Prague Quadrennial 2023

War can lead to peace… but peace is always very painful, full of human loss, and it rarely matters whether you win or lose… The two are interrelated—peace after war, war before peace… By comparing these two opposite realities, we emphasise the importance of peace… What we see and what we cannot see… Civilised conversation, neat attire and a well-groomed appearance are supposed to prevent war… Yet, it is the people caught up in war who see the truth…

To live on a blue planet where almost nothing is blue. To be born a dandelion and endure constant storms. “When you look at the sky, you will think that this is some kind of birthday celebration, because the fireworks illuminate the sky with a brightness that rivals daylight.” On the night of director Artush Mikayelyan’s birthday, war broke out. “This is a birthday party—the cake is the earth and the candles are the smoking shells sticking out of it. I can’t blow out all the candles, the cake is too big.”

September 27, 2020—Armenians wake up to the news that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces had launched a large-scale offensive along the entire length of the Line of Contact with Artsakh. October 16, 2020—The collection of food and medicine for the frontline continues. October 30, 2020—With the initiative of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (after Alexander Spendiaryan), camouflage nets are being prepared on the stage to protect the soldiers on the frontline. November 8, 2020—The hats sewn in the Gyumri theatre will soon reach the frontline. One of the rehearsal rooms has been turned into a tailor’s shop. Everyone is sewing, from the actors to the technicians.

We see how the theatre, under the direct or indirect influence of the war, flexibly transforms the space and the action… and, as a result—we see—we cannot see.

Curator: Nelly Barseghyan

Team: Poet, Composer: Narek Cosmos; Director: Gor Margarian

Presenting Organization: ScenoLab Art Laboratory scenolab.am/en

Award: Responsiveness to Urgencies in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions

"All my work comes from place, from Country. As a First Nations man and designer, the world I live in is completely interconnected, the land, its people and its stories are all one and need one another to exist. This installation spoke to how I interpret “country” and create landscapes for live performance. I spent 12 years as Head of Design at Bangarra Dance Theatre, designing all the sets for their productions. This is a space that speaks to the ancient stories held within First Nations cultures in Australia and how they exist in a contemporary form when not on Country.

The work I exhibited at PQ23 came from Bangarra’s production Bennelong. When designing Bennelong, choreographer Stephen Page asked me this question: “What does the land feel like before there were people?” It got me thinking about how land relates to identity—it defines you, it holds you and nourishes you. The design was my response to that question.

The conversation and work I wanted to bring to PQ23 was about country and identity. I wanted to share a work that considered the country I come from, that spoke to me as a First Nations person, and at the same time challenged people around the world to think about their country, their connection to it, and who its First Peoples are. It is Country that defines us, shapes us and binds us together."

—Jacob Nash, Curator

Curator: Jacob Nash

Team: Creative Lead and Co-curator: Jacob Nash; Co-curator: Jo Briscoe; Composer: Steve Francis; Vocal Performer: Matthew Doyle; Prop Maker: Alex Stuart; Creative Consultants: Stephen Page and Jennifer Irwin; Producers: Xavier O’Shannessy, Bureau of Works and Richard Roberts, VCA; Production Managers: Sally Withnell and Abe Watson; Lighting Installation Design: John Ford; Original Lighting Design for Bennelong: Nick Schlieper; ; Our thanks to Anna Tregloan and Erin Milne for exhibition development and support. Thanks also to Nel Minchin and Ivan O’Mahoney from In Films for the use of ‘The Art of Bangarra’ clip, directed by Nel Minchin and Wayne Blair.; Thanks to the entire Bangarra family.; We acknowledge that this work was devised on the unceded lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners and custodians of the lands, waters and skies, and pay respects to their Elders past, present and future. ; Always was, and always will be Aboriginal land.

Presenting Organization: Bureau of Works and Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne pqau.com.au

Traffic Island was an independent territory.
Traffic Island was a utopia.
Traffic Island was an area to be defined.
Traffic Island was an area that we refused to define.

As soon as Traffic Island was defined it had to disappear, to escape the control of the empire and leave behind a cloud of smoke, to be deployed elsewhere, again invisible, and outside the organisation of the spectacle society.

When studying the history of utopia, researchers quickly realise that time and space are not entirely related to the metric system or to time zones—rather, these dimensions must be considered from the perspective of sensory and emotional sedimentation, and plotted on a sinusoidal axis that takes into account distance and time.

The image that best illustrates this stochastic aspect of the free empire of Traffic Island is a bug in the VLC Media Player. The image of the film is disturbed, creating a pixelated filter that remains for a short time in the subsequent film. A space of freedom is created by the superposition of two images, representing the principle that unites all the islands of this network. In the blind spots of economic liberalism and globalisation, the marginalised who occupy the libertarian empire of Traffic Island weave their web to create zones where the imagination becomes unconditional.

Traffic Island was the territorial vector that united the free territories.

Curator: Christian Halkin

Team: Scenographers: Stephane Arcas and Boris Dambly; Creation of the flag: Celine Lellouche; Performer: Gaspard Halkin; Videographer: Mathieu Haessler; Administrator: Sophie Bernoville; Communications Officer: Pauline Vanden Neste; Artists in Tattoo Noise Act: Jean Francois Decaestecker, David Coste, Quentin Manfroy, Philippe Delaby, Jean Francois Palumbo, Leny Andrieux and Anna Calsina Forrellad; Artist in Moonshine: Nathanaëlle Vandersmissen; Artists in Pirate Radio: Emilienne Tempels and Brice Agnès; Artist in Fanzine: Noemie Warion

Presenting Organization: fb.com/people/Traffic-Island/100083732345086

We believe in creating spaces that facilitate the celebration of lives—in the existence of a rare place where different “Brazils” can live together as enchanting worlds, despite all their differences. We invite bodies to listen to scenes, react to suffocation by dancing to whatever pulsates, and protect the street corners.

Crossroads are magnetised and noisy spaces formed by the convergence of diverse desires and perspectives. A concentration of street corners, a meeting point of differences, possibilities, but not necessarily consensus. We believe in the lives that are enchanted in these places. We realise that rare are the moments when we are able to move from the capitalist logic of “building futures,” towards living the creation of worlds in the present. Let us then celebrate encounters of the different “Brazils” and their artistic insurgencies against suffocation and death!

From a mapping of scenic works across the country in the last four years, we chose to listen to the diversity of voices, accents and practices that make up a plural territory, a territory which cannot be represented in the singular. Across this compass, project curatorship sought to highlight the work of professionals in each of the country’s 27 federal units, considering their poetic relationships with the sounds of scenes, inviting them to collectively occupy the exhibition space throughout the creation of sound “offerings” (material poems in the composition of resonant objects).

We allowed a counterbeat in the metronome of an anxious society, building a space inhabited by devices that encouraged bodies to explore new dances—an immersive environment that opens outwards and manifests itself in a “party-intervention-fight.” A time-space of “wheeling,” invocation, exchange, learning, confrontation and transmutation with ancestors. A rare reverence to street corners without which the sky would have already fallen.

Curatorial Team: Arianne Vitale, Elaine Nascimento, Gregory Slivar, Heloisa Lyra Bulcão, Karina Machado, Marieta Spada, Rafael Bicudo, Renato Bolelli Rebouças and Sergio Lessa

Team: Production Coordinator: Dora Leão; Guest Artists: Anderson Leite (Pernambuco), Anne Louise Sanfoneira (Roraima), Álvaro; RosaCosta (Rio Grande do Sul), Augusto Krebs (Mato Grosso), Ayrton Pessoa Bob; (Ceará), Barulhista (Minas Gerais), Bianca Turner (São Paulo), Diego Vattos; (Pará), Diogo Vanelli (Distrito Federal), Dori Sant’Ana (Espírito Santo), Écio; Rogério da Cunha (Acre), Eliberto Barroncas (Amazonas), Érico Ferry (Piauí),; Eugênio Lima (São Paulo), Hedra Rockerbach (Santa Catarina), Heitor Oliveira; (Tocantins), Jo Mistinguett (Paraná), Jones Barsou (Amapá), Kaline Barroso; (Roraima), Kevin Melo (Paraíba), Luciano Salvador Bahia (Bahia), Marcelo; Marques (Goiás), Márcio Marciano (Paraíba), Miran Abs (Alagoas), Panamby; (Maranhão), Reginaldo Borges (Mato Grosso do Sul), Rinaldo Santos (Rondônia),; Toni Gregório (Rio Grande do Norte), Zahy Tentehar (Rio de Janeiro), Zuzu; (Sergipe)

Presenting Organization: Brazilian Professional Association of the Performance Spatialities, Visualities and Sounds – Grafias da Cena Brasil pqbrasil.org

Award: Best Teamwork in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions

The Bulgarian pavilion at PQ23 was a warehouse of sets, costumes and tools where we could celebrate the afterlife of theatre props. Scenography is an ephemeral art form rooted in the present moment, existing only for the duration of the theatre play for which the scene was designed. When the performance ends, however, these objects take on a new life.

Late Anthropocene Findings was a performance installation that speculated about a potential present or future life for scenographic objects and costumes whose theatrical life has ended. Some of the (perhaps more fortunate) objects have their stories retold, from mouth to mouth, for those who want to listen. Others will spend decades confined to cardboard boxes while the world forgets they ever existed—hence, their purpose and meaning can be reimagined.

Late Anthropocene Findings included an auction where visitors could buy an original scenographic object, with or without original meaning and purpose, and potentially give these objects a new life. Although the objects in Late Anthropocene Findings might have been separated from their theatrical life, they were renewed with the chance to serve the inherent human needs to tell stories and play.

Curator: Petya Boyukova

Team: Performance Director: Mariy Rosen; Writer: Ivanka Mogilska; Actor: Alexander Mitrev; Scenographer: Nevena Georgieva; Web design and video: Albena Baeva; Logo design and illustrations: Aleksandra Georgieva; Music for Late Antroposcene Findings performance: Konstantin Timoshenko; Graphic design: Raya Bouyukova; Translation: Petya Koleva, Asparuh Donchev, Svetlana Komogorova-Komata; Public Relations and Social Media: Albena Tagareva; Coordinator and support: Petar Mitev, Hannah Schwartz; Exhibition support: Momchil Alexiev; Participant Scenographers: Anna Yanakieva, Anna Shopova, Antonia Popova, Albena; Baeva, Vanina Geleva, Vesela Statkova and Ivan Karev, Daniela Nikolchova, Ivaylo; Nikolov and Iva Gikova, Iliyana Kancheva, Marieta Golomehova, Marina Raytchinova,; Mihaela Mihaylova, Momchil Alexiev, Martina Mahmudieva, Mira Kalanova, Nikolina; Kostova-Bogdanova, Nevena Georgieva, Petya Boyukova, Petar Mitev, Rozina; Makaveeva, Sapromat, Tatyana Dimova, Hannah Schwartz, Tsveta Dimova, Tsveta; Bogdanova, Tsetska Ivaylova, Youlian Tabakov.

Presenting Organization: Union of Bulgarian Artists (UBA) with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria and; the Sofia municipality "Culture" Program 2023. findings.bg

The installation concept was to predict a new artistic life—and the slow decay of traditional colonial theatre—in Canada. This space was a designer’s studio, housed in a brutalist cube in ruins, from which new life would temporarily spring in the form of time-based artistic micro-interventions.

Canada has a complicated colonial history written across its landscape. While often self-proclaiming a “mosaic” of cultures and experiences, a dominant culture inherited from Imperial Britain has shaped most of the country’s current modes of expression. It is rare for artists seeking equity to find outlets for their work unencumbered by the expectations of this majority culture. Ongoing international activist movements and the closure of theatres across the country during the pandemic are encouraging Canadian artists to seek new outlets for their work at this unique point in history. With renewed energy, artists are eager to express themselves and make space for traditional ways of knowing as well as the wisdom of newcomers, in order to broaden the national discourse.

Harnessing this momentum, the vessel carried these experiences across international boundaries, creating an opportunity for encounters—of artists, audiences, unique ideas and diverse experiences. This vessel created an opportunity for featured artists to intervene and contribute with participatory components in space, light, sound, projection and other forms of artistic expression, revealing hidden gestures in this porous, cross-disciplinary artwork.

Each artist’s expression of their work and creative process was available for visitors to discover. Attendees could uncover an activation point and initiate a scenographic event that would expand and fill the entirety of the vessel. These rich but momentary encounters would highlight the transient and precarious nature of work created outside of the support of the dominant culture, and help visitors to understand both the risk and reward that equity-seeking designers must balance when creating work in Canada. These artists have navigated visible and invisible barriers in the traditional colonial theatre system, and A Carrying Vessel highlighted their work, their passion and their artistic inquiry.

Curators: Carmen Alatorre and Wladimiro Antonio Woyno Rodriguez

Team: Featured Artists: Samira Banihashemi, Samay Arcentales Cajas, Jay Havens, Whittyn Jason, Nancy Tam; Technical Director: Craig Alfredson; Head of Props and Paint: Carolyn Choo; Graphic Designer: Kristen Fernandes; Producer: T. Erin Gruber; President of the Associated Designers of Canada: Ken Mackenzie

Presenting Organization: Associated Designers of Canada pq2023.designers.ca

Partners: We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

“We live in a world that tends towards virtuality, but the reality is that our waste devours us. The overwhelming amount of rubbish we produce leaves confusing traces—of people and of their stories. If we could observe this debris from the near future, would we be able to imagine other futures?”

CROP confronted us with the archaeological remains of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya in the year 2053. What visitors would see was an accumulation of clothing and costumes that represented the waste of lives and fictions that have passed through the spaces of the theatre. The installation was a speculative exercise based on the absence of bodies and the presence of clothing transformed by time, use and, above all, the colonisation of other living organisms, as a vegetal landscape flourished amidst the textile debris of the installation. Visitors were invited to enter this space of memory, fiction and reflection with the help of sound pieces that could be listened to through provided headphones.

The type of contemporary archaeology on which this installation was based studies societies themselves through an analytical vision of debris. As well as this, the approach proposes a creative intervention in the materiality of the present. From an artistic point of view, the work played with combining the materiality of the recent past—from 1996, the year of the theatre’s foundation—with a time that has not yet happened—until 2053, when the life of this space will have experienced an interruption or a powerful transformation—and encouraged the visitors to imagine archaeologies of other possible futures.

Given the current context of confusion and uncertainty, wherein climate change and the recent COVID-19 pandemic are evidence of vital self-destruction, the threat to continuing human survival, many aspects of the way Western societies proceed must be questioned along with the anthropocentric views that shape them. The chosen location of this installation allowed us, as well, to question the place of expression, representation, and the ideas beneath Catalan—and European—culture, and to discover these fields as containers of realities, contradictions and experiences.

Curators: Marta Rafa and Pau Masaló Llorà

Team: Concept and design: Raquel Cors Munt, Albert Pascual Nogué & Carlota Ricart Amenós; Crop research in textiles: Sara de Ubieta; Sound design: Rodrigo Rammsy; Translation: Pere Bramon (ENG) & Tamara Precek (CZ); Voices: Anna Pérez Moya (CAT / ENG) & Tamara Precek (CZ); Technical director: Mercè Lucchetti

Presenting Organization: Institut del Teatre & Institut Ramon Llull pq.institutdelteatre.cat

Award: ČT art Award for the Most Socially Sensitive Exhibition

Two years ago, one of our most beloved and important mentors died unexpectedly during the pandemic. This pavilion was a mise-en-scène in which, like executioners, we selected and killed twenty of our masters and exhibited their animitas, creating a mortuary performance. In this pavilion, costume designers, transvestites, painters, lighting designers, hairpiece designers, professors, scenographers and puppeteers would all share the same space.

