Monograph
Moravec, L., Dressaged Animality: Human and Animal Actors in Contemporary Performance, London: Routledge, forthcoming 2024.
The book applies a productive interdisciplinary lens of art history, performance and animal studies for approaching political economy issues, critiquing anthropomorphic worldviews, and provoking thoughts around animal and human nature that spark impulses for an innovative performance aesthetics and ethics.
It combines Marxist analysis with feminist and posthumanist methodology to analyse the relation between ‘societal dressage’ and ‘bodily animality’ that humans and animals share. Within this original theoretical framework, the book develops the concept of ‘dressaged animality’ as a mode of critique to analyse the social and political function of interdisciplinary forms of ‘contemporary performances.’
Drawing on archival and primary research, the book theorises and historicises more than 15 performance practices in which animality is allegorically staged through by humans danced, real, or filmically mediated animals. It focuses on Rose English’s pioneering approach to performance-making and analyses overlooked performances by other renown and largely unknown American (Mike Kelley/Kate Foley, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Yvonne Rainer, Diana Thater), British (Mark Wallinger, Rose English), and European artists (Tamara Grcic, Judith Hopf, Joseph Beuys, Bartabas, Anna Källblad/Helena Byström) from the late 1960s until the late 2010s. While various types of artistic practice are framed as forms of critique (for example, protest art, interventionist strategies, institutional critique), the book maps an original performance theory in art which shows that contemporary artistic performances can also take up a critique of societal dressage.
This study will be of great interest to students and scholars in art history, theatre, dance and performance studies, and ecology, as well as to artists and curators working with performance.
Edited Books
Rose English: Memory Theatre, eds. Harald Krejci, Lisa Moravec, and Marijana Schneider, exh. cat. (dt/eng) Museum der Moderne Salzburg/Berlin: Distanz Verlag, August 2024.
Posthumanist Approaches to a Critique of Political Economy: Dissident Practices, eds. Carmen Lael Hines and Lisa Moravec, with 25 international academics and artists, London: Bloomsbury Press (Posthumanism in Practice Series, peer-reviewed), forthcoming spring 2025.
Translated Books
What is Vienna Actionism?/Was ist Wiener Aktionismus?, Wiener Aktionismus Museum/Berlin: DCV Verlag, forthcoming 2024.
Academic Articles
Moravec, L., 'Training Humans not Machines: Artificial Intelligence and the Performance Culture of its Critique', in: TDR, Still Exhausted (special issue), eds. Catie Cuan, Douglas Eacho, and Sydney Skybetter, 1 March 2024, pp. 51-69 (peer-reviewed).
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/1E803B4DF035406EE53C2356A13704C8/S1054204323000515a.pdf/training_humans_not_machines.pdf
Moravec, L., 'Virtuelle Performance: Zum Multimedia Event Planetary Skins von Sylvia Eckermann und Gerald Nestler', in: springerin (Netzteil), September 2023, pp. 10-11.
https://www.academia.edu/108851819/Virtuelle_Performance_Zum_Multimedia_Event_Planetary_Skins_von_Sylvia_Eckermann_und_Gerald_Nestler_springerin_September_2023
Moravec, L., 'Sometimes I Think I Was a Parrot, but Then I Realized I Am Only a Fish: On “Animal Art” and Its Contemporary Condition"', steirischer herbst, October 2022/2023, https://www.steirischerherbst.at/de/pages/4845/.
Moravec, L., ‘Body Politics: Performing with Animals, A Non-Acting Approach’, in: The Routledge Companion to Bodies in Performance, eds. Victor Ladron de Guevara, Roberta Mock, and Hershini Young, London: Routledge, (peer-reviewed, submitted, forthcoming).
Moravec, L., ‘Dressage Performances as Infrastructural Critique: Mike Kelley and Yvonne Rainer’s Dancing Horses’, in: Dance Chronicle: Studies in Dance and the Related Arts, special issue ‘Critical Institutional Studies’, Olive Mckeon (ed.), Vol. 45, No. 1, February 2022, pp. 57-78 (peer-reviewed). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01472526.2022.2027182
Research Collective Performance and Political Economy (Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal, Shane Boyle, Ash Dilks, Caoimhe Mader McGuinness, Olive Mckeon, Lisa Moravec, Alessandro Simari, Clio Unger, Martin Young), ‘Marxist Keywords for Performance’, in: The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Eero Laine (ed.), Vol. 36, No. 1, Fall 2021, pp. 25-53 (peer-reviewed). https://muse.jhu.edu/article/841951
Moravec, L., ‘Spellbound Things: Hands of Stone, Michael Armitage’s ‘Conjestina’, in: Love Spells: Rituals for another World, eds. Lilly Markaki and Caroline Harris, Independent Publishing Network, March 2021.https://lovespellsrhul.wixsite.com/2020
Moravec, L., ‘Beyond The Threshold? Artistic Performances in Contemporary Art Museums: Anne Imhof’s Sex’, in: Tagungsband, Verband für österreichische Kunsthistoriker*innen (VöKK), (based on the annual conference 2019), open-access, 2024, pp. 134-146.https://repository.akbild.ac.at/de/alle_inhalte/query/27265
Moravec, L., ‘Four Saints in Three Acts: A Snapshot of the American Avant-Garde in the 1930s and Lessing Presents Lessing’, in: Photography & Culture, Vol. 12, Issue 1, March 2019, pp. 133-137. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17514517.2019.1565740?journalCode=rfpc20
Essays in Exhibition Catalogues
Moravec, L., 'Staging Ideas: Rose English's Performance Poetics/Die Inszenierung von Ideen: Rose Englishs Performancepoetik' (dt/eng), in: Rose English: Memory Theatre, eds. Harald Krejci, Lisa Moravec, Marijana Schneider (eds.), exh. cat. (dt/eng) Museum der Moderne Salzburg/Berlin: Distanz Verlag, August 2024.
