Draft:David Fernández (performing artist)

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David Fernández is a performing artist, director and video maker, active as a performer since 1996. Originally from Madrid, Spain, where he was born in 1976, he moved to Berlin, Germany in 2011. Trained as a dancer, actor and cellist he also works intensively with video and new technologies. He also works as a stage director and cellist with Berlin's Stegreif Orchester, of which he was a co-founding member in 2015.

His father is the Spanish singer, songwriter, record producer and actor Gonzalo Fernández Benavides, better known as Gonzalo.

Career

Fernández began studying dance in Madrid aged 18. He studied ballet with Carmen Roche (1994-96), and contemporary dance with Blanca Calvo, Olga Mesa, Francesc Bravo, Ana Buitrago, Wim Vandekeybus, Carmen Werner, and Mónica Valenciano (1996-2000). At the same time he began teaching himself the cello. He studied acting, dramaturgy and playwriting for four years at the actor's studio of Juan Carlos Corazza in Madrid (2000-2003).

His performance career began at 19, playing cello wearing only a pair of white socks. Nudity became a hallmark of his performance work. Among others, he has worked with Robert Lepage, La Fura dels Baus, Calixto Bieito, María La Ribot, Olga Mesa and Cuqui Jerez.

Since 2004 he has mainly performed his own works, which he also directs and creates lighting design for, with more than 15 productions to his credit.

He has had notable stage collaborations with actress Rossy de Palma in 2010's (des)Variaciones Goldberg (The Goldberg Variations), and with actress, playwright and director Angélica Liddell. The theatrical trailer for (des)Variaciones Goldberg on YouTube has been viewed over 400,000 times. During development of the performance No Pain No Fun (2009) Liddell gave Fernández a pair of her underwear, which he auctioned off on eBay. For her part, Liddell used excerpts from Fernández's letters in her own performance La casa de la fuerza (The House of Force) (2009).

With his 'Ecce Cello' project Fernández released three albums on his own label, Sunless (2011), pOCKET rHAPSODY (2014) and Waterproof (2016). He twice won the 'Saddest Music in the World' contest at Volksbühne Berlin, in 2015 and 2017. For 2017's ninth and final contest his winning piece was composed specifically for the event. Fernández was a special guest at Cello Biënnale Amsterdam 2018, where he performed three times, showed a video installation and collaborated with well-known cellist Mischa Maisky.

Fernández is also self-taught upon the harpsichord, and adept in video-mapping, Max/MSP, video editing, digital 3D animation, live audio manipulation and web programming. His work has been notable for its integration of everyday technology such as mobile phones, tablet computers and robots. In 2013 Fernández gave a TEDxBerlin talk, 'Ecce Cello - the sound of what one is' on everyday technology and its application in the arts and music, published to YouTube in November that year.

His later work included performing, choreographing and directing productions with Stegreif Orchester, #free∃roica (2018) and #BFREE (2020); as well as his own pieces No Future Yes (2018) with dancer Maureen Lopez, El odio a la música (Hatred of Music) (2019) with performer Almudena Vernhes, and Cha cha cha (2021) with violinist Celia Schann. With a stipend from the Berlin Senat's Kulturprojekte Berlin funding platform, during the Covid-19 pandemic Fernández created the project 'Zero Room', a theater in his apartment, in order to continue performing and researching during 2021's lockdown.

External Links

David Fernández official website Ecce Cello official website