In Chile, animitas are small traditional constructions that house the spirit of a deceased person at the site of their tragic death. They are constantly visited by the devotees, who light candles and ask the spirits for favours. If these favours are granted, they must be repaid with an offering to express their gratitude. The animitas, as a popular and collective manifestation, offer a rare experience. They appear on streets and bridges, in squares and deserts, in different shapes and colours, telling the story of an absence and invoking a presence: a ghost. The same ghost we invoke when we kill our masters.

We are tired of maintaining a legacy that does not belong to us—killing twenty of our mentors was the healthiest solution we could find. This mortuary pavilion was kept alive by its visitors, who had the opportunity to visit the Animitas and participate in the performance by dying a little, just enough for us to capture some of their spirit and display it as a testimony to their complicity in this misdeed.

We have killed the masters, and we preserved their spirits in these animitas, which were paradoxically brimming with life, for it is a fact that theatre designers do not rest in peace. We have killed our mentors and we are not sorry. This pavilion is not a tribute. We don’t need any more tributes.

Curatorial Team: Complejo Conejo, a performance collective integrated by Pedro Gramegna, John Alvarez, Josefina Cerda, Raúl Riquelme and Daniela Leiva

Team: General Production: Daniela Leiva; Design: Pedro Gramegna and John Alvarez; Sound Design: Josefina Cerda; Writer: Raúl Riquelme; Concept Advisor : Alejandra Morales; Technical Manager: Carlos Mangas; Set Production: Diego Rojas; Set Terminations and Painting: Francisco Sandoval; Frieze Painting: Isabel Rodríguez; Animita Makers: Carla Calzadillas, Marcela Gueny, Andrea Soto and Completada Bailable, a collective composed by Isidora Paez and Kristian Orellana; Animita Technical Assistance: Sebastián Chandi; Costume Design: Macarena Ahumada; Graphic Design: Cristina Tapia; Illustrator: Nikolo; Audiovisual Record: Andrés Valenzuela; Translation: Camila Le-Bert; Press and Social Media: Karla Carrasco; Web Design: Jephrey Sánchez; Performers: Pedro Gramegna, John Alvarez, Josefina Cerda, Raúl Riquelme, Eduardo Vasquez and Valentina Vio; Performance Assistance: Daniela Leiva

Presenting Organization: Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio | Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores – DIRAC complejoconejo.com

“If you look at its changing aspect, the universe passes in the twinkling of an eye; but if you look at its changeless aspect, all creatures including ourselves are imperishable.” —Su Shi, Chinese author and poet (1037–1101 AD)

In Between, the attempt was to trace the changing and unchanging nature of things by providing a set of original, simple and low-tech image-slicing installations. Dynamic images are everywhere in the modern world. Geographical locations change at an alarming rapidity, and the surrounding living environment has become impermanent. To design the installations in relation to these conditions, the uncertainty of time and space was thematised, as well as the deviation of intention and result, and the multiple possibilities of theme and interpretation (and even misreading).

The form of this exhibition comprised three parts: on-site documents recording the design of each installation and performance, including performance videos linked by QR codes; operable image-slicing installations; and the behaviours of participating visitors. The audience could browse the performance design album and access performance videos online to understand the appearance of each design. At the same time, visitors could operate the installations themselves—the “slicing devices”—as seen in each video.

The dynamic 24-frame images in each installation, and the potential for each image sequence to be reorganised by visitors, could be understood as a visual grammar experiment. Whether the effect was linear or chaotic, the process of constant change, trial and error, contained opportunities for creativity to “occur.” It could have been an extension or a variant of a specific installation or performance, which could have generated a broader meaning. It could have been a judgement on design and performance technique, representing a different attitude to the performance itself. It could have been a supplement, contrasting the design form, which would have signified that the performance was not the end of creation. It could have been a reminder of the background of the design, revealing information that remains invisible on the surface of a given work. The participation of the audience was what, ultimately, determined the depth and alienation of the relationship with the exhibits.

Curator: Liu Xinglin

Team: Exhibition Design: Tan Zeen; Graphic Designer: Ni Fang; Exhibitors: Tan Zeen, Ji Qiao, Zhang Wu, Gao Guangjian, Yi Tianfu, Liu Xinglin, Liu Kedong, Sang Qi, Hu Yaohui, Qin Wenbao, Yang Donglin, Zhou Zhengping

Presenting Organization: China Institute of Stage Design

An invitation to travel to Pragatá, a fictional city self-managed by Colombian artists, resulting from the collision between the carnivalesque soundscape of Bogotá, Colombia, and the physical journeys of Prague, Czech Republic. Spectators could visit an obsolete travel agency to register for an audio walk around Pragatá.

Pragatá is a fictional city, self-managed by The Council of Pragatá as a collage of different artistic fields (graphic design, sound and music, visual arts, illustration, film, props, cultural management) that came together at PQ23 to represent the process of scenographic practice in the country, which is not specialised but, rather, a collective work of other-than-theatrical practices.

The possibility of discovering distant places through digital platforms has emerged, inspiring theatre to move towards more nomadic formats. Reflecting on these technologies to approach travel as a state of physical and temporal displacement, as well as entangled with the accumulation of memories and cultural “openness,” a mix of physical (almost extinct) and digital media was used to create an imaginary city out of contrasts and potential similarities between two distant places.

How can an ephemeral city be created through theatre? How can the collective experience of visiting a city which does not exist emerge? What are the tensions between the individual and the collective, between the home and the foreign, the familiar and the strange?

Through four audio “walks” around Prague and the contrived travel agency, the staged mobility of a traveller visiting an (obsolete) office to explore the narrative of a city never visited: Pragatá. In this fictional city, the urban and emotional qualities characteristic of two cities were drawn together in order to generate a site for multiple encounters, chaotic, diverse and complex.

Curatorial Team: Laura Cuervo Restrepo, Susana Botero Santos and Philippe Legler

Team: Production and Creative Directors: Vecinas Chicoteras (Laura Cuervo, Susana Botero and Manuela Valdiri); Graphic Designer: Nicolás Galeano (Norte); Visual Identity: Tangrama; Audiovisual Production: Juan Cuervo, Gabriel Leaño (Monte); Illustrators: Fidel Yordan Castro, Red White Monkey, Daniela Ilustra and Ed Camacho; Soundscapes recording: Adriana García, Laura Valentina Mora, Maria José de los Angeles Rodriguez, Alejandra Guerra; Sound Post-production: Andrés Silva (La Tina); Photo Documentation: Santiago Iregui; Merch: Kupa; Costumes making: Marcela Sanchez (Doctor Spin); Carpenter: Juan Carlos Otálora; Printers: Acierto Colombia; Collages: “The Colors of Bogotá” Professor: Claudia Gómez Mejía; Partners: PopUp Art, FaCrea, PQ2023, ASOCOL ; Local support: Antonia Arias, Magnolia Fajardo, Juliana Castaño, Jeries Abujaber, Daniela Pineda, Clara Maria Gonzalez, Mónica Bastos (Red ARDE); Tech Consulting: Julián Daza García Mayorca, Rafael Vega ; Buyer: Diego Pirabán; Special thanks to: The Citizens of Pragatá (monetary contributors), Melanie May, Mabel V. Rodriguez (consul ad_honorem Prague) and Lovable Humans z.c

Presenting Organization: Vecinas Chicoteras instagram.com/pragatafest

INSECTA was a non-place where self-fictionalised actions were performed by the public. It was an experience of otherness; of the insects that transform and balance the world. The pandemic, as a biological event, has modified a common experience of “reality.”

“INSECTA are those beings with unique qualities who perceive differently, who protect the world and keep it in harmony. We are INSECTA, trying to take care of ourselves, to survive, to live realities, other realities. INSECTA develop in a cocoon in which we act, inhabit and look from the outside.”

The arthropods, as the domain of the animal world, are an everyday part of life in Costa Rica, an inseparable part of that reality. They are the most specialised creatures on the planet, and all the Earth’s ecosystems depend on them. They are the clear survivors of the most adverse situations. They identify mechanisms of protection and survival greater than other living beings.

Since ancient times, masks have been used to construct characters and, at the same time, as an element to better project the voice, the image, the emotion; throughout history, they have maintained their conception as otherness. The mask from the scenic action was a tool to support the dramaturgical creation.

We worked on the mask on the other side of the scene—which can become a scene and erase the limits of the performing space—without knowing whether performers are spectators, or spectators are actors.

Curatorial Team: Carlos Schmidt, Felipe Da Silva, Jennifer Cob and Michelle Canales

Team: Designers: Michelle Canales, Carlos Schmidt, Fito Guevara; Producer: Gabriel Mejías; Mask Designers: Alejandro Méndez Zúñiga, Alejandra Méndez Ramírez, Josué Morera Molina, Sonia Suárez Gómez, Gabrio Zappelli, Enar Daniela Mora Ch., Gustavo Abarca Chacón

Presenting Organization: La MAE (Memoria de Las Artes Escenicas)

In their magnum opus, the play Sad Sam Matthäus, Matija and Mauricio Ferlin, two brothers entangled in art, juxtaposed their personal and family history with the Passion of Christ, using Johann Sebastian Bach’s Matthäus-Passion as a reference point. The Croatian exhibition at PQ23 translates this complex performance into a still-life installation.

Matija and Mauricio Ferlin—the former an internationally acclaimed contemporary dancer and choreographer, the latter an interdisciplinary set, graphic and video designer—have been working together for almost two decades. Sharing a common vision through their continual interpretation of each other’s work, each new project in their collaboration is a step forward. Matija’s solo performance Sad Sam Matthäus, which premiered in 2021, incorporates elements of dramatic and postdramatic theatre, contemporary dance and performance art, while blending, overlapping and juxtaposing Bach’s Matthäus-Passion with the artists’ family history and mythology, derived from a harsh geopolitical context and a bucolic yet challenging natural environment.

The basic premise of the spatial concept of the Croatian exhibition at PQ23 was to antagonise but also to permeate the realms of internal and external, social and individual, intimate and public, polychromatic and monochromatic, scenic and procedural. As such, the disposition represented a scenographic practice stripped bare while, seemingly paradoxically, retaining the multi-layered nature of the original performance. The elaborated artefacts, found objects and natural objects, were placed in the exhibition in their original form, where they were able to reach another structural-relational level within their historical, social and cultural legacies.

This transfer of context, from performance to exhibition, did not deprive them of the vitality, authenticity or “rarity” that they have on stage, precisely because their function was not exhausted by the performance. On the contrary, performance increased their quality and specific weight. Once liberated in this way, these objects did not escape their original context—they reassembled it, reconstructing the liveliness of the performance and its authors.

The title, But I am alive, was thus not just a statement. It was, in its own way, a call.

Curators: Ivan Marušić Klif and Igor Ružić

Team: Executive Production: Marko Golub and Maša Milovac; Exhibition Design: Mauricio Ferlin; Catalogue Editor: Marko Golub; Props: Mauricio Ferlin, Matija Ferlin, Desanka Janković; Visual Communications Design: Tina Ivezić; Video Editing and Multimedia: Ivan Marušić Klif; Administration and Logistics: Mirjana Jakušić; Technical Staff: Branislav Štivić; Carpentry Work: Orih [Romano Berković]

Presenting Organization: Croatian Designers Association, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia

“How can we understand sites of conflict and trauma through their materiality as carriers of memories? How can we connect with them through scenographic methodologies and ultimately imagine their possible futures?” The ghost town of Famagusta, located on the east coast of the island, inspired the curatorial concept for Spectators in a Ghost City.

For the past forty-six years—as a result of the Turkish military invasion of Cyprus in 1974—Famagusta has been completely enclosed, devoid of human presence, abandoned, inaccessible. In October 2020, in defiance of UN resolutions, it was made possible to enter the city through a guided path, to experience the city as a time capsule, to painfully retrace its past, or simply to take a selfie, as in many other places in the world where ruins attract tourists…

We engaged with the space of the ghost city itself through thematic notions of memory, belonging and displacement, trying to grasp how the scarred and derelict urban landscape becomes both “author” and “dramaturgy.”

To understand the often contradictory and complex geopolitical narratives, while respecting human trauma and moving beyond the aesthetic fascination of ruins, a process of reverse scenography was formulated—how can real places be experienced as dramatised spaces, and how can alternative narratives be learned and created to countermand existing ones?

The Cypriot curatorial team proposed the use of scenographic methods as thought processes, political acts, negotiations of real spaces of conflict, and artistic practices. Fragments from Famagusta, video archives from today and before 1974, experimental sculptural maquettes inspired by the urban texture of the city, and performative practices expanding between Famagusta and Prague were used to connect this rare city with the visitors of PQ23.

We did not aim to provide answers, conflict resolutions or solutions. Looking to the future, alternative ways must be advocated of imagining such spaces of conflict through artistic and performative practices. Spectators in a Ghost City attempts to communicate through empathy, the poetics of scenographic art in a utopian vision of the future.

The exhibition sought to unsettle the fixity of roles such as artist and viewer as issues of appropriation, spectacle, voyeurism and the purposive role of art are addressed in the face of human trauma that extends beyond Famagusta and echoes other ghost spaces around the world.

Curator: Marina Maleni

Team: Artistic Researcher and Installation Designer: Melita Couta; Collaborating Technical Advisor: Harris Kafkarides; Art and Technology collaborator for AudioVisual / New Media Support: Giorgos Lazoglou; Video Performance Artists: Pascal Caron and Melita Couta; Head of THOC Set Construction Workshop: Yiannis Christodoulou; Famagusta before: Audiovisual archive material granted by RIK Archive and Digital Herodotus

Presenting Organization: Cyprus Theatre Organisation cypruspq23.com

Award: Golden Triga

Limbo Hardware is a disturbing reflection of an atomised world, consisting of a plethora of parallel truths and alternative realities. It relativises not only the limited spectrum of rational thought, but the commonest perceptions of space and physical distance as well.

Precise craftsmanship with an emphasis on detail, on direct, sensory experience and even physical impact on the viewer. A unique and constantly evolving manuscript, inspired by personal fascination rather than interest in current trends in contemporary art. A spectacularly shared questioning of the distinct boundaries between reality and illusion, between the machine algorithms of the virtual environment and the fluid reality that surrounds us beyond the reach of monitors and the screens of smart devices.

These are the core attributes of the work of David Možný, an artist who has established himself primarily as an author of digitally animated videos and video installations. In recent years, however, the focus of his work has moved closer to the classical concept of the artwork, although the means Možný uses are now more often in the realm of scenography. The characteristic and almost omnipresent film narrative gradually becomes a mere clue, a fragment that calls for the viewer’s active participation. It is as if the viewer becomes the main protagonist of the work under scrutiny, the only one who can unravel all its metaphysically mysterious plots, interwoven with a sense of distress, emptiness and purposelessness.

Through his thoughtful and carefully crafted interventions into perceived reality or its modified visualisations, Možný takes the viewer out of illusory certainties and equilibria, revealing the unsettling fragility of fixed notions of a world that defies permanence. The scenery, however, does not merely serve as a backdrop for the action, but becomes the main carrier of information, the content oscillating between an intimate representation of mental and emotional states and a visionary statement about the state of civilization(s).

These tendencies culminated in the installation Limbo Hardware, whose title referred to the pre-inferno or, in a broader sense, to a state of separation from conventional structures, a disturbing reflection of an atomised world consisting of a plethora of parallel truths and realities. The space before our eyes thus unfolded into several alternative worlds, and somewhere in the gaps between them the question arose as to the coherence of the sets in which our lives take place.


