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 The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space invites proposals for
PQ Performance Space Exhibition that explore contemporary developments in
performance space and theatre architecture. The Exhibition will take place in
Prague, 8–18 June 2023. Proposals are accepted from all performance space
makers and creators.

Curator Dates
Andrew Filmer Call published:
31 October 2021
Deadline for submission:
30 April 2022

VITAL
Official announcement of included spaces:
31 August 2022
15th Edition of the Prague Quadrennial:
8–18 June 2023

INFORMATION
To Submit Applications
Please, fill out the application form.

Submission Requirements
Submission contact Submission contact Submission contact
first name surname email address

Submission contact Submission contact Submission contact

phone number mailing address biography

Collaborators Organization Website links

Briefly describe your Video Author/Makers Sound recording Au-

relationship to the space (if relevant) thor/Makers (if relevant)
you are submitting (for
instance, designer, op-
You can also send the application via email call@pq.cz
erator, owner, etc.)
in case you have trouble filling in the form.
Submission Details Copyright
Responding to the curatorial concept, your submission should take the form By submitting to the Performance Space Exhibition you grant permission to the
of a portfolio of material traces, which together should provide insight into Prague Quadrennial to reproduce, edit, and display the imagery of the work in any
the specific qualities of your space: its feel, its textures, its atmospheres, its way it desires, whether for promotion, retrospectives, or archives, etc... in perpe-
actions, and its operations. These may include one or more of the following: tuity. All other rights reserved. All projects are obligated to secure all necessary
author’s rights and copyrights for all components (design, video materials, music,
A short film (of up to A sound recording An object or thing text, etc...) that will be utilized as part of their presentation, and guarantees that
5 minutes) PQ organizers will not be held responsible for any claims made by third parties.

An architectural A  visual image (of

fragment any kind)

Films and sound recordings should focus on conveying the multisensory experi-
ence of your space. Including multiple voices is encouraged, but static interviews
should be avoided. Films need not be professionally produced and may be filmed
on a smartphone.

All submissions should be accompanied by a short-written statement of no more

than 400 words specifying how your proposed submission responds to the cura-
torial concept.

Your submission should include your written statement, your film and/or sound
recording, digital versions of any visual images, and digital documentation of any
physical objects or fragments you wish to include. Please supply full details of the
size and dimensions of any physical objects.

If you include spoken dialogue in a film or sound recording you are welcome to
do so in your own language. However, your film must contain English subtitles
for any non-English dialogue, and a separate written transcription in English for
any non-English dialogue in a sound recording.

Film submissions should be formatted as follows: MP4, AVI, MOV, AVI.

Sound submissions should be formatted as follows: WAV, MP3, FLAC.

Should your submission be selected for inclusion in the exhibition we will provide
you with details of how, when and where to deliver any physical objects and ma-
terials. You will be responsible for any production or transportation costs asso-
ciated with realizing and delivering your material traces to the exhibition – and
the arrangements for having them returned to you.
 About P Q
Organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and realized by the
Arts and Theatre Institute, the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and
Space is the largest international festival event dedicated to scenography, per-
formance design and theatre architecture. Since 1967 PQ has been an exchange,
networking and educational platform exploring the best works in scenography
and design for performance.

While celebrating the diverse forms of performance design/scenography around

the globe, the Prague Quadrennial strives to present it as an art form concerned
with the creation of holistic performance environments, not just decorative back-
grounds; these performative spaces creatively respond to current issues of our
world, ask important questions, and invite us to participate in unique moments.
Every four years, PQ’s central curatorial concept shapes the festival and offers

CONTEXT
its participants a fresh look at the artistic reflection of our times in performance
designs and scenographies.

The 2023 edition will recognize the need to experience performance design/sce-
nography in its performative format: live and with audience engagement. Our
recognition of these predominant trends has led us to rename PQ a festival rather
than an exhibition.