Moravec, L., 'Die Kunst zu Performen: Ein Blick auf die Wiener Aktionisten aus der Perspektive der 2000-er Jahre' (dt/eng), in: Was ist Wiener Aktionismus?, Wiener Aktionismus Museum/Berlin: DCV Verlag (forthcoming 2023).
Moravec, L., ‘Eine Frage des Glaubens: Weiße Materialien, Exzessive Körperperformances und Fantastische Tiere bei Günter Brus' (forthcoming).
Moravec, L., 'Beuys’ Radikale Tierperformances’/Beuys’ Radical Animal Performances' (dt/eng), in: Joseph Beuys: Denken, Handeln, Vermitteln/Think. Act. Convey, published by Harald Krejci and Stella Rollig, ex. cat. Belvedere21/Cologne: Koenig Books, 2021, pp. 149-162. https://www.buchhandlung-walther-koenig.de/koenig2/index.php?mode=details&showcase=1&art=1622475
Moravec, L., 'Gerhard Kaisers's "Way of Seeing": Visual Art Beyond the Digital'/'Gerhard Kaisers "Art des Sehens": Visuelle Kunst am Rande des Digitalen' (dt/eng), (forthcoming).
Moravec, L., ‘Worming a Revolution: Matthias Mollners Wurmloch’ (dt/eng), in: Matthias Mollner: Evolution Revolution, artist catalogue, Wien: monochrome, September 2019.
https://shop.monochrom.at/product/matthias-mollner-evolution-revolution/
Translations German-English
Mlodzianoskwi, S., ‘Ottomar Anschütz’s Animal Photography Through the Lens of Darwinism’, translated by Helen Lewandowski and Lisa Moravec, in: ‘Humanism after the Human’, special issue of Photography & Culture, special issue of Photography and Culture, June 2021. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17514517.2021.1920178
Thies-Lehmann, H., ‘Peter Handke: Inhabiting the World Together’, trans. Karen Jürs-Munby and Lisa Moravec, in: Contemporary European Playrights, eds. Maria M. Delgado, Bryce Lease, Dan Rebellato, London: Routledge, 2020.
Art Writing
Moravec, L., 'Dancing Around with Rose English, What does it mean to be an engaged curator?', in: motor dance journal, Issue 2: Duets and Dialogues, November 2023, pp. 105-9.
Moravec, L., ‘Prometheus’ (Poem), in: Anna Kuen, Prometheus, artist book, December 2019.
Moravec, L., 'Lena Lapschina’s Street Photography Trees and Poets [The Urbanist’s Alphabet]: Encountering Nature and Art in the City of San Diego', in: Lena Lapschina, exhibition catalog, November 2017, unrealised/unpublished.
Moravec, L., Karen Irmer: Don’t Come Back Wave, folder publication, May 2017.
Journal Editing
Leask, J. and Moravec, L., editorial ‘Balancing Acts’, special issue of Platform: Journal of the Performing Arts, October 2021. https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/drama-theatre-and-dance/studying-here/postgraduate-research/platform-journal/current-issue/
Lewandowski, H. and Moravec, L., editorial essay to ‘Humanism after the Human’, special issue of Photography and Culture, June 2021.
- with contributions by Sarah E. James, Marietta Kesting, Sabina Mlodzianoskwi, Magdalena Nieslony, Erica Payet, Julia Peck, Julian Stallabrass, Joanna Zylinska.
https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy01.rhul.ac.uk/toc/rfpc20/14/2?nav=tocList?nav=tocList
Moravec, L. and Peetz, J., editorial ‘On Magic’, Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts, Vol. 12, No. 2, winter 2018. https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/8418/00_full_issue.pdf
Leask, J., Moravec, L., Unger, C., Editorial to ‘On Criticism’, Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts, Vol. 13, No. 1, autumn 2019. https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/8418/00_full_issue.pdf
Book/Performance Review Editor of Platform (founded the performance review section)
Peetz, J. and Weiner, R. (eds.), issue on ‘Feasting’, Platform: Journal of the Performing Arts, serving as book and performance review editor, Vol. 12, No. 1, summer 2018. https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/8419/00_full_issue.pdf
Peetz, J. and Weiner, R. (eds.), issue on ‘Authenticity’, Platform: Journal of the Performing Arts, Vol. 11, autumn 2017. https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/5437/00_full.pdf
Book Reviews
Joseph Beuys by Claudia Mesch, London: Reaktion Books, 2017, in: The Burlington Magazine, March 2021.
Foucault & Theatre, eds. Tony Fisher and Kélina Gotman, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2019, in: Contemporary Theatre Review, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2020, pp. 415-417. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10486801.2020.1772593
Der Esel auf der Bühne by Maximilian Haas, in: Tierstudien: Tiergeschichten, 16/2019, Neofelis Verlag, 2019, pp. 184-6.
The Sixth Sense of the Avant-Garde: Dance, Kinaesthesia and the Arts in Revolutionary Russia by Irina Sirotkina and Roger Smith, in: Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts, Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring 2018, pp. 100-103.