Curator: Pavel Švec

Team: Artist: David Možný; Production: Šárka Možná; Performer: Max Lysáček

Presenting Organization: Heat Wave, s.r.o. davidmozny.cz

Award: Awards:; Best Concept in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions; Volkswagen Award for the Most Sustainable Exhibition

Imagine a future where the performing arts no longer take place in public venues, but in the comfort of your own home. Home Box Theatre was a visionary concept for the future of performing arts, combining community with a unique theatre experience using an everyday object.

When theatres were closed during the pandemic, theatre attendance in Denmark fell by 54% and concert attendance by 70%. Performing arts entered the private sphere. There was a creative surge in new theatre formats using XR technologies. These hybrid formats challenged key concepts in the theatre experience such as liveliness and community. However, despite the advances, technology can still interfere and create a separation between the experience and the imagination.

Home Box Theatre is a vision. By simply opening a drawer, you could immerse yourself in the universe of six Shakespearean dramas. You could choose the order and pace. You could be at the centre of the experience. Is this how the performing arts of the future are to emerge? In the corners of everyday life, far from a stage, with you at the centre?

Curators: Julie Forchhammer and Mette Lindberg

Team: Video and Light Designer: Jeppe Lawaetz; Sound Designer: Magnus Hansen; Dramaturg: Anna Lawaetz

Presenting Organization: Danske Scenografer lawaetzaesthetics.dk

The Estonian exhibition was based on the staged world of Tartu New Theatre's open-air production Serafima+Bogdan. The protagonist of this space is an everlasting scrubland, which is never for or against anyone, but grows equally in the flowerbed as well as on the bloody battlefield.

The performances took place in the Russian village of the Old Believers, in an abandoned garden on top of some overgrown onion beds. The audience sat in two groups on the opposite sides of the scrubland. On one side, they followed Serafima's life, most of which was spent in the village. On the other side, they got a glimpse of Bogdan's life, most of which was spent hiding in the swamp. During intermission, the two sections switched sides and saw the same story from the perspective of the other characters. Although the scenes from both sides were “closed set,” each section had its own sound design, which could be heard through headphones. Actors emerged from the central scrubland, alternating between the scenes by crossing from one side to the other—hence, both scenes took place simultaneously, along with a “backstage” where the actors waited for their stage turn and changed costumes.

Visitors to the piece were given the opportunity to experience the staged world from a variety of perspectives. At the front of the exhibition, a drone-shot video showed the set in the centre of the village, with additional views of the stages available in each audience section through peepholes, and sound design through headphones. Inside, VR goggles showed the ongoing performance in the scrubland between the two audience sections, revealing actors balancing on-stage with off-stage moments. The panoramic video on the LED walls depicted the decay of the sets in the scrub following the performances.

The title of the piece was Eternity. It was a memorial to evanescence. People come and go, houses are built and fall apart, garden beds are made and forgotten, scrubland grows everywhere. The characters and their misery become nothing but spectres. And the scenery, built largely from rubbish, becomes rubbish again. The scrubland emerges and does not care. And the village goes on with its life.

Curator: Ivar Põllu (Tartu Uus Teater/Tartu New Theatre)

Team: Set Designer: Kristiina Põllu (Tartu Uus Teater); Curator-Designer: Ivar Põllu (Tartu Uus Teater); Engineer-Designer: Rene Liivamägi (Tartu Uus Teater); Creative Producer: Maarja Mänd (Tartu Uus Teater)

Presenting Organization: Creative organisation: Tartu Uus Teater/Tartu New Theatre; PQ partner in Estonia: Eesti Lavastuskunstnike Liit/Association of Estonian Scenographers uusteater.ee/en

Partners: Executive partners: Teatritehnoloogia, RGB Baltic, Salibar and Video5; Sponsor: Raitwood; Supporters: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Ministry of Culture and City of Tartu

Greetings from Tullisaari Park! Bee Company posed an ecoscenographic question: what could a multidisciplinary collective learn from non-human ways of living, working and creating?

Bee Company works each have a life of their own—even past lives and alternative futures—by which the art is characterised as grandiose and dramatic. “As soon as we sit down with the genius loci, we are interrupted by force majeure. For instance, a rabbit could eat all the zinnias that are essential to the composition occurring on a summer’s night, or a mouse could make itself at home in a beehive in winter and ruin attempts to ‘become’ artists.”

Before PQ23, the garden was still asleep under the snow. A few brave bees would dare to peek out of the hive door, called out by the sun. The situation was dangerous, though—great tits would be on the prowl for unsuspecting bees. “We could hardly wait for the snow to melt and for the tulips we rescued from the rubbish in the park last summer to sprout in the Sanctuary garden.”

Life is passionate in art and gardening—pulsating, repetitive, full of disappointments and breathtaking beauty. The pleasure emerges from slowness, manual labour, fingers in the soil. Warmth is inherent to the work, which combines craftsmanship, gardening and performance art. These practices share the same passions: the slowness and the hands-on approach to life warms the maker and, in the best case, this warmth is conveyed to the viewer as well.

The works on display at PQ23 were made in between work, study and family life, developed on the way to Prague and at the festival itself. This exhibition slowly took shape and changed before your eyes. There’s a warmth in getting together and working together, especially in a garden or in a tent when it’s raining. “Perhaps the most important thing, indeed, is working or being together. What do you think?”

Curatorial Team: Janne Auvinen, Eeva Ijäs, Kimmo Karjunen, Raisa Kilpeläinen, Veera-Maija Murtola and Ulla-Maija Peltola

Team: Aino Aksinja, Ingvill Fossheim, Catharina Kajander and Ina Niemelä

Presenting Organization: The Finnish OISTAT Centre websites: mehilaistenseura.org; oistat.fi

A site-specific installation, sculpted in sand, that deals with massive urbanisation and the guts of various soils. Within the framework of PQ23, this project conceptualised a radical production model based on short-circuit borrowing of materials, as well as the tension between visual maximalism and ecological minimalism.

Under a ceiling of LED lights, in the manner of a vivarium of catastrophe, GUT CITY PUNCH offered the spectacle of a city disembowelled by urbanisation and displaced in architecture. From what appeared to be a landslide or a building site made entirely of sand, various pipes emerged like post-industrial guts swaddled in the belly of the earth. The public could, suddenly, find themselves underground, confronted with these giant entrails that make quotidian life as efficient, connected, and disposable as possible. At the kernel of this device, the choice to use sand was not arbitrary—enormously exploited in the global real estate and construction industries, this installation foregrounded its plasticity, which made contact with the eye as well as the skin and the mind.

By interrupting the life cycle of this material for a few weeks, GUT CITY PUNCH facilitated witnessing of a paradoxical, temporary state of matter. At the same time accomplice and abolitionist, the installation delved into the phenomenon of destruction in order to rebuild it, and into construction in order to deconstruct it. The installation could be seen as the mirage of a sick model, in praise of debris, from which more radical forms of life, cities, theatres, stages, shows and narratives can be recomposed. At once chaotic and erotic, terrifying and sublime, artificial and organic, this complex environment sought to deploy dramaturgical forms from the sand, from a position where the landscape and its depths are given voice and access to the stage.

Curators: Théo Mercier and Céline Peychet

Team: Sand Sculptors: Jeroen Advocaat, Enguerrand David and Jiří Kašpar; Sound Design: Joseph Schiano di Lombo; Project Assistant: Marius Belmeguenaï; Electricity & Lighting Technician: Pavel Hrstka; Sound Technician: Zdeněk Altynski; ; Special thanks to Gwenola David, Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar, Sarah Doignon and Barbora Bukovinská.

Presenting Organization: ARTCENA quadriennaledeprague2023.fr/en

Award: PQ Jury Award

The Georgian exhibition, dedicated to the memory of the outstanding Georgian scenographer Miron Shvelidze (1947-2022), was a virtual journey through the productions of the acclaimed Georgian theatre director Robert Sturua, a frequent collaborator of Shvelidze. The installation served as an immersion into the salvific potential of art in an era of pandemic and war.

Rare Memories of the Future is a solitary spectatorial space filled with premonitions, combining memories of the past with prophetic foretastes of the future, and dramatic instances of reality… The idea of immersion in a theatrical virtual reality was based on the social desire to consume culture as an antidote, to view art as the best way of overcoming the traumatic syndrome surrounding phenomena like pandemic and war.

The idea was inspired by the Rustaveli National Theatre production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame (dir. Robert Sturua; set and costume designer Miron Shvelidze), which premiered in February 2020, just days before the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Georgia.

The minimalist design of the exhibition was intended to focus visitor attention on the virtual content, to produce the atmosphere of a closed space wherein two years of isolation have passed, during which digital communication was the only way to make contact with the outside world. This pavilion was a virtual territory—a historical journey through early productions and contemporary premieres, bringing the theatrical metaphors of Robert Sturua’s political theatre to new international audiences.

Curator: Nino Gunia-Kuznetsova

Team: Art Director: Robert Sturua; Exhibition Designer: Manana Gunia; Chief Technology Officer and 3D Artist: Vladimer Vardidze; Project Manager: Meri Matsaberidze

Presenting Organization: Valerian Gunia Union of Young Theatre Artists (YTA Union) – OISTAT National Centre of Georgia

Have you ever imagined a staging of your mythos in Greece? Ever wondered if theatre still exists in Greece? Ever thought about performance design in Greece? A visitor to the PQ23 2023 exhibition might have wondered, “What is a mock-up of an ancient Greek temple doing in Hall 13?”

The Greek entry for PQ23 was the result of a transparent, collective and inclusive process—no “leader,” and no narrow “theme.” Designers were invited to respond to a series of questions posed by a six-person curatorial team. “How do we build the future through art in an age of successive challenges and redefinitions? How do we reflect on the past through the experience of a pandemic that abruptly suspended the live performing arts in time and space? What new perspectives, transformations, and scenographic practices are emerging today?”

All the answers received were included in this representation of contemporary Greek performance design—60 Greek artists and 57 design projects, the country’s largest contingent at PQ23, with works from a wide range of performing artists and designers from a range of backgrounds, generations and genres. A rare gathering, indeed…

The exhibition adopted a performative approach in order to prioritise analogue modalities. The team wanted a physical exhibition that visitors could touch and even take away. After the pandemic, the need for non-mediated interaction was more critical than ever. The Greek exhibition replayed and subverted stereotypical representations of Greek culture by creating a mock-up of an ancient Greek temple that doubled as a gift shop and post office. The scenographic practice took the form of a postcard linking performance to memory and travel. The exhibition was a space where contemporary culture could coexist with representations of antiquity in a rare moment of humour and self-sarcasm, reflecting on national legacies past and present.

Curatorial Team: Maria Konomi, Eva Nathena, Sofia Pantouvaki, Andreas Skourtis, Adonis Volanakis and Constantinos Zamanis

Team: Participating Artists: Daphne Aidoni, Eliza Alexandropoulou, Zoi Arvaniti, Magdalini Avgerinou, Clio Boboti, Clare Bracewell, Olga Brouma, Maria Chaniotaki, Martha Foka, Marilena Georgantzi, Edouard Georgiou, Nikos Georgopoulos, Vana Giannoula, Dido Gkogkou, Assi Dimitrolopoulou, Virginia Diakaki, Ilenia Douladiri, Nikolaos-Ioannis Kanavaris, Maria Konomi, Dimitris Konstantaras, Eleni Konstantatou, Christina Kouloumpi, Myrto Lamprou, Mikaela Liakata, Dimitra Liakoura, Elizabeth Leau, Eva Manidaki, Sotiris Melanos, Thalia Melissa, Angelos Mentis, Paris Mexis, Kiki Miliou, Loukia Minetou, Zoi Molyvda-Fameli, Eva Nathena, Eleni Palogou, Maria Panourgia, Sofia Pantouvaki, Elli Papageorgakopoulou, Alegia Papageorgiou, Vassilis Papatsarouchas, Dimitris Polychroniadis, Niki Psychogiou, Nikos Saridakis, Andreas Skourtis, Εliza Soroga, George Souglides, Mayra Stergiou, Eleni Stroulia, Vasiliki Syrma, Pavlos Thanopoulos, Yannis Thavoris, Mayou Trikerioti, Thodoris Tsirkas, Tina Tzoka, Deny Vachlioti, Maira Vazeou, Emmanuela Vogiatzaki-Krukowski, Adonis Volanakis, Constantinos Zamanis

Presenting Organization: Athens – Epidaurus Festival greeceatpq.gr

Witnessing the tremendous changes and rare phenomena in their city and world over the past few years, the curatorial team of Hong Kong Pavilion teamed up with 11 groups of professional theatre artists to “re-hear” and revitalise their previous works with an alternative perspective and approach.

As a tribute to the unprecedented changes to performance modes which occurred during the pandemic, versatility and flexibility were key words for the overall concept of this pavilion. A moving wall of 16 rotating blocks formed a multi-functional space for the works to be heard anew. As a durational exhibition, a different group of artists was featured on each day of the festival, with a performance, "I/O Scene Change," presented daily at 11:35PM, in which the changing of the exhibits could be observed throughout the 11-day period.

Curatorial Team: Lawrence Lee Ho Yin, Sunfool Lau Ming Hang, Miu Law, Bernice Chan Kwok Wai and Allan Tsui Shek Pang

Team: Production Manager: Joey Tsang Yee Tak; Exhibition Manager: Lee Tsan Yung; Exhibition Coordinators: Joanna Lee Pui Yan, Heibe Law Wing Hei, Ronly Lam Long Fung and Sunny Chu Ka Ming; Photographer/Video Archive: Max Lee Kin Wai; Production Crew: Eric Chan Wai Tak, Chan Ping Kei and Chui Kin Hung

Presenting Organization: The Hong Kong Association of Theatre Technicians & Scenographers (HKATTS) hkatts.com.hk

winterreise.box was an installation adapted from a performance based on Schubert-Müller’s Winterreise, premiered at the Örkény Theatre, Budapest, directed by Jakab Tarnóczi and designed by Botond Devich. The audience could follow the stages of the protagonist’s solitary journey through a twelve-part video installation. From time to time, Máté Borsi-Balogh, the performer, would appear in the box and sing pieces from Schubert.

In the original live performance of Winterreise, actor Máté Borsi-Balogh sang Schubert’s entire Liederzyklus, accompanied by Árpád Kákonyi on piano. This performance told the non-linear story of a lonely young man trapped in his doorless room, his repetitive existence interwoven with the musical movements and thematic material of the song cycle. In the exhibition, one could see the box-like living space of the protagonist, basically empty and without any human presence. On the outer walls of the installation were 12 screens, 4 on each side, which would play short videos prepared for the exhibition. These 5-6 minute sequences were film adaptations depicting each stage of the story, with one or two Schubert songs featured in each video. During certain hours of the exhibition, the performer would also be present in the room, so that audiences could observe him while listening to songs from the cycle.

Curators: Botond Devich and Jakab Tarnóczi

Team: Performer: Máté Borsi-Balogh; Shooting and Editing: Non Lieu Film Productions; Constructor: BOOKELIT Kft.

Presenting Organization: Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute (OSZMI), Budapest oszmi.hu/hu/hirek/magyar-reszvetel-2023-pragai-quadriennalen

Partners: Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation

Award: Best Design in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions

“The landscape of devastation is still a landscape. There is beauty in ruins.”
–Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others (2003)

Scenographer Brynja Björnsdóttir presented a performative installation adapted from Congratulations on Being Human, which was performed at the National Theatre of Iceland in the spring of 2023. In her piece for PQ23, Brynja drew a parallel between the human body during cancer treatment and what has become of nature after almost 200 years of industrialisation.

