Transcript:
I am often asked, “What is the Prague Quadrennial?”
This is a not an official video of the Prague Quadrennial. I am just a regular participant.
I believe in their mission.
The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design & Space is a performing arts festival that was begun in 1967.
It is the largest performance design event in the world. It happens every four years.
It highlights prominent professional design work & notable emerging artists.
This includes design for performance and theatre architecture of all kinds.
Unlike a simple conference, much of the Prague Quadrennial is for the general public.
It includes live performances and public exhibitions.
Mixed in with this are educational programs, workshops, discussions, and experimental labs for registered participants.
The festivals, exhibitions, and programs bring scholars, artists, and professionals together from all over the world.
Experimentation, innovation, and networking are the rule. Collaboration plans that reach across cultures happen as a matter of course.
The Prague Quadrennial’s goals are to celebrate and honor the work of designers and stage architects while inspiring audiences.
The mission for all performing arts is story-telling. Audience & performers are always the most essential elements of any performance.
The Prague Quadrennial embraces works that are more than simply beautiful or impressive to look at.
Works are showcased that challenge our thinking.
Featured work carries high emotional energy. It might make us feel threatened, or contain an agent of change.
The PQ advances new visions & new approaches for what live performance is.
The Prague Quadrennial is about an eleven day program of activities.
The previous Prague Quadrennial was in 2015. It happened in over 60 locations, both indoor and outdoor, throughout the center of Prague.
It featured over 600 live events and over 150 exhibitions over eleven days.
Performance design presented included scenery and space, costumes, sound, lighting, and projection work.
78 different countries contributed. Overall, 180,000 members of the public attended, and over 6000 accredited professionals.
Some images are from the Hungarian installation of 2015 titled “Donor for Promotheus.”
Exhibits, museums, street performances, architectural installations, and new art forms sprung up throughout the city.
Meanwhile. thousands of attendees from all over the world interact with each other.
An exhibit pictured called “Boundaries of Landscape” was created by students from Poland. It was an invisible museum in an empty white room.
A panel discussion pictured allowed everyone to talk directly with designers and engineers who had done ground-breaking work in the 20th century.
There are tremendous opportunities for the development of skills and career projects, but there is a higher and more urgent service.
Our world is changing quickly every day. We are urged to talk about boundaries and borders and “us” vs. “them.”
As artists, we carry the responsibility to hold a mirror up to our culture.
This event normalizes conversation across boundaries.
It raises the bar for collaborative thinking.
The Prague Quadrennial is not only an opportunity to build our skills …
… it is an opportunity to build ourselves.
Music: Perspectives, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
2:56 Image: Old Town Square in Prague
By Diliff – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12161035
This video was created for Matt Kizer Design
© 2019 Matt Kizer