Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2023: The Relevance of Ideas, Goals, and Objectives

Abstract

The article examines the main goals and objectives of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2023 (PQ–2023), exploring its scenographic and performative practices in the context of the latest cultural programs. The author analyses the aspirations of modern theater artists, architects, multimedia masters and designers of spatial content to implement their ideas in curator projects. The article defines the artistic characteristics of the most interesting projects from Portugal, Catalonia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Romania, Norway etc.; these are the projects, the authors of which act not only as exponents of theatrical ideas but also touch on a wide range of issues relevant today. The author defines the target and conceptual characteristics of the plastic formula of the Ukrainian pavilion Garden of Living Things, the project of curator and scenographer Bohdan Polishchuk. The author analyses the patterns and well-founded regularities of effective installations by Ukrainian artists in the space of the Garden: Wimple by Lyudmyla Nagorna, Boat by Serhiy Rydvanetsky and Natalia Rydvanetska, Reading the Landscape by Inessa Kulchytska, Scales of War by Oleh Tatarinov, Mary’s Dream by Maria Pogrebnyak, Roots. Network of Connections by Yulia Zaulichna, Enjoy it. The Author Bears no Responsibility. Like Russia by Olesia Holovach, Theater of Memories by Olena Polishchuk. The article discusses the manifestations of the authors’ positions at moments of history critically important for Ukraine. The author emphasizes the profound role of artists as successors and developers of the best concepts of the national scenography, in the evolutionary projects of which the national concept has always been combined with the European one.