When the inner landscape of the body has been poisoned and its systems destroyed in the attempt to free it of its cancerous cells, it nonetheless remains human. Human existence on this planet is a cancerous growth and the cure for the disease at once–poisoning and disrupting the natural systems of its host and, in doing so, eliminating itself and leaving the planet to heal. We cannot exist outside of our bodies, just as we cannot exist without nature. However destroyed or artificial, our bodies remain the only places where we can seek shelter.

This installation was developed alongside a stage performance based on poems written by dancer and choreographer Sigríður Soffía Níelsdóttir during her cancer treatment. In their process, the artists addressed the realisation that life can be over in an instant. The artists asked themselves and their audiences: What happens to the human soul when confronted with its own mortality? What happens when you realise that life is but a string of random coincidences that can unravel at a moment’s notice? How do you construct meaning from nothing, and how do you hold on knowing that, in the end, it might all be for nothing? Is there strength in giving up, or letting go? Where lies the source we can draw from to recharge ourselves? To find release from the absurdist notion that everything has to “make sense?”

Congratulations on Being Human was about the transient nature of the self, the strength of surrender and the beauty of the great paradox that is the human spirit and nature; both fragile and unbreakable at the same time.

Curator: Rebekka Ingimundardóttir

Team: Curatorial Team: Eva Signý Berger, Gabriela Juhasova and Rastislav Juhas; Designer of Exhibition: Brynja Björnsdóttir; Performing Artist : Sigríður Soffía Níelsdóttir; Composer: Jónas Kweiting Sen; Curator: Rebekka Ingimundardóttir; Set Builders: IRMA

Presenting Organization: FLB (Icelandic Guild of Set and Costume Designers) and FÍL (Icelandic Actors and Stage and Costume Designers Union) websites:; brynjabjorns.com/congratulations; brynjabjorns.com/#/til-hamingju-me-a-vera-mannleg/;

Partners: Partners: The Icelandic Ministry of Culture and Commerce, Performing Arts Centre Iceland, The Icelandic Visual Art Copyright Association and Business Iceland

If performance designers could offer new possibilities for Irish theatre after the pandemic, what shapes and sounds, spaces and acoustics, materials and formats, structures and hierarchies might they propose? What new creative and collaborative practices might emerge? What new social and artistic functions for theatre might present themselves?

The Next Four Years was a speculative retrospective of Irish performance design and scenography in the years 2023-2027, challenging the designers of today to imagine the theatre of tomorrow. Eight leading Irish designers were invited to respond to the PQ23 theme “RARE,” which asked “what the world and theatre could look like in the post-pandemic future” and called on designers to “imagine, visualise and even create rare visions of the future.”

The Next Four Years comprised a film, publication and daily conversations that would explore ideas, challenges and opportunities for the future. The film and publication were both based on an extended conversation between the participating designers, as well as speculative visual and sonic glimpses of a variety of performance design practices. The participating designers were also present at PQ23, extending the framework of the conversation into the exhibition space.

The Next Four Years was proposed as a laboratory and catalyst for new directions in Irish performance design. How can an exhibition aspire to be useful rather than merely representative? This approach drew on ideas of the “curatorial” (rather than of “curating”), as outlined by Maria Lind:

"a way of linking objects, images, processes, people, locations, histories and discourses in physical space… an active catalyst generating twists, turns and tensions… a viral presence that strives to create friction and push new ideas… not just representing, but presenting and testing; it performs something here and now, instead of merely mapping something from there and then. It is serious about addressing the query: What do we want to add to the world and why?" —Artforum (October 2009)

The Next Four Years was dedicated to the memory of Monica Frawley (1954-2020), to her legacy as a visionary Irish performance designer and champion of the designer as lead artist, and to her commitment to nurturing the designers of the future.

Curator: Tom Creed

Team: Participating Designers: Ciaran Bagnall, Lian Bell, Katie Davenport, Mel Mercier, Rob Moloney, Eimer Murphy, Jack Phelan, Sinéad Wallace; ; Filming and Editing: Michael-David McKernan; Photography: Ros Kavanagh ; Graphic and Publication Design: Niall Sweeney, Pony Ltd.; ; Executive Producers: Maura O’Keeffe and Orla Flanagan; Line Producer: Grace Morgan; Assistant Producer: Morgan Steele; Technical Director: Ronan O'Shea; Production Manager: Andrew Crowley; Marketing: Lisa Nally ; Publicity: Jenny Sharif PR; ; Performers: Luan Bruggeman, Caitríona Finnegan, Bryan Quinn, and students from; Hartstown Community School ; Sound Recording: Danilo Zambrano, Eóin Murphy ; Technicians: Gráinne Earley, Jess Fitzsimons Kane, Emily Long, Pedro Pacheco; ; ISPD Committee: Catherine Fay (Chair), Katie Davenport (Vice Chair), Laura Fajardo (Secretary), Jack Scullion (Treasurer), Niall Rea (Education Officer), Ciaran Bagnall, Valentina Gambardella, John Gunning, Lisa Krugel, Patrick Molloy, Molly O'Cathain, Conleth White.; ISPD PQ 2023 Subcommittee: Deirdre Dwyer (Chair), Sarah Jane Shiels (Secretary), Owen Boss, Liam Doona, Sinéad O'Donnell-Carey, Pai Rathaya and Kata Rozvadska; ISPD Associate Producer and Communications Manager: Noelia Ruiz; ISPD Arts Consultant: Tríona Ní Dhuibhir; ; with special thanks to Aedín Cosgrove

Presenting Organization: The Irish Society of Performance Designers (ISPD) in association with Once Off Productions. ; Funded by The Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and Culture Ireland ispd.ie

Inspired by the discourse on women’s rights and place in society that has been at the centre of attention in recent years, this exhibition was created about women and by women, shining the spotlight on exceptional artists who fearlessly take the stage with honesty, sensitivity and humour. Israel is home to an innovative and captivating fringe and independent theatre scene, and the artists there—contemporary, fierce and daring—drew from this creative community in their focus on burning, important and painful issues that really matter.

Rotem Nachmany’s Scrambled dealt with the journey to motherhood and arduous fertility treatments. Society’s distorted attitudes towards motherhood, pregnancy and childbirth were explored in Ori Lenkinski’s Birth Preparations Course. Yael Finkelstein Shamay’s Little Home—Who Knows? dealt with humiliation, exploitation and abuse between spouses. Naomi Yoeli’s My Ex-Stepmother-in-Law explored her relationship with a Hungarian Holocaust survivor. In a macabre cabaret combining painting and theatre, Michal Svironi’s Carte Blanche told the story of a non-communicating family. Daniel Cohen-Levi focused on gender issues and past lives in I’m a Woman Warrior. Nataly Zuckerman’s performance The Other Body brought the artist and their audiences into dialogue with a disabled woman. Hana Vazana Grunwald’s Consensual Homicide dealt with the unfortunate and horrifying phenomenon of women being murdered by their husbands.

The featured performance artists wrote, directed and designed their own works. Eight installations displayed images, as well as props, set pieces and elements, to capture the essence of each work. Visitors could watch a short video about each show on a side screen. The installation was intended to celebrate women’s talent, creativity and unique visual language, as an homage to the cultural and social contribution of women artists—as the genuine superwomen that they are.

Curator: Anat Mesner

Team: Concept, Creative & Exposition Designer: Anat Mesner; Performers and Artists presented in the exposition: Michal Svironi, Ori Lenkinski, Nataly Zuckerman, Rotem Nachmany, Naomi Yoeli, Hanna Vazana-Grunwald, Yael Finkelstein-Shamay, Gabriel Neuhaus and Danielle Cohen-Levy; Video Editor: Amir Abramovitz; Production Manager: Haim Vider; Executive Producer: Sigal Weisbein; Production Manager in Prague: Aleš Macháček

Presenting Organization: Tzavta Theatre Tel-Aviv tzavta.co.il/download/files/wrw_catalogue_04.pdf

“Where are we heading and what role can art play in the post-pandemic chaos? From Japan, we imagined a new vision of the next world to break through this historically rare state of isolation—to achieve some semblance of reconnection.”

This exhibition had three components. The first, entitled "MARE&CONNECT," brought together significant works by set and costume designers at the forefront of contemporary Japanese theatre, and presented them through live interviews and linked-up broadcasts from Prague and various locations in Japan, including Tokyo.

The second part was an exhibition of "Models for the Visually Impaired," an initiative by the Japan Association of Theatre Designers and Technicians (JATDT) to promote social inclusion through theatre. There, new images were promoted with an idea to bring people closer together. The third and final element was the JATDT archive, who agreed to display materials at PQ23. Visitors were able to discover valuable footage of prominent contemporary set and costume designers, to provide a greater contextual understanding for the exhibition.

Curator: SUGIYAMA Itaru

Team: Designer of Exhibition: MATSUO Hiroko; Assistant Curator – Scenographer: SAZANAMI Masako; General Manager – Costume Designer: SEINO Kanae; Coordinator – Scenic Designer: TOKI Kenichi; Administrator – Scenic Designer: HONGO Tomomi; Collaborator – Scenic Designer: TAKEUCHI Ryosuke; Collaborator – Costume Designer: MIYAOKA Masue; Technical Adviser: SUZUKI Tatsuya

Presenting Organization: Japan Association of Theatre Designers & Technicians (JATDT) jatdt.or.jp

A search for performative space, manifesting scenography as a living and elusive practice, unfolding towards PQ23 audiences as the artist collective Grāfienes travelled from Riga to Prague… ON OUR WAY was a roadside diary comprising performative and spatial interventions in the landscapes and situations encountered by the collective during their travel.

On the opening night of PQ23, Grāfienes left their studio in Riga and embarked on a road trip to Prague to arrive at the final destination on the closing day of the festival. During their journey, a new intervention was created every day in response to the landscapes, weather, and communities (human and more-than-human) encountered on the way. What does it mean to co-create a performative space with and for a group of kids from a roadside village, a night shift worker at the gas station, a truck driver in the rest area, a farmer sowing their fields, a bunch of deer on the forest edge, a river, or the wind? The audience in Prague were invited to follow their advancement via live stream at the Latvian exhibition space, and to finally meet the artists on the last day of PQ23.

On their way to Prague, Grāfienes questioned the static nature of scenography and invited audiences to approach the theatre space as an ongoing process in constant search of spatial conditions relevant to the elusiveness of performance and the multiplicity of performative agencies. ON OUR WAY manifested as a deeply personal and urgent journey for four young artists investigating the principles of their theatre space and the application of these principles in their work.

Grāfienes is a collective of young theatre makers, a rare phenomenon in Latvian scenography. The group approached PQ23 as a living laboratory where the principles of theatre space could be tested and questioned. For them, scenography is never separate from action, and performance space is always relational to someone or something that activates it—an actor, a spectator, or a ray of light.

Curator: Gundega Laiviņa

Team: Artists (concept, design and performance): Grāfienes (Dace Ignatova, Justīne Jasjukeviča, Ildze Jurkovska, Marianna Lapiņa); Text: Kirils Ēcis; Cinematographer: Dāvids Smiltiņš; Live stream assistance: Ieva Vīksna, Mārtiņš Aldiņš; Technical production: Dekorāciju Darbnīca; Publicity: Klinta Harju; Production: Sandra Lapkovska

Presenting Organization: New Theatre Institute of Latvia theatre.lv

A Breath into a Hole documented an act performed by scenographer Charbel Samuel Aoun. The film took place in an empty parking lot located in the region of Mar Mikhael, the most damaged area in Beirut following the explosion of August 4, 2020. A Breath into a Hole offered a questioning of destruction as a path for new existence—to be space, instead of being in space, requires nothing but a decision to act, a few tools, and the urge to dig a space of belonging through asphalt and layers of civilization.

The road to realising the exhibition was arduous and the piece underwent a litany of changes. Despite all efforts at fundraising and outreach, it seemed impossible to raise the money necessary to produce the piece originally intended for the PQ23 Exhibition of Countries and Regions. As a result, Charbel chose to premiere A Breath into a Hole, a zero-cost production which drew the Lebanese economic crisis into relation with a clear artistic form. In return, PQ23 echoed this commitment to exhibit, and were kind enough to waive participation fees.

Curator: Hadi Damien

Team: Designer: Charbel Samuel Aoun

Presenting Organization:

The Lithuanian national pavilion sought to reflect on the changes experienced in live theatre during the pandemic. One source of inspiration was the rethinking of space which occurred when performances were moved outdoors, to open arenas which allowed people to keep a safe distance or choose their places for observation. This situation led to natural motifs and mythological scenes becoming the main axis of the exhibition.

In light of contemporary issues such as the survival of the nation—or, rather, of the human species—the motif of the play LAIKAS NĖ(E)RIMUI / TIME TO DIVE / WORRY was found in the Curonian Spit—an archaic Baltic symbol with a wide spectrum of unique meanings, the most extensive being as a symbolic form of the world tree connecting disparate parts of the universe. “Krikštas,” an ancient Lithuanian burial monument, is both a tombstone and a sacrament for washing away sins and accepting a new faith. The broadest meaning of this symbol unites certain aspects of time and space in the exhibition, to sacralise the creative process, to reveal respect for the past, the importance of memory for the future, and the threatening vision of the future as a dead world.

With the help of prominent artists, architects and engineers, a homogeneous scenography was created to mark the contributors’ collective reaction to threats of the present. The Lithuanian exhibition presented the speculative “theatre of the future” as being open to different cultures, ideas and creative forms, bringing different worlds together and helping to preserve shared notions of creativity and humanity. The sculptural composition of the “krikštai” was complemented by video documentation of seven theatre performances. In the recordings, the viewer could observe the adaptation of different theatres to new and transformative conditions of existence which, in turn, began to inform their staging practices.

Curator: Raimonda Bitinaitė-Širvinskienė

Team: Architect: Sigita Šimkūnaitė; Artists (Scenographers): Sigita Šimkūnaitė, Julija Skuratova, Neringa Keršulytė, Birutė Ukrinaitė, Barbora Šulniūtė, Laura Luišaitytė.; Project Manager: Evelina Januškaitė; Coordinator: Monika Valatkaitė

Presenting Organization: Gallery "Arka" arkagalerija.lt

A cage equipped with monitors served audiences as a reminder of the lockdown periods during the pandemic. Home Staycation sought to explore how the ways people experience the world have shifted from bodily to virtual experiences, proposing a space for isolation, imagination, and the desire to reflect on reality.

Scenographers Kaby Chan Ka and Tcalu Teng Ka Man foresaw a trend of perceiving virtuality as reality. With technological advancement, human cognition—including conceptualisation of the world in imagination—is becoming virtualized. Virtuality is no longer a temporary substitute for reality. Reality has become remote, conceptual existence, and the virtual world has become the main mode of representation for contemporary human cultures—the main experience of “life.”

The human geographer Yi-Fu Tuan suggested that human beings, for various reasons, are and will always be dissatisfied with their present surroundings, and this motivates them to migrate often in search of more satisfactory places. If migration is not possible, humans transform their current habitats to satisfy this need for self-fulfilment.

Faced with a hitherto unknown pandemic, humans could only try to change their present to escape unsatisfactory conditions. For Yi-Fu Tuan, escapism was not entirely negative—escapism contributes to the construction of civilization and the development of new creations. In these contexts, people create transitional landscapes, such as parks and gardens, to escape from a world that is out of control. With the advancement of technology, the bedroom has become an entrance to virtual reality, to virtual “travel” within a single room, a room of one’s own.

The daily lives of many have long been inseparable from virtual reality, whether referring to extreme focus on arrays of monitors or to “immersive” experiences, physical human existence has become more ambiguous and unstable, while the “middle landscape” of VR has become more lifelike.

