Mark Fisher: Stage Designer Par Excellence

Opus Gewinner: Mark Fisher

He worked with artists like Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, U2 and Madonna: Mark Fisher, architect and set designer par excellence, passed away in June 2013 at the age of 66. Thanks to his work, he will never be forgotten. At this year’s Prolight + Sound, Fisher was posthumously awarded the Opus Award in the Technical Realisation category for ‘The Wall 2013’ with Pink Floyd, as well as receiving the jury’s [honorary] award.

“It was a great opportunity to honour Mark Fisher’s work and contribution to the community”, said Lucy Davenport of Stufish Entertainment Architects, the architectural and production design studio that Fisher founded. “He was capable of fusing a creative concept with technical finesse without ever compromising the idea and its visual beauty.”

Stage Design for Robbie Williams & Co

A proud statement, and one that’s not hard to find evidence for. Fisher, who had a background in architecture, worked together with Pink Floyd for the first time in 1978, including on the first version of ‘The Wall’ – a new version of this very project was to earn him the Opus Award, 35 years later.

It wasn’t just world stars like Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, and Robbie Williams who trusted in his eye for a grand stage statement – Fisher also gave public events the backdrop they deserved. He created the concept for the opening and closing ceremonies not just for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, but also the summer games in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. In the same year, he masterminded the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee – one of his last projects before passing away on June 25^th 2013 after a long illness.

Yet his spirit lives on. His colleague Lucy Davenport put it like this: “Mark planted a seed that will allow his love and dedication towards this art to live on through the studio.”

Fisher’s stage design for U2