Download The UK 12th participation in the Prague Quadrennial

The UK 10th participation in the Prague Quadrennial
of Performance Design and Space
Prague, Czech Republic, 5.5.2011
From June 16-26, 2011, the UK will be represented for the 10th time at the
Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, one of the largest world
theatre events held in Prague, Czech Republic every fourth year since 1967. The
UK exhibition, Transformation & Revelation, curated by Peter Farley for the
Society of British Theatre Designers, will compete with a record number of 62
countries for the Golden Triga and other medals. The UK will also participate in
the Architecture competition, the Student Section, and the Extreme Costume
exhibition with a costume designed by Madaleine Trigg.
The upcoming edition of the Prague Quadrennial will also present a unique
outdoor performing exhibition, Intersection: Intimacy & Spectacle, inhabited by
thirty internationally acclaimed artists including UK-based Nathaniel Mellors,
Caroline Evans and Hansjörg Schmidt. The UK will also participate in the Talks,
where prestigious speakers will help make the Prague Quadrennial a living
center for creative expert exchange in performance design, thanks to
personalities such as Scanner, a conceptual artist collaborating with Radiohead
and Douglas Gordon, Es Devlin, the award winning designer who is currently
designing the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, and
Richard Sennett, Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of
Economics. The Prague Quadrennial curatorial team includes two members
from the UK, Steven Brown, Head of Sound for the Manchester Royal Exchange
Theatre Company, for the Sound design projects and Jessica Bowles, Head of
the UK Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre, for Scenofest, the
educational project of the Prague Quadrennial and OISTAT. Lastly, the pioneer
of modern stagecraft Edward Gordon Craig won’t be missed in the city since his
works will be presented in the Space and Light exhibition realized by the
Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Over 40,000 visitors from all over the world
are expected to attend, making Prague the center of the performance world for
those very special 11 days, June 16-26, 2011.
Transformation & Revelation, the exhibition representing the UK at the 12th Prague
Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, suggests a sort of alchemical laboratory of
exposed objects and ideas, revealing the transformation of concepts into reality, and including
works by Antony Gormley. The UK will also compete within the Architecture Section of the
Prague Quadrennial with the exhibit The Guthrie Thrust Stage – A Living Legacy, tracing
the development of the uniquely British thrust stage form from its first appearance at The
Edinburgh Assembly Hall in 1948 to the recently completed Royal Shakespeare Theatre in
Stratford-upon-Avon in 2011. The UK will also participate in the Student Section with a project
showcasing and revealing the live working process of students from 18 different schools. As
part of the Extreme Costume competitive exhibition, a costume by Madaleine Trigg, Sutre, a
realization of a hologram for the SPILL Festival National Platform, will be on display. We
should remind you that UK exhibitors came back many times from the Prague Quadrennial with
prestigious awards. The UK exhibit won the Golden Triga, the most prestigious award in the
field, in 1979, 1991, and 2003, and in 2003 the Golden Medal for Set Design went to Richard
Hudson, and the Golden Medal for Costume Design to Nicky Gillibrand.
Unique to this edition, the Prague Quadrennial will introduce an original, curated
project, Intersection: Intimacy and Spectacle, which will center around an outdoor
interactive performing exhibition presenting thirty internationally acclaimed artists creating a
variety of performative environments within an architectural installation for a public space in the
very center of Prague. “The project includes Nathaniel Mellors, Romeo Castellucci, Abbey
Theatre, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Anna Viebrock, Josef Nadj, Ana Borralho & João Galante,
Markus Schinwald, Brett Bailey, Elevator Repair Service, Guerra de la Paz, Harun Farocki, Ulla
von Brandenburg … They were chosen in such a way as to show the large span of disciplines
that performance and performativity appear in, as well as to show extreme variety of themes
connected to the idea of performance (war as performance, tango as performance, clothes as
performance, etc.). The exhibition aims to inspire audiences to explore and question the forms
of performance in today’s world,“ explains Sodja Lotker, the Prague Quadrennial’s Artistic
Director and the Curator of Intersection. The Intersection project will feature Nathaniel
Mellors’ Giantbum, which premiered at the Tate Triennal 2009, an essential piece for the
Intersection´s constellation because it represents the visual art – a theatrical relationship both
in its spatiality, taking place in a gallery and a theatre venue, as well as in the use of tools – the
play and the image; as well as Theory box, a collaboration between lighting designer
Hansjörg Schmidt and academic fashion historian Caroline Evans posing a series of
questions about the relationship between the original and its reflections.
