Held in Prague once every fourth years since 1967, the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space or Prague Quadrennial is the world's largest event in the field of scenography, consisting of a competitive 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.
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History
During the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1959, a special exhibit, designed by František Tröster, illustrated the development of Czech and Slovak stage design and theatre architecture during the period from 1914-1959. The result of the exhibition was a gold medal for Czechoslovakia. Continued Czech success during the next three Biennales led to an offer for Prague to host an international exhibition of stage design in Europe. Since its premiere in 1967, the international exhibition has been held regularly every four years, and has come to be known as the Prague Quadrennial.
Important artists who marked the history of the theater and the scenography participated and exposed at the Prague Quadrennial, such as Salvador Dalí, Josef Svoboda, Oscar Niemayer, Tadeusz Kantor, Guy-Claude François and Ralph Koltai, as well as figures of the contemporary theater, such as Robert Wilson, Heiner Goebbels and Renzo Piano.
Awards
The exhibitions are judged and estimated by an International Jury, attributing the following awards:
The Golden Triga was awarded in 1967 to France, in 1971 to the GDR, in 1975 to the USSR, in 1979 to Great Britain, in 1983 to the GDR, in 1987 to the USA, in 1991 to Great Britain, in 1995 to Brazil, in 1999 to the Czech Republic, in 2003 to Great Britain, in 2007 to Russia and in 2011 to Brazil.
The 13th edition of the Prague Quadrennial in 2015
In 2013 PQ received support for the long-term cooperation project Shared Space: Music, Weather, Politics that resulted in over 45 events and projects in 19 European countries involving over 1600 artists, 500 educators and 120 000 audience members.
SharedSpace is the space that influences (designs) relationships between people, space that provides room for relating, and more than anything space that provides place for sharing – sharing of ideas, stories, and of social responsibilities.
The project culminated at Prague Quadrennial that had an additional 180 000 visitors and over 6000 accredited professionals. Over 1300 students from all over the world took part in workshops and performances by students and young emerging artists.
PQ 2015 presented over 60 countries in seven exhibition spaces – galleries, churches, and palaces in the centre of Prague.
Artists from 75 countries took part in an additional programme, including workshops, lectures, street performances, discussions, curated walks, and presentations.
The upcoming 14th edition of the Prague Quadrennial in 2019
The next edition of Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space will be held in June 2019.
Further information about Prague Quadrennial 2015 will be released in June 2017.