THIS YEAR’S PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL WAS SEEN BY A RECORD NUMBER OF VISITORS
Prague, 28 June 2011 – Last week, the Czech capital welcomed more than 40,000 visitors (according to initial estimates) plus numerous groups of artists, directors, scenographers and designers from more than 70 countries around the world. The Prague Quadrennial, the world’s largest exposition of performance design and theatre architecture, held in Prague once every four years since 1967, came to an end on Sunday, 26 June. Over the course of eleven days, the city centre hosted several “islands” of culture that reminded visitors and passers-by that, today, theatre and theatre stages can be found (or erected) almost anywhere. Over the course of the Prague Quadrennial, the National Theatre’s Piazzetta was home to Intersection, thirty giant boxes featuring renowned artists from around the world. The Veletržní Palace – National Gallery hosted expositions showcasing the best of contemporary theatre from more than 70 countries. And Prague Crossroads was home to an exhibition on “NOW/ NEXT Performance Space”, where world-renowned architects debated the future of performance space. Meanwhile, visitors could find dozens of public artistic performances directly on the city streets.
To be a space for discussion and to help define contemporary scenography as an autonomous discipline on the boundary between visual and theatre art, a discipline that can exist even outside of theatre – these were the main goals of this year’s Prague Quadrennial, an expansive international exhibition with the aim of presenting scenography as a multidisciplinary discipline. According to the Prague Quadrennial’s General Commissioner Boris Kudlička, in the second half of June the Czech capital was transformed into a meeting-place for scenographers from around the world, with the aim of engaging in dialogue regarding the boundaries and mutual interactions between theatre professions, as well as the expanding space for contemporary, modern scenography. The fact that this year’s Prague Quadrennial was visited by more people than ever before in history is one proof that this goal was met beyond all expectations. Over the course of eleven days, more than 40,000 people paid to visit the Veletržní Palace, Prague Crossroads, the National Theatre’s Piazzetta and other venues – several thousand more than at the previous Quadrennial four years ago.
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I was surprised at how many people came. I didn’t expect it to be such an enormous event of international dimensions. Especially for young people, the exhibition is an excellent opportunity to learn about this discipline and to share and exchange experiences. This year, many specialists and great artists were invited to the Prague Quadrennial, and their presence meant that visitors had a lot to learn. This is where I see the main reasons for success,"sound artist Hans Peter Kuhn said over the weekend.
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This is my first time at the Prague Quadrennial, and I have to say that I am impressed. The exhibition is larger than I could ever have imagined, with many different features and details. I love the boxes on the Piazzetta; they are truly an amazing work of art. I think that the entire conception is fantastic and the atmosphere is really great. What is more, people showed real interest, which was an enormous gift at my lecture,” said Israel-based American lighting designer Felice Ross, unable to conceal her excitement.
Visitors to the Prague Quadrennial could meet with other world-renowned artists as well, including Spanish director Carlos Padrisa, film architect and designer Mark Friedberg and famous American architect Charles Renfro.
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Although I didn’t spend much time at the Prague Quadrennial, I was struck by the enormous amount of energy radiating from the diversity of participants. Conferences like the Prague Quadrennial have a noble but difficult task. It might take several months for the encounters at the Prague Quadrennial to result in new projects and for all the possibilities offered by the Prague Quadrennial to its participants to come to light, declared Renfro, whose career is closely associated with New York’s renowned Diller + Scofidio studio.
Between 16 and 26 June, the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space presented recent works by theatre artists and designers, costume designers, architects and sound and lighting designers from all over the world, all available to the general public. The diverse programme included exhibitions, installations, performances, site-specific projects, lectures, workshops, discussions and film screening, plus an interactive programme for children. Thanks to Scenofest, thousands of students from Europe and other continents participated in the PQ as well. Also underscoring the international importance of this extraordinary cultural event was the growing interest on the part of the international media. In addition to representatives from leading Czech media outlets, this year’s Prague Quadrennial accredited more than 200 foreign journalists from 35 countries, including correspondents for respected media outlets such as The New York Times, Theater Heute, Theater der Zeit, Mouvement, Zichtlijnen (Sightlines), L’architecture d’aujourd’hui and Architektura Murator.
The direction taken by scenography and by the PQ as the world’s largest scenography exhibition is best reflected in the exposition that took home the main prize, the Golden Triga. The prize went to Brazil, whose exposition looked at the movement of scenography within today’s fragmentary and restless world. The aim of the Brazilian entry was to present scenography as a provocative art that establishes a “pulsating frontier of languages” and provides a safe haven for theatrical characters and ideas. According to the prize jury, the Brazilian exposition was alive with a sense of the country’s national pride and its cultural diversity. The Brazilians combined scenography with popular culture with flair, sensitivity and joie de vivre. This is exactly the objective of the Prague Quadrennial: To discover new ideas, incentives and spaces in a discipline that (along with theatre) is increasingly growing out into public space. “Inspirational environments such as the Prague Quadrennial always change your life at least a little bit. They present an enormous range of works, for instance as expressed through the many small, autonomous spaces on the Piazzetta. The enormous amount of artistic ideas and constantly ongoing mental processes that you can observe here... It was truly very, very inspiring,” stated Es Devlin, a scenographer and costume designer who works in show business as well as theatre, among others for such musical acts as Lady GaGa, Muse and the Pet Shop Boys, and who is currently designing the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Press contact:
Nathalie Frank
International Public Relations
Cell+420 774 255 867
E nathalie.frank@pq.cz