Aiming to become a living center for creative expert exchange in scenography, the Prague
Quadrennial includes an extensive series of talks, hosting practitioners from the UK such as Es
Devlin, the award-winning international stage and costume designer working for the
Metropolitan Opera, Lady Gaga, and the Pet Shop Boys, and recently appointed to work on the
closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Within the Light & Sound project,
curated by Steven Brown, Scanner, a conceptual artist collaborating with Radiohead and
Douglas Gordon, will present his work within a conference entitled Accidents Happen,
Sometimes, and participate in a discussion on Sound Art, or Conceptual Sound Design?
together with Hans Peter Kuhn and Timo Muurinen.
The next generation of artists and students won’t miss out either, thanks to the Scenofest, the
Prague Quadrennial and OISTAT´s educational project, lead by Jessica Bowles, and
consisting of 6 site-specific performances, 60 performances from students from across the
globe, and over 50 workshops lead by artists and theorists including Louise Ann Wilson,
Julian Crouch, Roma Patel, Pamela Howard, Fiona Watt, Renata Gaspar... Over 2,000
students from all over the world are expected to come to the Prague to participate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------For editors: What is the Prague Quadrennial?
The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is a leading world artistic event – a
presentation of contemporary work in a variety of performance design disciplines and genres
including costume, stage, lighting, sound design, and theatre architecture for dance, opera,
drama, site-specific, multi-media performances, and performance art.
Founded in 1967, the Prague Quadrennial has presented work from more than 70 countries on
5 continents. The exhibition draws thousands of performance and theatre professionals,
students, and spectators from all over the world. At the most recent Quadrennial in 2007,
35,000 visitors came to enjoy installations, photos, videos, and live performances of work
ranging between theatre and visual arts, as well as more than 500 events, workshops,
performances, presentations, lectures, and discussions.
Participating countries in the International Competitive Exhibition include Argentina // Armenia
// Australia // Austria // Belarus // Belgium // Brazil // Bulgaria // Canada // Chile // China //
Colombia // Croatia // Cuba // Cyprus // Czech Republic // Denmark // Estonia // Finland //
France // Georgia // Germany // Greece // Hong Kong // Hungary // Iceland // India // Israel
// Italy // Japan // Kazakhstan // Republic of Korea // Latvia // Lebanon // Lithuania //
Macedonia // Mongolia // Mexico // Netherlands // New Zealand // Nigeria // Norway // Peru
// Philippines // Poland // Portugal // Republic of South Africa // Romania // Russia //
Serbia // Singapore // Slovakia // Slovenia // Spain // Sweden // Switzerland // Taiwan //
Turkey // United Kingdom // Uruguay // USA // Venezuela
Press contact:
General Information:
Nathalie Frank
International Public Relations
Cell+420 774 255 867
E [email protected]
Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space
June 16 - 26 2011
Celetná 17 | 110 00 Prague 1 | Czech Republic
T +420 224 809 102 | F +420 224 809 225
Follow us on www.pq.cz, Facebook & Twitter
The Prague Quadrennial is organized and funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech
Republic and realized by Arts and Theatre Institute.
Under the auspices of the President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus, the Mayor of the City
of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda and the Mayor of Prague 7 Marek Ječmének.
With the support of the Culture Program of the European Union. Supported by UNESCO, Trust
for Mutual Understanding, the City of Prague, Czech-German Fund For The Future.
International Media Partners: Flash Art, American Theatre, Mouvement.