Curator
Andrew Filmer is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance in the Department
of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University, UK. His current
research examines the sites of encounter between performance and architecture
and performative explorations of endurance running. Previous research has ex-
amined performers’ experiences and practices in the backstage spaces of theatre
buildings and located and site-specific performance practice. He co-edited Per-
forming Architectures: Projects, Practices, Pedagogies (2018) and edited a special
double issue of Theatre and Performance Design on ‘Theatre Architectures’ (2019).
Andrew co-convenes the Theatre & Architecture Working Group of the Internation-
al Federation for Theatre Research and co-curated the Working Group’s Shared
Pedagogies and Shared Practices events at PQ2015. He has an ongoing research
collaboration with the collective TAAT (‘Theatre as Architecture Architecture as
Theatre’) and is working with National Theatre Wales on the Ever After Project,
exploring post-pandemic futures for theatre and performance. Andrew was
a member of the Selection Jury for the Performance Space Exhibition at PQ 2019.
 Acts of Assembly
Performance spaces are dynamic; they are places of gathering, assembly
and appearance. Performance spaces are sites of encounter; where bodies,
objects, materials and technologies meet. Performance spaces are sites of
possibility; they are places for imagination, storytelling and world building.
Performance spaces are resistant; they are stages for protest, for redress, for
repair. Performance spaces are situated; always negotiating environmental,
cultural, economic, and political forces. Performance spaces are shared; they
are places of communal attachment, memory and ownership.

The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a catalyst for us to re-think many of

our assumptions about theatre, about the world in which we make it, and
about its relationship to that world. As an ecological crisis, the pandemic
disrupted the operation of theatres and performance spaces as physical sites

CURATORIAL
of assembly by requiring us to adapt to the unseen, undetectable presence
of a virus. Such adaptations – including developments in event streaming
and digital media – ask us to consider performance itself as an assembly or
assemblage. Performance can now happen in multiple places, with and for

CONCEPT
different groups of people, simultaneously.

The Performance Space Exhibition at PQ 2023 will provide a forum for re-
considering how performance spaces operate as acts of assembly and sites
for community. How do they create connections? How do they facilitate en-
counters? How do they function as spaces for social action and the making
of culture?

We welcome the submission of any type of space that has been created or
adapted for performance, whether large or small, indoor or outdoor, purpose
built or appropriated, temporary or permanent. The space need not have
been designed by an architect.

Your submission should respond to at least some of the following questions:

What does your space do; how does it perform?

How does it create space for the appearance of individuals and/or
communities?
How does it negotiate social and cultural differences?
How has the Covid-19 pandemic shifted or altered the function of your
performance space?
How does your performance space create connections between the human
and non-human world?

– Andrew Filmer, Performance Space Exhibition Curator

 PQ 2023
RARE
For PQ 2023, we would like to invite you to share the RARE: art
springing out of ideas, materials, artistic approaches, and de-
sign practices that connect to the human level from within your
environment, with its genius loci and unique situation. In the
current state of precarity, uncertainty, and epochal change, we
call on performance designers, scenographers, and performance
practitioners to use their RARE imagination and creativity to
help us envision what the world and theatre could look like in the
post-pandemic future.

This is a unique moment to use our art, imagination, creativity,

and ability to create environments that others may come to enjoy
in the future – at PQ 2023 and beyond. Since we have all been de-
prived of meeting in the same physical space for quite some time,
let’s turn PQ 2023 into the RARE opportunity to move from virtual
spaces into specific places offering an in-person experience, in
which physicality and materiality of scenography become central:
where your senses and predicaments will be taken into account.

– Markéta Fantová, PQ Artistic Director

Contact

Prague Quadrennial Phone: +420 224 809 118 Follow us on social media:
c/o Arts and Theatre Institute E-mail: pq@pq.cz fb.com/praguequadrennial
Celetná 17 Web: pq.cz instagram.com/praguequadrennial
110 00 Prague 1 twitter.com/PQ_festival
Czech Republic