Home Staycation, as such, arose from these issues, and the question of whether theatre isn’t also a kind of middle landscape—whether the question of reality and the virtual isn’t also often raised in the theatre.

Curator: Mirabella Lao Chi Wai

Team: Creators: Kaby Chan Ka In, Tcalu Teng Ka Man, Mirabella Lao Chi Wai; Technical Director: Patrick Lei Weng Kit; Technician: Ketamine Tou Kuok Hong; Exhibition Assistant: Mok Kuan Hin; Production Manager: Sam Man Kei

Presenting Organization: Stage Management and Technology Association

The Zapatista performance often relies on the power of the negative—to appear, they disappear, and to make the roar of their demand heard, they remain silent. The Zapatista often play with theatrical elements: masks, fictional personae, transfiguration, prop weapons, sets where their massive performances are staged, fables and poetry read aloud.

“On their unusual loom,” says Juan Villoro, “the Zapatistas draw something that does not exist yet, a tomorrow that will become logical as the warp is defined, made with threads that come from very far, from the tradition that does not forget the future […] Thanks to this peculiar use of time, they have the rarest of utopias, the one that is possible.“

The Zapatista theatre was an attempt to appear and be heard before a nation that had banished them from the scene to the obscene, that had denied them the word and the voice, turning them into pure noise—a theatre that tries to listen to the resonances of a collapsing world.

The curatorial point of departure for the Mexican pavilion at PQ23 was the EZLN’s “Journey for Life,” the most recent Zapatista staging. This performance could not be separated from a longstanding performative process, developed over more than thirty years and closely interwoven with the local ways of sustaining life and representing among themselves before the Mexican state, before Mexican society, and before the world. This aesthetic project, contrary to the modern Western concept of art, assumed that the autonomy of the artistic sphere is interwoven with agriculture, education, medicine, economy, politics, magic and war. To provide the best example of what some have called “expanded theatricalities” in the social field, this theatre pointed to a critique of certain founding principles of the world system that have produced the civil crisis so many around the world are experiencing, while opening up the power to imagine and continue to produce other worlds.

“Did you listen?
It is the sound of your world crumbling.
It is the sound of our world resurging.
The day that was day was night.
And night shall be the day that will be day” —Communiqué of the EZLN (21 December, 2012)

Curatorial Team: Karla Rodríguez & Héctor Bourges (Teatro Ojo), Alicia Laguna (Teatro Línea de Sombra), Aristeo Mora de Anda (La Compañía Opcional) and Edén Bastida Kullik

Team: Sound Design: Juan Ernesto Díaz; Sketching: Abraham Guarneros & Juan Pablo Gámez; Think Tank: Jesús Hernández, Jerildy Bosch, Auda Caraza, Luis Conde, Cuahtémoc Lara, Gloria Carrasco, Manuel Valdivia, Mario Yahir Rodríguez, Tania Hernández and Yoatzin Balbuena ; Technical support: Alejandro Carrasco

Presenting Organization:

Horizon – Sight Level drew from the design of traditional open-air nomadic theatres, demonstrating changes in sight level angles depending on the environment—whether steppe, desert, or mountain, each an antecedent site before the act of staging. Through VR, these changes were achieved along with a continuous evolution of character, script, composition, and scenography of the play, as well as the evocation of different feelings from different audiences during the course of the performance.

The composition of Horizon – Sight Level consisted of a round field, the height of which would correspond to the viewing level of a sitting person at a height of 0.8 metres and would rotate up and down in perpetual motion. Inside the field was a five-part hydraulic mechanism that would push and pull the circular structure to create a sense of movement at the visual level. In the middle of the field, a performance about natural open theatre was shown via VR headset. This performance could be played anywhere around the exhibition site and surrounding neighbourhood.

Curator: Ariunbold Sundui

Team: Manager: Bilguun Byambadorj

Presenting Organization: Khatan Shonkhor Association

The Tarbouch—a traditional headdress—has become a cultural icon of Morocco, often associated with elegance and refinement. As a rare element of Moroccan artisanship, the Tarbouch was the starting point for this installation, which celebrated the diversity of artistic forms and cultural anchors active in Morocco.

In this installation, the rare was approached from a vernacular perspective. Vernacular art and craft traditions have been developed over centuries across the globe, often in rural or isolated communities where local materials, techniques and aesthetic touches become fundamental to the creation of unique and distinctive objects.

This pluralism comes to reflect the shared and diversified cultural heritage of a certain region. For instance, Moroccan cultural heritage is a sedimentation of several layers—Amazigh, African, Jewish, Nomadic and Arab traditions. For this reason, the use of transparency in this exhibition was intended to symbolise the various visual approaches characteristic of these layers, allowing audiences to “see” the points of harmony between them.

In the halqa, one of the first forms of communal theatre to emerge in Morocco, performers tell stories, recite poetry, play music, and dance. This dynamic and multifaceted performance, based on a principle of interdisciplinarity, engages the audience on a variety of sensory and experiential levels. In the contemporary arts, interdisciplinarity has become increasingly embraced in a similar way to the halqa—as a manner of pushing boundaries of traditional artistic forms to create new and innovative work that crosses between disciplines.

As well as this, there is the oral tradition, a full-fledged representation of the rare which requires maintenance and perseverance over generations of storytellers. To represent oral tradition, the exhibition began with a sound installation oriented towards the sensory more than the rational.

Curators: Amin Boudrika and Yousra Badaoui

Team: Scenographers: Tarik Ribh, Badria Hassani ; Communications Manager: Yousra Badaoui; Lighting: Yassine Elhour ; Video: Mahdi Boudrika; Artistic Director: Amin Boudrika; Sound Installation: Yahya Badaoui

Presenting Organization: Association Corp'scene

The vision was to enhance and expand the practice of scenography through a community of emerging and promising makers—Netherlands-based practitioners from a variety of disciplines came together through a mutual excitement to showcase their work at PQ. This exhibition explored the theme of RARE, emphasising that rare visions are created through shared perspectives and activated engagement.

The project involved objects and instructions contained within individual boxes. Spectators were encouraged to explore these boxes, each of which served as a tool that offered a unique experience of the concept of space from the creators' perspective. These tools encompassed a diverse range of sensory perspectives and emphasised the idea of immersive exploration. Their primary significance, however, lay in expressing the artistic processes of artists whose performances and designs are inspired by the influence of space.

The tools themselves found their way to the festival without the physical presence of the artists who crafted them. As a result of this absence, the Dutch Pavilion remained unoccupied. Nonetheless, the connection established with spectators, even in the absence of the artists, served as a testament to the potential of scenography to broaden perspectives, facilitate shared experiences, and foster meaningful connections.

Artists were invited to actively participate in sharing their perspectives through tools and instructions. Through collaborative workshops, they were provided with the opportunity to carefully incorporate their objects into our collection of boxes, which served as an attic for our scenographers. The design of the clustered boxes aimed to encourage playful exploration and the exchange of viewpoints. As one audience member would come across the belongings of another, a unique mode of observation emerged, subtly drawing attention to overlooked aspects and the performative nature of space. These tools for sharing perspectives were not intended to emphasise the uniqueness of different points of view, but rather the abundance of perspectives. They encouraged the realization that space is fascinating, and that there is an abundance of noteworthy elements everywhere; all that is needed to do is to play with perspective.

Curatorial Team: Podium Atmospheres / Aina Roca, Cecilia Berghäll, Eleni Palogou, Silvana Hurtado Dianderas. Under the instruction of Platform-Scenography.

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Ka emiemi was an invitation to audiences to experience slow moments of close listening, or to interrupt falling processes with their presence. The work and its process of creation were based on accumulating the observations and interactions, as well as instances of lingering, of those who encountered it.

This work operated across three intersecting lines, being collaborative, geological, and performative processes. It made and unmade itself over and over, evolving and degrading over the whole duration of PQ23. Ka emiemi emerged from hours of conversation, online collaboration, in-person wānanga, and workshops—a slowly unfolding process, circling back, pushing forward, unearthing ways of relating one artist to another across this ten-month collaboration. Moving together in time, methods of making were amalgamated into material outcomes that materialised moments of slippage between each practice. Each component underwent processes to reveal its material conditions—resonance, reflection, weight, light…

This collective navigated new working relationships through sharing practice and time together, to produce an offering informed by many different approaches to performance design. Fissures of difference and desire seeped into the installation through unique opportunities for mechanical and human disruption. The work—like the geological processes which inspired it—was vast, slow, intimate and irruptive, all at once. Material processes could unfold through a series of mechanical activations—gathering, sweeping, exploding. As separate chaotic functions, these processes drew near to each other over time, and negotiated boundaries as an assemblage of actions and material traces.

The Aotearoa New Zealand exposition was a co-creation by eight artists from a diverse range of practice backgrounds, reflecting the contemporary performance landscape in Aotearoa. Ka emiemi, the title of this work, was gifted by Te Matahīapo to the project before the artists began creating together. The title holds the curatorial intention for PQ23, describing the artists’ coming together to assemble, to create.

Curator: Meg Rollandi

Team: Artists: Jesse Austin-Stewart, Frankie Berge, Terri Ripeka Crawford, Charley Draper, Micheal McCabe, Hannah Smith, Paula van Beek and Nick Zwart; Commissioner: Stuart Foster; Producer: Martyn Wood; NZ Production Manager: Elliott Harris; CZ Production Manager: Natalie Krausová; Technical Specialist: Robbie Pattinson; Technical Director – Prague: Vojtěch Kočí; Technical Production – Prague: Extended Production; Brand and Graphic Designer: Ian Hammond; Student Design Interns: Hilary Armstrong, Josef Belton, Shyla Chhika, Samuel Dunstall, Rhiannon Higgs, Sabina Lacson, Elise Mcintosh and Libby Tonkin

Presenting Organization: NZPQ nzpq.info

Partners: Partners: Te Matahiapo; NZPQ23 Ka emiemi has received funding support from: Creative New Zealand, Massey University, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington City Council

WE SHALL NOT EVEN KNOW THAT WE HAVE MET. YET MEET WE SHALL, AND PART, AND MEET AGAIN. WHERE DEAD MEN MEET, ON LIPS OF LIVING MEN was a costume project inspired by the phenomenon of Totentanz, the dance to/with death which combines essential ideas of the inevitability and impartiality of death. It was an exhibition of costumes and a buzzing die Iare of the downfall, collapse and reimagination of human culture.

The Norwegian theatre tradition of “spel” (or spiele; or play) is staged outdoors and characterised by (an interaction with) nature, and a plot that weaves together historical events, myths, folklore and the supernatural. It could be described as a soup cooked by local theatre groups, seasoned with some professionals (of free choice) and served during the period of June-August. This tradition has formed the ground from which this collective makes and thinks about theatre as a hybrid form with an eclectic aesthetics.

The performance used costume as a medium and technology in the tradition of Marshall McLuhan: “The wheel is an extension of the foot. The book is an extension of the eye, clothing extension of the skin and electrical circuitry, and extension of the central nervous system.” If binoculars are like an extension of the eye, the question becomes one not only about how people influence and make tools, but also how the tools influence and become extensions of them. Costumes explore what and how the body can be in the world—the body is always being directly affected by what it wears.

Carnival is the purest form of costume. Mikhail Bakhtin, for example, wrote that carnival has a long and rich historical foundation in the genre of ancient Menippean satire in ancient Greece. When earthly differences dissolve in the underworld, emperors lose their crowns and meet beggars as equals.

A tower framed this performance. The Tower is one of the most powerful and enigmatic cards in most Italian-suited Tarot decks, embodying themes of upheaval, transformation and the power of destruction. The Tower represents the forces of change that can strike suddenly and without warning, disrupting lives and leaving them reeling in its wake. This installation/performance/rehearsal/costume play was a material formulation of this constant tension between stability and instability.

Curatorial Team: Anette Werenskiold, Anna Granberg, Christine Lohre and Ingeborg Olerud

Team: Costume Designer: Fredrik Floen ; Performers: Alma Bø, Daniel Frikstad, Alexandra Tveit, Mariama Slåttøy, Guoste Tamulynaite, Simon Asencio and Sigrid Lerche; Performing Poet: Runa Borch Skolseg; Tower Builder/Constructor: Alf Ollet ; Assistants: Piotr Chrzanowski, Tuva Aanensen ; Dramaturge: Sodja Lotker

Presenting Organization: Norske Scenografer friedrichfloen.com

The format of the Polish Pavilion was reflected in the term “crossroads.” It was a meeting point for different pathways in research and artistic practice, leading to the creation of an installation and accompanying audio walks, and served as a starting point for participants to explore the space beyond the exhibition halls.

Look Around was the phrase that started the process of getting to know this place, before being developed through collective work. The desire was not only to “look around” the site of the former slaughterhouse where PQ23 was partially held, but also to feel its smell, the texture of the walls of the buildings, and to drink in its audiosphere. All these ways of experiencing and thinking with the space influenced the main lines of research and artistic activity pursued in the creation of this exhibition. Concerns with animal-human relationships and histories, food production, multisensory, embodied and attentive presence in a space, and the skin as a zone of contact, a surface of feeling and communication all derived from initial engagement with the exhibition space.

The pavilion was created as an installation and extended by sound walks that followed the paths laid out as part of the artistic research process. The pavilion underwent change throughout the exhibition, incorporating the traces left by visitors. The end result was a processual work, but also a continuing work in progress. An important aspect of the 2023 exhibition was that it was created as part of a collective and collaborative process involving artists, researchers, architects, activists and curators. Decisions about the form of each element—the installation in the pavilion, the sound walks and the book—were all made collectively, and the various research and artistic activities carried out as part of the project emerged from a process of interaction between different sensibilities, competences and perspectives.

Curatorial Team: Zuzanna Berendt, Ludomir Franczak, Magdalena Franczak, Michał Fronk, Anna Majewska, Sára Märc and Ida Ślęzak

Team: The Collective: Zuzanna Berendt, Ludomir Franczak, Magdalena Franczak, Michał Fronk, Anna Majewska, Sára Märc and Ida Ślęzak; Collaboration: Petr Dlouhý, Katharina Joy Book, Michał Sałwiński and Zuzana Šklíbová; Music: Marcin Dymiter, Ola Rzepka and Tokyo Drift – Pavla Bastlová; Voice: Małgorzata Biela, Anna Majewska and Sára Märc; Artistic Intervention within the Polish Pavilion at PQ 2023: Agata Siniarska; Lecture in the Polish Pavilion during PQ 2023: Marco Stella, We Have Never Been Humans, They Have Never Been Animals: Some Thoughts on Animal Domestication and Coevolution; Graphic Design for the Pavilion: kilku.com (Idalia Smyczyńska, Robert Zając) and Michał Fronk ; Project Production: Ania Rudek-Śmiechowska, Krystyna Mogilnicka and Karolina Dziełak-Żakowska

Presenting Organization: Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute praskiequadriennale.pl/en

Partners: The Minister of Culture and National Heritage co-finance the exhibition in the frame of the project entitled “15th Edition of the Prague Quadrennial 2023.” The producer of the Polish main exhibitions during the Prague Quadrennial 2023 is the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute.

Half the minutes sought to prioritise the visitor as an active participant. Their vision is one in which the spatial and temporal Present is introduced in an immersive way. Tactility was the nucleus of this exhibition—textures absorbed the elements around them and acquired their own organicity, in response to the visitors’ movements. To assist in this, the exhibition space was porous, permeable to a variety of different readings that prioritised the visitor as a decisive participant.

