Heighes were Creative Research Fellows at The University of Roehampton, London.