To build a space is to build oneself. A vision of the Future depends on the recovery of the Present. In the whirlwind of everyday life, time is experienced as something inappropriate. In order to reclaim it, it is essential to celebrate tactility, which has been consistently devalued and reduced to a simple activator for screens and digital platforms. Tactile reconnection happens through textures—like a gesture that can see as well as be seen. In Half the minutes, these textures were explored in a saturated manner in order to express a reality of visual excesses that would reanimate tactile sensibilities in a matter/body/mind dialogue.

The office environment, alluding to the workspace of the set designer, could be “discovered” by browsing through reflective objects of the Present that formed the basis of a vision of the Future. These objects were coated in a prickly skin that is both captivating and repulsive. This was reinforced through sound design which captured, manipulated and fed back the sounds produced by these objective textures. Visitors would then move forward through small labyrinthine tunnels covered in fibre optic filaments. These would connect with the organicity of the office environment to create a dialogue between the matter and the visitor’s body. There were, finally, two exits, each designed by a specific visual artist, which attempted to expand the range of possible views of the Future. These exits would end by placing visitors in other exhibition spaces.

Curator and Artistic Director: Ângela Rocha

Team: Artistic Collaborators: Diogo Costa and Telma Pais de Faria; Guest Artist Fragments II: Rita Lopes Alves; Assistant to the Artistic Director: Leonor Carpinteiro; Engineering: António Amorim; Dramaturgy: Guilherme Gomes; Sound Designer: Miguel Raposo Lima; Production Coordinator: Manuel Poças; Graphic Designer: Sílvia Prudêncio; Photographer: Bruno Simão; Execution and assembly: Ângela Rocha, Catarina Sousa, Joana Martins, Leonor Carpinteiro, Rita Cabrita and Rui Mecha; Set Constructor: Josué Maia; Press: Showbuzz; Production: Teatro da Cidade; ; Support: Artistas Unidos, Biblioteca Municipal do Funchal, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Biblioteca Pública e Arquivo Regional de Ponta Delgada, Direção-Geral do Livro, dos Arquivos e das Bibliotecas, Oficina do Cego – Associação de Artes Gráficas and O Rumo do Fumo; ; Acknowledgments: Amanda Zhang, Ângelo Rocha, Hélder Braz, Joana Ricardo, João Fonte, José Carlos Barros, Lucie Špačková, Luís Belo, Manuela Santos, Pedro Carraca, Quinta da Comenda, Rita Rosa Pico and Sílvio Vieira; ; Director-General for the Arts (Directorate-General for the Arts): Américo Rodrigues; Deputy Director-General (Directorate-General for the Arts): Pedro Barbosa; Director of Arts Support Services (Directorate-General for the Arts): Dulce Brito; PQ23 Working Group (Directorate-General for the Arts): Rui Teigão (coordination), António Pinto, Cristina Guerra and Maria Messias

Presenting Organization: Commission and financial support: Directorate-General for the Arts teatrodacidade.pt/pq23

Award: PQ Kids Award

“Quebec presents the Society for the Survival and Promotion of Living Arts Movement (SVMMAV). Highlighting its affection for culture, SVMMAV stands as a last resort for the fragile living arts ecosystem and its artists before they go from scarce to rare. Is your profession endangered? Sponsor an artist today and show them they matter!”

Quebec designers cannot (currently) be considered “rare”—however, a massive exodus of professionals from the cultural sector, an ever-shrinking number of design students and an apparent lack of interest in the living arts on the part of the government are leading to uncertainty about the future of their practices. With the pandemic exacerbating existing difficulties, a growing fragility in the performing arts is now being witnessed. Forced to adapt and do more and better with less, these artists continue to create brilliantly, boldly and with pleasure.

In light of these concerns, Curator Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle wanted to address the theme of RARE by creating a fictional foundation dedicated to helping designers: SVMMAV (The Society for the Survival and Promotion of the Living Arts Movement). Between parody and editorial, this project examined the tension that exists between artists and their professional precarity, as a reminder that the artistic ecosystem relies above all on these creators, and that their survival is vital to all cultural industries.

At the centre of the exhibition, eight artists representing different fields of design engaged with the organisers through interviews. They shared their journeys, their processes, and their visions of what creation is and means. SVMMAV—“you’ll fit right in!”

Curator: Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle

Team: Exhibit Designer: Marzia Pellissier; Executive Producer: Viviane Morin; Digital Content Creator: Anne-Sophie Gaudet; Technical Director: Samuel Thériault; Graphic Designer: Dominique Bouchard; Coordinator: Cynthia Bouchard-Gosselin; Assistant Technical Directors: Justin Houde and Nicolas Jalbert; Translator: André Farhat; Set Builder: Productions Yves Nicol; Video Producer and Editor: Eric Bates; Videographers: Adrien Malette Chénier and Philip Fortin; Artists: Claire Renaud, Rachel Tremblay, Sophie El-Assaad, Richard Lacroix, Lucie Bazzo, Émilie Racine, Maryse Gosselin and Antoine Bédard; Communications: Manon Gagnon ; APASQ President and Member of the APASQ Committee: Cédric Delorme Bouchard; Fondation Jean-Paul Mousseau President and Member of the APASQ Committee: Raymond Marius Boucher; Members of the APASQ Committee: Sébastien Dionne and Mélanie Robinson

Presenting Organization: Association des professionnels des arts de la scène du Québec apasq.org/exposition-du-quebec-a-la-quadriennale-2023

The buildings of the Army House and the Albanian Theatre for Children and Youth in Skopje, local marble production from the city of Prilep, and the violence of the sounds created in/between these places presented a platform to (re)invent the city from the peripatetic experience and embodiment of the decolonising flâneuse who uses the body as a site of learning, caring and participation.

The traces of the modernist utopia of a new Skopje, imagined after the devastating earthquake of 1963, are still dwelling in the city—many of them lie abandoned, privatised, or erased, as “antic” ruins left indefinitely to populate the urban-cultural landscape. The city, rebuilt with the help of the Yugoslav and world solidarity funds, was re-conceived as a site of internationalism, reflecting the general politics of Yugoslavia at that time—anti-fascist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and non-aligned. Skopje became a stage for international modernist and brutalist architectures, and an enormous amount of knowledge entered the city under this pretence, shaping and emancipating its cultural identity for a long, long time.

The exhibition City as a Stage aimed to learn from the city as a resource, from the traces of abandoned solidarity and through engagement with local people, to rethink the idea of how transnational solidarity can reshape the city. How can the (seemingly lost) city be reconstructed through sound, movement, accessibility and legal rights? To whom does this city belong? The figure of the flâneuse appeared on stage to invite audiences not to be passive observers or wanderers in the modern city, but to engage in the late capitalist city, to move from a self-conscious awareness of the urban experience to a caretaking and caregiving asset in the re-politicisation of the commons.

Through the works of the collective Alembic (Viktor Tanaskovski and Iva Damjanovski), and the artists Besfort Idrizi, Viktorija Ilioska and Anastasija Pandilovska, curated in a joint platform by Ivana Vaseva and Filip Jovanovski through the use of their method of “reading buildings,” this project employed the city as a text for re-reading historical events, evoking the (tectonic) shifts, clashes and (self-)exploitations in the contrast of local official and unofficial histories.

Curators: Ivana Vaseva and Filip Jovanovski

Team: Commissioner: Ruse Arsov; Artists: Alembic (Viktor Tanaskovski and Iva Damjanovski), Besfort Idrizi, Viktorija Ilioska and Anastasija Pandilovska

Presenting Organization: Organization for arts and culture Faculty of things that can’t be learned – FRU in partnership with Youth Cultural Center – Skopje, International Theater Festival MOT websites:; akto-fru.org/en; mkc.mk/en

The Bridge was an interactive art installation that challenged the boundaries of understanding how to “be together.”

We are more than we see, we connect deeper than we think and we communicate with more than words. We are molecules of water, we interact and interfere, we vibrate and resonate, and no virtual surrogate can replace the fundamental state of being together, face to face.

Using a variety of multimedia technologies, The Bridge invited audiences to walk towards each other, to rediscover the deep connection of eye contact and to reflect on the way energetic bodies interact. Crossing the bridge would become an experience that can reveal the unseen, a joyful meditation on an ideal of “true nature.”

The patterns of speed and movement exhibited by audience members, the distance or closeness between them, their anxiety or tranquillity, would create the whole experience of the installation. Nothing was predetermined—all the video, light and sound content, as well as the movement of the water, was generated by the audience.

Balancing the definitions of observer and participant, visitors were encouraged to cross the bridge. The result was that the audience assumed a seeing and a being function within the installation.

Curator: Dragos Buhagiar

Team: Scenographer: Adrian Damian; Video & Interaction Design: Robert Erdos; Music: Mihai Dobre; Sound Interaction Design: Grig Burloiu; Lightning Design: Cristian Simon; Production Manager: Radu Zaharia

Presenting Organization: Romanian Cultural Institute adrian-damian.com/thebridge

The Serbian exhibition represented a multi-layered “storytelling machine,” in which prominent representatives of contemporary performance space and scene design in various Serbian theatrical (and non-theatrical) communities were involved in the development of new narratives based on specific socio-cultural artefacts. The selected artefacts, combined with the thematic framework and the analytical-forensic treatment of storytelling as a component to performance, created a dynamic archive that extended elaboration on dramatic texts, political education programmes, and promotion of social engagement practices.

The Moonshine Piano, the central element of the space, was a kind of hybrid “communication/dialogue prop” synthesised from a discarded piano and a micro-distillery—the primary function of this device was to create a framework for fictional storytelling between hosts, guests and audience.

Guest participants (artists and groups) were invited to bring a specific artefact (not necessarily related to their profession) which, together with the distillate of the day, would serve as a “dialogue starter.” Different conversations and performative practices were allowed to develop around this artefact—theatre improvisations, simulations of public debates, parliamentary sessions of non-existent ministries, environmental discussions or intimate concerts…

The scent of the day was a product of the distillation process and is understood as an important element of scene design, building the scene together with the guests and their artefacts. The audience had the opportunity to observe the process of creating a narrative in the host-guest relationship, but also the opportunity to join the dialogue and add their own speculative narrative. At the end of the process, the audience was invited to participate in the creation of a collective visual image and to add to the material for the archive.

The programme of this pavilion was conceived as a coherent, interconnected and continuous set of different critical views on the future of theatre, but above all on the problems of a depoliticised public, professional conformity and self-exploitation.

The results of the collectively produced narratives were carefully stored in a dynamic archive during and after the exhibition. This archive consisted of written protocols, mental maps, critical maps/diagrams, sound/video files, composed music pieces or written poems. These materials were stored in a pre-prepared system of clipboards and a media library where audiences could see the rough results of the previous day.

Curator: Miodrag Kuč

Team: Comissioners: Biljana Jotić and Tatjana Dadić; Guest participants (artists and groups): LP Duo, Selena Orb, Milica Vučković, Agelast, Ministry of Space, Mirko Radonjić and Andreja Rondović, Novo kulturno naselje, Marka Žvaka ; Production Management: Andrija Dinulović, Janko Dimitrijević and Zoja Erdeljan; Technical Team: Vladimir Savić, Igor Ljubić, Andreja Georgievski, Nađa Vukorep, Darko Sekulić, Nina Bogdanović, Ivan Nikolovski, Isidora Pokrajac and Mina Stojanov

Presenting Organization: Museum of Applied Arts; Scen – Center for Scene Design, Architecture and Technology – Oistat Centre for Serbia

Award: Community Activation in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions

Renewed Vision is home to four works: “Tactility Studies: Pandemic Traces,” “re:walk Telok Ayer,” “Pok!” and “WINDOW.” Each work sought to connect with audiences in different ways throughout the duration of the pandemic, with curated objects related to the works for audiences to take home with them as reminders of the unspoken connections and tactile experiences that must be navigated and re-examined in a new, post-pandemic world.

Renewed Vision explored the ways in which people have sought to connect in an age of isolation and social distance. Designed in the form of a mock-up warehouse, the work cast audience members in the role of a packer interacting with and packaging small objects.

As one of the first countries to be paralysed by the pandemic in 2020, Singaporeans had to adapt quickly to social and legal changes. New restrictions were imposed day by day, and soon everything ground to a halt during the national lockdown. The arts community had to rapidly scale up its efforts to adapt and redesign shows in accordance with ever-changing security measures.

Even as new digital spaces emerged to bring the performing arts into the homes of audiences, artists and publics were constantly aware of the unknown, of what might happen next, and, as the end of the pandemic comes ever nearer, this heightened awareness of the unknown has informed our sensitivity in navigating contact again.

Curators: Lemon & Koko

Team: Singapore Exhibition Producer: Ezzat Alkaff; Singapore Exhibition Designer: Aaron Koh ; Singapore Exhibition Assistant Producer and Technical Manager: Brent Tan; Singapore Exhibition Production Crew: Cheryl Tan Yun Xin ; Tactility Studies Co-Directors: Bernice Lee and Chong Gua Khee; Tactility Studies Producer: The Public Space; re:walk Telok Ayer Exhibit Designers: Abel Koh, Stella Cheung and Ezzat Alkaff; Pok! Creator: Soultari Amin Farid ; WINDOW Exhibit Designers: Cheryl Tan Yun Xin and Rei Poh

Presenting Organization: Secretive Thing

The Slovak pavilion underwent change in time and space—the question asked: “Will we find our home and create it out of matter that we thoroughly change?”

We look for change; we create it, we live it—the cube was once whole—its volume was filled with omnipresent silence and timelessness—however, this silence was not eternal—the cube was discovered by nearby life, and its cold and solid mass was penetrated. The cube felt an original warmth. It did not want to lose this warmth, so it treated the warmth with love and gratitude. It was allowed to open nooks and spaces to move and change. It was allowed to mine and take away from the body of the cube.

Bit by bit, the cube managed to become a home. Inside, it could speak, breathe, and make love with warmth. The mother mass began to slowly vanish—and life in her began to grow.

Authors: DOXA: Tomáš Boroš, Pavel Bakajsa, Ondrej Jurčo, Maroš Mitro; MICHAL MACHCINÍK; DIVADLO NA PERÓNE: Peter Kočiš, Jana Wernerová

Team: Concept and dramaturgy: Peter Kočiš; Choreography, direction and music recording: Jana Wernerová; Costumes and masks: Dáša Krištofovičová; Sound design: Miro Tóth; Poems: Jakub Groch (cycle Turgenev); Performers: Janka Balková, Zuzana Gibarti-Dancáková, Katarína Hudačková, Peter Kočiš, Jakub Muranský, Zuzana Smetáčková, Stanislava Spišiaková, Anna Suráková and Jana Wernerová

Presenting Organization: Divadelný ústav.; Produced by INDIVIDUMdesign.; The Slovak exhibition was created with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak; Republic.; The exhibition is made of recycled and recyclable material. theatre.sk/en/projects/prague-quadrennial-2023

¡Viva la montaña! looked to incorporate the knowledge of an exceptional time constructed by the traditions and folklore of a territory into the imaginary of scenographic architecture. It is the cry uttered by a woman with strength and enthusiasm as she is lifted up by another group of people dancing together in the Dance of the Ibio, a popular Spanish folk dance. Through contemporary interpretation by a multidisciplinary team of Spanish creators, the exhibition aimed to remember, revive, and learn from the ephemeral spatial creation generated by intangible heritage in public space.

This exhibition was narrated, constructed and elevated each day of the Quadrennial by presenting constructive details and structures, materials and fabrics, movements and dances, bodies, objects and decorations from different Spanish festivals, which together constituted a contemporary exercise in spatial representation.

This exhibition was a collection of popular knowledge from communities of bearers, which served as an inspiration and a call to all those different knowledges that unite people from different places, cities and families to celebrate together anonymously. All these have been shared throughout history to create culture and community, preserving unique and discrete sets of knowledge through unorthodox methods, and collectively and unconsciously building a territorial identity that sets groups apart through the creation of belonging.

This spatial and territorial research spoke of the origin of the scenic rite, of its exceptionality, its cyclical time, its repetition, its transience and the human transmission that observes, evaluates and formally translates its environment. Today, it is rare to create and share together—the artistic exhibition technology presented here was a call to continue to inhabit, use and build public space together, in addition to wanting to admire and share the beauty, the cultural and artistic value of all this knowledge.

Curator: Maral Kekejian

Team: Concept and Design: María Buey González; Design and Creation of fabrics: Raquel Buj. BUJ Studio. ; Production of Fabrics: Ana Delgado and Ana Millán; Design, Creation of structures and Performer: Javi Cruz; Playwright: María Jerez; Choreographer and Performer: Lara Brown; With the collaboration of: Miguel de Torres, Sebastián Bayo, Taller de Cantería de la Casa de Campo (stone), Clara Álvarez (ceramics), Carlina Isabel (visualization of structures) and Mekitron (blacksmith)

Presenting Organization: INAEM, AC/E, AECID, Instituto Cervantes, RESAD pqspain.es/en

Emerging from the pandemic and looking to the near future, sustainability will be a key consideration in the planning and design of stage productions, alongside factors like time framing, health, and scales of economy. This exhibition was part of a major push for Sweden to be at the forefront of implementing green knowledge in the performing arts sector.

“How do we create the behavioural changes needed to make the performing arts more sustainable? How can freelance artists be involved in conversations about implementing sustainability in our institutions? How do we acquire knowledge that enables us to make consistent and methodical decisions that lead us towards sustainability? How can sustainability perspectives be implemented in the production process? We invite visitors to discuss with us how we should work in our industry and, at the same time, to create a work of art together with them, ARBOR ARTIS.”

This artwork was a slowly evolving action performance, a workshop in which the ARBOR ARTIS was transformed, new solutions were added and innovations were made as the work progressed. The process is RARE, the tree is RARE and the future is fragile. The exhibition space was a workshop where contributors could meet, discuss and create the tree, adding messages and tips for how to build and structure change. Innovation and collaboration, on local, national and international levels, are always essential to preparing visual artists and artistic communities for inevitable change.

Curators: Johan Mansfeldt and Anders Larsson

Team: Artists, Scenographers, Costume Designers: Anna Ardelius and Annika Bromberg

Presenting Organization: STTF, Svensk Teaterteknisk Förening, Swedish OISTAT center

The Taiwanese exhibition included two shows from Shinehouse Theatre—The Whisper of the Waves and To the Warriors—which used voiceprint interaction to represent the main themes of the pavilion. As well as this, the display featured works by prevailing and well-represented Taiwanese designers, depicting images of the Ship of Man, the Ship of Diversity and the Ship of Technology to emphasise the strength and importance of Taiwan in the world of theatre design.

In the context of Taiwanese history, politics and culture have been shaped by its status as an island country in the centre of the Far East island chain. Frequent international exchanges have created a vibrant atmosphere of democracy and freedom, unafraid of hard or soft power. While the international community fights for rights and interests, Taiwan continues to develop an independent culture, addressing issues of national identity, residential justice, human rights, LGBTQ rights, freedom of religion and political pluralism.

Under this atmosphere of free expression, lacking a licensing system for the performing arts, creative cultural fields shine brightly, and occupy an important position in the grander East Asian performing arts network. This showcase of Taiwanese diversity in the performing arts was displayed in dialogue with other projects and representatives of the international theatrical design community.

Curator: Po-Yuan Chung

Team: Producer: Pu LIN; Curator: Po-Yuan CHUNG; Administrative Coordinator: Wanji YANG; Curatorial Consultant: Zeke LEE; Project Coordinator: Jessamine LIN; Project Manager: ChungPing CHA; Technical Coordinator: ChihFeng CHEN; Design Coordinator: ChihHsiang LEE; Technical Executor: YaYun KO; Technical Assistants: JungChing HUNG and ChuanWei SU; Performers: Emiko AGATSUMA, YungYuan CHEN, ChiaYi CHEN, ChengYu HSIEH and WeiChen CHEN; Graphic Designer: Luta LIU; Web Designer: YingZhe QIU; Communicator: ChiaLin CHI; Performance Design: Sy-Yu CHEN (The Eagle Has Two Heads), Hsiao-Ting HSIEH (Narcosis) and Anarchy Dance Theatre (The Eternal Straight Line); Sound Design: Mojo WOO (Floating, Coming! Coming! Falling Heavily from the Mountains!); Lighting Design: Fang-Yu CHIEN (Unspeakable), Chih-Hsiang LEE (Chih Hsiang Lee's Lighting Design), Fang-Yu SUNG (X_X room Nolight), Yung-Hung SUNG (Ten Lines of Poetry to NK), Cheng-Wei TENG (One Fine Day), Cheng-Wei TENG (The Terror) and You-Jyun WANG (The Textures on Timeline); Costume Design: Tian-Cheng CHAO (Classic Love Pie Recipes), Sy-Yu CHEN (Stick Tiger Chicken), Fu-Ling KUO (Roaring from the Soul Far Away), Yu-Shen LI (Kuang-Qi), André LIN (Zuobo Tao, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Twelfth Night) and Heng-Cheng LIN (At Aranya Temple); Projection Design: Tung-Yen CHOU (Chronicle of Light Year: Taipei-Copenhagen), Tung-Yen CHOU (Formosa) and Kuo-Han LEE (Break & Break!); Space Design: Jhao-An LIN (Self-Accusation); Set Design: Chien-Ming CHAO (Ten Lines of Poetry to NK), Hsi-An CHEN (The Misanthrope) and Jhao-An LIN (The Moment for A Loser Rocking)

Presenting Organization: Taiwan Association of Theatre Technology pq2023taiwan.com

Theatre to Go was an experimental collaborative process/project existing in between performing arts and technology, based on a crossing of boundaries between live and virtual performance. The work aimed to create a more stable and reliable environment for the Thai performing arts ecosystem.

“Break all the boundaries, because theatre can be anywhere.” For PQ23, Theatre To Go, together with Thai artists, designers and developers, explored a new collaboration through a digital platform that proceeded from the concept of “experience beyond the boundary,” aiming to remove restrictions instituted by social distancing policies.

“Theatre” comes from the Greek word “θέατρο,” to mean, “a place for seeing.” Theatre is a form of art that allows audiences to “black out” from their own daily lives, and brings people together for a magical moment, a unique instance of entertainment unto enlightenment.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns in Thailand, everyday journeys needed to be augmented through low-contact provisions, while most live experiences in shared space became rare and limited. Theatre To Go invited four Thai artists, two theatre groups and three scenographers from different parts of Thailand who have been active in their performing arts work during the hard time of the COVID-19 pandemic to recreate the live experience of the theatre box at home. The exhibition presented five digitised performing arts in five different living postures, observing how audiences manage the application spaces for certain arts, how they watch performances, and what their engagement with virtual performing arts would evolve into upon the closing of the world.

Curator and Project Director: Nattaporn Thapparat

Team: Producer: Suranya Poonyaphitak ; Graphic Designer: Papon Tanuphut ; Exhibition Designer: Nicha Kiatfuengfoo; ……; PRODUCTION TEAM; ; Single Number ; Director: Tanatchaporn Kittikong ; Artistic Designer: Pornpan Arayaveerasid ; Actors: Jidapa Pudpeng, Panadda Imsaart, Patiyod Chansuwan, Rathakorn Pawaree and Taranitorn Sinthao ; Animator & Editor: Rueangrith Suntisuk ; Sound Editor: Lab5soundworks, Saranrat Sangchai and Parkpume Charoenviriya ; ; TA-LAD PLA; Director Artistic Designer: Surachai Petsangrot; Actors: Chettapat Khueankaeo, Kris Sanguanpiyapand, Kwin Bhichitkul, Natharot Suebyam and Punika Rangchaya ; Animator & Editor: Surachai Petsangrot ; Animator: Kitja Seetusanee ; Choreographer: Kwin Bhichitkul ; Assistant Choreographer: Natharot Suebyam ; Lighting Designer: Chettapat Khueankaeo ; Sound Designer: Jirayu Pranee ; Script Translation: Nattaporn Thapparat and Suranya Poonyaphitak ; ; The Disappearance of A Dramatist, 2584 B.E.; Director: Chettapat Khueankaeo ; Artistic Designer: Surachai Petsangrot ; Playwright: Vasan Mahakiattikun and Chettapat Khueankaeo ; Actors: Chanida Punyaneramitdee, Ratchai Rujiwipatna and Surachai Petsangrot ; Stage Manager: Samapong Krueayu ; Stage Crew & Photographer: Jira Angsutamatuch ; Editor: Jira Angsutamatuch ; Translator: Cholatep Nabangchang ; ; This Plate Father Used to Wash (Another Day in May); Director: Wichaya Artamat ; Artistic Designer: Pornpan Arayaveerasid ; Text: Wichaya Artamat, Parnrut Kritchanchai and Jaturachai Srichanwanpen ; ; Actors: Parnrut Kritchanchai, Jaturachai Srichanwanpen and Saifah Tanthana ; Cinematographer and Graphic Designer: Rueangrith Suntisuk ; Director’s Assistant: Pathipon Adsavamahapong ; Sound Editor: Rapeedech Kulabusaya, Saranrat Sangchai and Parkpume Charoenviriya ; Production Manager: Sasapin Siriwanij ; Translator: Cholatep Nabangchang ; ; The (Un)Governed Body ; Director: Teerawat Mulvilai ; Artistic Designer: Nicha Puranasamriddhi ; Actors: Sarut Komalittipong, Sasapin Siriwanij and Surat Kaewseekram ; Animator & Editor: Rueangrith Suntisuk ; Production Manager: Thongchai Pimapunsri ; Sound Editors: Lab5soundworks, Saranrat Sangchai and Parkpume Charoenviriya ; ….; AR DEVELOPER: YAY.LOL STUDIO, Suchonm Prompunya and Nirintana Koomanee; ….; STUDIO TEAM – Creative Content Production and Digital Experience; School of Communication Arts, Bangkok University; Co-Producer: Natthawut Lertdee; First Assistant Director: Katmanee Promnuch ; Second Assistant Director: Nutnicha Rujimora ; Camera Operator: Ponlawat Pimchai ; First Assistant Camera: Peerasak Phonsiri ; Gaffers: Ittipat Suntitunyachok, Supanut Kanjanabatr and Tinroj Hansnontchot ; Boom Operator: Supanut Kanjanabatr ; Police Liaison & Production Report: Anapitcha Chimngarm ; Continuity & Production Caterer: Natthanicha Thiangthum ; Clapper Loader: Sukhita Phuttharak ; Script Supervisors: Kenika Chantong and Thunyaboon Khoumyoo ; Introduction & End Credit Editors: Anapitcha Chimngarm and Parnitar Naravichaikull; Audio Record: Kittimasak Rukchartcharoen ; Photographer: Monsinee Chaipitakkoon ; Stills Photographers: Jira Angsutamatuch, Parnitar Naravichaikull and Parkpume Charoenviriya

Presenting Organization: Theatre To Go Co., Ltd fb.com/TheatreToGo.th

Award: Visionary Scenographic Strategies in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions

The Garden of Living Things connected generations, preserved memory, and linked the underworld, earthly and heavenly worlds as a symbol of growth. In the earthly Ukrainian garden, you can hear the rustle and echo of the sacred garden, the paradise of the forgotten homeland of humanity.

The Garden also keeps artefacts—witnesses and participants in the history of the Ukrainian people. Each piece of the artefact is no longer just a household item. It is a thing with a whole cosmos inside it, endowed with its own soul.

The two critical questions behind this work were, “What trace and heritage will we leave behind?” and, “What stories will the artefacts behind us tell?” The art objects created by Ukrainian scenographers were positioned in a single installation space in the pavilion. Each of these objects involved a certain interaction with the viewer, each relaying its own story.

During the war in Ukraine, in a house levelled by Russian missiles, a small kitchen cabinet survived, with a fragile ceramic jug on its shelf, defenceless against the explosion. This image became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to the aggression of a massive, nuclear power. Such things hold a whole world within them, and can tell a story if one only knows how to listen to it and how to talk to it.

Curator: Bohdan Polishchuck

Team: Project manager: Yulia Hlushko; Scenography gallery director: Oleh Oneshchak; Artists: Serhiy Rydvanetsky, Natalia Rydvanetska, Yulia Zaulichna, Maria Pogrebnyak, Olena Polishchuk, Oleh Tatarinov, Inessa Kulchytska, Lyudmyla Nagorna and Lesia Holovach

Presenting Organization: Scenography Gallery

Partners: Department of Culture of Lviv City Council, Lesia Ukrainka Lviv Academic, Dramatic Theatre

hello stranger [hɛˈləʊ ˈstreɪnʤə] salutation, noun: a greeting for a friend you haven’t seen for a long time.

hello stranger was about welcoming designers, makers and audiences in the wake of a turbulent few years. hello stranger centred designers’ voices and invited the chance encounters, unexpected conversations and new possibilities that emerge when individual creators gather together in person.

hello stranger—prague became a laboratory for collectively imagining the future of performance design. with this exhibit, the UK made space and ceded agency. visitors were invited to contribute to a project under construction: an in-progress, open-ended conversation with outcomes not yet known. the space fostered a scenographic exchange, activated and expanded through live gatherings and happenings. these included takeovers, where control of the UK space was handed to international guests, discussions arising out of provocations from practitioners and researchers in the UK, and exploratory open laboratory sessions. visitors’ thoughts were added to a collective speculation on the future of performance design that grew over the 10 days of PQ23 and was published as a collective vision, authored by all those who chose to contribute.

an ethos of sustainability underpinned this entire project, including a commitment to using no new materials. the materials and equipment in the UK exhibit were all responsibly sourced: hired or reclaimed—predominately from suppliers in Prague—with minimal cargo transported to and from the UK.

hello stranger—prague was part of a larger research and knowledge exchange project including a catalogue of UK design from 2019-2023, a UK-wide Festival of Performance Design and a speculation on the future, all published by Performance Research Books. in Spring 2023, the UK Festival of Performance Design provided a platform for discourse and discussion through a diverse range of live events, led from the ground up by designers living and working across thirteen regions of the UK and beyond. hello stranger—prague built on these foundations internationally, creating a space for practitioners, researchers, students and the always curious to talk, reflect and reimagine the future together.

“Hello stranger, you’re welcome here.”

Curators: Kathrine Sandys and Lucy Thornett

Team: Curatorial Consultant: Simon Banham; Production Team: Francesca Graville, Josefine Meyer, Lauren Patman, Sophie Andrews, Sam Smith, Josh Sparks and Leshaun Williams

Presenting Organization: Society of British Theatre Designers hellostrangernationalexhibition.org.uk

The United States of America comprises a multitude of fragments—of geography, of ethnicity, of language, poverty and wealth. The US is not a monolith that can be seen from a single point of view; it can only be understood through these contrasts and interrelationships.

This exhibition was a singular house-like structure built from salvaged materials, and provided a space for the comparison and excavation of the diversity that makes up the US theatre design landscape. The work of the selected artists and their responses to prompts about HOME were presented on adjacent screens, generating dialogues between aesthetics and identity. The home as a signifier of place, belonging, identity, language and culture is an influential lens through which to view design.

The process of making this structure was inextricably linked to design, with materials being sourced from salvage yards and leftover or discarded sets donated by theatres across the country. The development of environmentally conscious approaches to material collection, through the reuse of objects that represented the aesthetic richness of the country, was intended to ask viewers to consider design as an act of critical engagement with the world. The project suggested that even the most mundane of materials, when imbued with a history of performance, could become a rare object.

Curator: Kevin Rigdon

Team: Head Curator: Tatiana Vintu; Curator, Chair of International Activities: Patrick Rizzotti; Digital Curator: Ian Garrett; Curators: Loyce Arthur, Scott Blackshire, Alejandro Fajardo, Rafael Jean, Josafath Reynoso, Jim Streeter, Susan Tsu and Soledad Sanchez Valdez; Associate Curators: Richard Bryant, William Kenyon, Adam Mendelson, Rob Eastman-Mullins, Sabrina Notarfrancisco, Joe Pino and Carl Walling; Technical Director: Jim Lile; Exhibition Designers: Yoon Bae, Scott Bolman, Luke Cantarella, Anna Driftmier, Richard Hoover, Stan Mathabane and Tanya Orellana

Presenting Organization: USITT (The United States Institute for Theatre Technology) pq23.USITT.org

As storytellers, we are humbled to work in a place with the oldest continuous cultures in the world and a storytelling tradition inextricably linked to the land. We invite you to share the feeling of vastness and connection to place, and to consider storytelling and space from a different perspective.

This exhibition was a response to the provocation of the Australian Exhibition of Countries and Regions, in collaboration with and inspired by lead creative Jacob Nash and his approach to country and storytelling. Through their own stories of culture and place, these artists explored what it means to consider and translate place in storytelling. This project proceeded from a desire to share a sense of the vastness of the Australian landscape with audiences in Prague.

We all come from different places but share a common experience of Australia’s vast natural world. The rarity of our land, the sense of grounding and calm that comes from being surrounded by gum trees, diving under a crashing wave or looking up at the sky. We are comforted by the scale of this land. We feel wonder and gratitude for the tens of thousands of years this land has been cared for by First Nations people. We feel reassured that this land will outlive us all. Our creative challenge is to capture the overwhelming and ever-changing vastness of the land within a confined space.

Their own stories of home and place, of their diverse cultural backgrounds, informed the work and the materiality of the space. Audiences were invited to take part of the work with them to their places in the world, as a reminder of Australian reflections on place.

This work was dreamed and designed on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Eastern Kulin Nations–the artists acknowledge and pay respect to their Elders past and present, custodians of these lands and waters that they now call home. We acknowledge and are grateful for the direct contribution of Parbin’ata Dr Carolyn Briggs, Tiriki Onus, Wesley Enoch and others to our creative development.

Always was, always will be, Aboriginal Land.

Curators: Jacob Nash and Jo Briscoe with Louisa Fitzgerald, Jodi Hope, Atulya Pulikkottil and Ishan Vivekanantham
Team: Curatorial Team: Jacob Nash and Jo Briscoe
Producers: Jo Briscoe and Richard Roberts
VCA Designers: Louisa Fitzgerald, Jodi Hope, Atulya Pulikkottil and Ishan Vivekanantham
QUT Designers: Lani Dwyer, Jazz Heckeroth and Josiene James led by Tessa Rixon
VCA Dancers: Laiken Jackson and Kitana Price led by Rheannan Port
Composer: Steve Francis
Vocal Performers: Sharon Gregory, George Hayden, Karina Lester, Kaley Nicholson and others, recorded through the 50 words project 
Creative Consultants: N’arweet Professor Carolyn Briggs, Tiriki Onus, Wesley Enoch, Steve Francis, Jennifer Irwin and Rheannan Port
Production Manager: Abe Watson
Workshop Manager: Alan Logan
VCA Production Support: Alexandra Jaensch, Thomas Vulcan, Sophie Walter and Chiara Wenban

We acknowledge and are grateful for the direct contribution of N’arweet Professor Carolyn Briggs, Tiriki Onus, Wesley Enoch, Jennifer Irwin, Steve Francis, Rheannan Port and others to our creative development on this project.
Thanks to Adam J Howe, Shane Dunn and the Melbourne Theatre Company Scenic Department
Thanks to Professor Rachel Nordlinger and Associate Professor Nick Thieberger from the 50 words project
For dressing the VCA dancers we thank Denni Francisco from Ngali
For eucalyptus collection, dyeing assistance, studio support and advice we thank Asa Broomhall, Ian Copson, Rosemary Fitzgerald, Kate Harris, Rosa Hirikata, Bo Johnson, Molly Kendall, Harley Mann, Hayley McElhinney, Joan Morgan and Gibson Nolte.
This exhibition was made possible by the generous support of the VCA Foundation, Julie and Michael Kantor, University of Melbourne Chancellery, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music Dean Marie Sierra and VCA Director Emma Redding. QUT acknowledges the support of the School of Creative Practice for sponsoring the student involvement in this project.
Presenting Organization:
Website: pqau.com.au
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The installation was showcased as a creative workspace covered in an artificial layer of vacuum that created an experience of isolation. Regionally sourced and sustainable materials were used, leveraging the artists' local knowledge. Everyone was invited to experience the space individually to heighten the feeling of isolation.

The pandemic has forced us to isolate ourselves from the outside world for our safety, creating a universal experience for people worldwide. This has revealed [to us] the topic of “isolation” and fuelled discussions, once again proving that we are multiple cultures united by globalisation. As artists, we were forced to stop working, worrying about the future of our jobs and financial status.

Isolation has always been a very personal topic for artists, and not only during the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Artists often discuss issues like creative block–the feeling of not being able to properly hold onto creative thoughts, or transpose them into artworks or creative concepts. This installation portrayed the experience of wanting to create and work but being unable to do so, due to the presence of a separating, artificial vacuum layer of plastic.

Our installation reflected on different states of isolation emphasising on the cultures of artists from all over the world, inspired by our local knowledge. Through our installation, we aime to create a unique atmosphere that showcased personal seclusion while also establishing a common ground between artists who come from different cultural backgrounds.

Drawing inspiration from their local community and surroundings, the artists decided to portray their own individual workspaces, but also their studio at university. The aim was to reveal authentic personal methods and details of their local workspaces, rather than serving clichés. To reinforce the topic of local knowledge, they also attempted to source a great part of their used materials from local manufacturers or firms.

The feeling of being isolated in a room, but also the room being isolated from the exhibition attendant, was accompanied by a sound customised for this installation by artists from the Institute of Computer Music and Sound Art at the Kunst-Universität Graz.

Curator: Univ. Prof. Mag. Annette Murschetz
Team: Organizational Consultant: Mag. Christian Gschier
Financial Consultant: Mag. Sabina Pinsker
Technical Consultant: Mag. Albert Hönes
Artists: Elisa Weiss, Imelda Kuntner, Anna Fachbach, Nora Peierl, Lukas Traxler, Katharina Zotter, Anna Ziener, Laura Kerschbaumsteiner, Lisa Offterdinger, Yunnai Zhang, Joseph Böhm, Max Reiner and Zlata Zhidkova
Sound Design: Joseph Böhm, Maximilian Reiner and Martin Simpson
Presenting Organization: Kunst-Universität Graz (University of Music and Performing Arts Graz)
Website: kug.ac.at/en/studying/degree-programs/fields-of-study/stage-design/stage-design
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The Raft was an emergency theatre, created in response to the shutdown of cultural spaces during the COVID-19 crisis and, more broadly, to certain attitudes to cultural policy adopted in recent years. It was a modular space that lived through its occupation–a raft to meet, talk, and imagine the future.

Emergency theatre (noun): a temporary theatre built in response to a crisis. A concept related to “emergency shelter” (architecture) and “occupation movements” (socio-political). The emergency theatre is a cultural space that hosts shows, discussions and creations when traditional theatres can’t–when they are closed, destroyed or controlled. The crisis can be climatic, economic, political, social or, as recently, a health crisis.

This project was designed primarily as a protocol to follow in order to create an emergency theatre in the event of a crisis. The artists gave no formal instructions, but rather advice regarding function: an auditorium, a stage and a living space. It could take different forms, according to the habits and references of the local theatre.

For this emergency theatre, the artists drew inspiration from naval imagery. We like to imagine our emergency theatre as a raft gathering some survivors in the wild sea of the cultural industry and navigating together. The boat was also a reference to the first stage design machine system, a comeback to our roots.

To affirm the act of resistance, The Raft was not only an emergency theatre, but a micronation, a very small society with its own rules and laws. The hypothetical extraterritoriality of The Raft allowed it to operate as its own small world–four friends on a raft reinventing an ironic society.

As a theatre, The Raft hosted several performances, talks, meetings, and more spontaneous events during PQ23. As a micronation, The Raft ministers organised diplomatic meetings with other stands, among other forms of ritual.

This project was created as part of a competition organised by the ATPS (Association of Professional Performing Arts Technicians) with the participation of UHasselt, Fine Arts Antwerp, Fine Arts of Liège, ESA St-Luc of Liège, St-Luc Atelier and, as selected school, La Cambre.

Curator: Arié van Egmond
Team: Student Project Promoters: Rafaelle Roux, Lucie Chauvin-Philippson, Mathis Parmentier and Félicie Decleire
Main Teacher: Simon Siegmann
Presenting Organization: ATPS (Association de Technicien·ne·s Professionnel·les du Spectacle–Association of Professional Performing Arts Technicians)
Website: instagram.com/theraft_belgium
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The Brazilian student pavilion set a provocative challenge to do with outdoor spaces. The exhibition would be set up in the streets, in a historic market. We lost the roof, but our ground is the genius loci of our street markets. The idea of a tent was born.

This project translated the concept of the tent into scenography. It was ruled by one principle: simplicity without simplification. We have reached our ancestral traditions that connect us to the Theatre. In its origins, the Greek theatre, the tent was the first “scenographic” construction: ritual, the ephemeral, the fair, nomadism, the circus tent, parties, it’s all there, weaving complexes and fascinating cultural twists. Open to the four winds, the boundaries between inside and outside are blurred.

Receptive and vulnerable, multiple and labyrinthine, the tent was a metaphor for the whole country. In contrast to the simplicity of the structure, the students’ works were valued as (rare) jewels. They floated on totems, offering multiple points of view, and opening up to different meanings. In addition to all these features, the space was created in honour of the great Brazilian scenographer, Tomás Santa Rosa (1909-1956).

Imagine that someone, as an apprentice, chooses scenography, theatre and art. Surely this person would be welcomed and integrated into one of the oldest artistic traditions, built up over the centuries. The production of theatrical knowledge and the creation of scenic spaces is one of the most fascinating adventures of humanity, at least this is the opinion of our curatorial team. Tradition involves research, experimentation, procedures, rituals and, above all, the intention to communicate with a collective or social group–the audience.

Transgression crosses established limits, inaugurating new visions, models and paradigms. Over time, transgression can be incorporated into tradition. Tradition is the fundamental source, and transgression should seek a relationship with that source. Tradition and transgression are always connected in time and space. The concept of RARE is the infinite. Our intention was to reflect the tensions and confluences between Tradition and transgression.

Curatorial Team: Bruna Christófaro (UFOP-Minas Gerais), Ézia Neves (Escola de Teatro e Dança da UFPA-Pará), Fernando Marés (Curitiba-PR), Guilherme Bonfanti (SP Escola de Teatro), Helô Cardoso (LAB IA-Unicamp), Ivam Cabral (SP Escola de Teatro), J. C. Serroni (SP Escola de Teatro/ Espaço Cenográfico), Luiz Fernando Lobo (Cia. Ensaio Aberto-RJ), Marcello Girotti Callas (UFRB-Bahia), Márcio Tadeu (SP Escola de Teatro/LAB IA-Unicamp), Paula De Paoli (SP Escola de Teatro/Faculdade Santa Marcelina), Rosana Rocha (Teatro-Escola Basileu França – GO), Telumi Hellen (SP Escola de Teatro), Tiago Bassani (UFPA-Pará) and Viviane Ramos (SP Escola de Teatro)
Team: Technical Staff: Alício Silva, Daniel Cantanhede, Igor B. Gomes, Hebrom Barbosa, Hélio Gonçalves and Wagner Almeida
Presenting Organization: SP Escola de Teatro–Centro de Formação das Artes do Palco
Website: pqbrasil.org/mostra-estudantes-pq2023
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The Bulgarian student pavilion Living Things explored everyday objects as they shape the aesthetics of the market and undergo transformations and artistic (re-)interpretations. The audience witnessed a collection of costume installations that came to life in a visual performance. Each costume had its own function, and an extraordinary story to tell.

Living Things consisted of an installation performance curated by representatives of Bulgaria’s four academies and universities offering training in set and costume design. The students worked on the concept and creation of this project. This effort was a response to the PQ23 theme, which encouraged creative encounters that foster strong and courageous teams. Teamwork is a rare quality nowadays, yet it is essential to the work of the scenographer. We wanted to honour and cherish it through our collaborative work.

This project explored different everyday objects that predetermine the space and colours found at the flea market, offering an unconventional perspective on these objects by considering them as an integral part of various costume design solutions. Ordinary objects such as bins, boxes, plastic bags, vegetable crates and various textiles were treated in an abstract way. The costumes became the means by which these peculiar installations were brought to life. We focused on exploring the objects through short narratives derived from their functions.

The costumes were anthropomorphic sculptures that told unconventional theatrical stories about life at the flea market. The abstract narrative put the audience in unexpected situations, sharing the artists’ perspectives on the social phenomena of the market through a site-specific approach. The narratives of the costumes were presented through different means of contemporary performing arts, so as to overcome any language barriers. The flea market is a dynamic space that functions as a crossroads of different cultures. The diversity of its contents and its unexpected juxtapositions inspired the bold colours and eclectic materials of the costume installations that came to life in our pavilion.

Curatorial Team: Mihaela Dobreva, Boris Daltchev (National Academy of Arts Bulgaria), Daniela Nikolchova (National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts Bulgaria), Vessela Statkova (Academy of Music, Dance and Visual Arts Bulgaria) and Hristina Dyakova (New Bulgarian University)
Team: Students National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts Bulgaria: Hristina Hristova, David Ilchev, Ivan Vulev, Mihaela Mihaylova, Iveta Milcheva, Zeyna Mansori, Lya Palikova, Simona Rupcheva, Niya Bozova, Izabela Hose and Nevena Ivanova
Students New Bulgarian University: Niya Grigorova, Emiliya Samuilova, Suzi Radichkova, Katerina Baburska, Poli Shishoeva, Aleksandra Ilieva, Lea Matich, Nikol Benvedi, Gergana Vasileva, Eliza Simeonova, Evdokia Popadinova, Ralitza Nikolova, Rosen Borisov, Yulia Vladimirova, Steliyan Kostadinov, Ioanna Laskova, Kristiyana Kostadinova, Elisaveta Karakoleva, Elena Vitanova, Gabriela Dukova and Desislava Ivanova
Students Academy of Music, Dance and Visual Arts Bulgaria: Nona Danovska, Zarina Marinova, Petra Dobrikova, Irina-Andre Chavushian, Simona Jivkova, Martin Atipov, Branislav Baltadjiev and Hristo Semerdjiev
Students National Academy of Arts Bulgaria: Elena Dimitrova, Samuil Siderov, Daniel Kirkov, Lilyana Petrova, Pavel Iliev, Aleks Sharkov, Aleksandra Chobanova, Veronika Todorova, Valentina Dincheva, Ilina Grozeva, Elena Ioneva, Simona Stoeva, Kaloyan Veshkov, Aleksandra Stoyanova, Maria-Emiliya Ivanova, Yana Grivishka, Masha Milkovich, Martina Koleva, Jenya Stavreva, Mihaela Trifonova and Kaya Ivanova
Presenting Organization:
Website: fb.com/living.things.pq23
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