Curating performances that speak all languages

ABSTRACT

This contribution sheds light on PQ Performance as a non-competitive section of the Prague Quadrennial. It describes the process of curating the performance program created on the basis of an open call, for performance designers, directors, choreographers, performers, and artists of all career levels, without any age limit. The call was drafted in English, French and Portuguese and offered the possibility to reply in any of those languages. The 21 performances of the final program were presented in the Prague Market (Pražská Tržnice), the National Gallery (Veletržní palác), Štvanice Island and the streets of Prague. Ranging from physical to site-specific, walking, conceptual, visual, drawing, ritual, costume, puppetry, dance and participatory, all performances operated scenographically, crafting moments of exceptional presence. The article also recalls the epidemic context in which PQ23 was curated and produced, and how artists have, responded to the questions What needs to be performed urgently? How do we address the future of performance design? And how do we take it from here? Finally, the article draws attention to the diversity of cultures and genres that revealed the poetic and critical potentials of space across different expressions of performance and performance design as a language that speaks all languages.

Notes

1 The Countries and Regions and Student sections are mainly supported by national institutions and public funds.

2 Hyperreal as described by Jean Baudrillard in Simulacra and Simulation (Baudrillard 1994).

3 Soul and dead in English.

4 The performance was also created in honor of Chilean theatre designer Germán Droghetti, who died from Covid in 2020.

5 Rabbits in English.

6 The Prague Market was the main venue for the Countries and Regions and Student exhibitions, and for Talks curated by Barbora Příhodová.

7 DAMU is the Faculty of Theatre in Prague where the PQ Studio curated by Patrick Du Wors was taking place.

8 The National Gallery was the venue for Fragments II curated by Klára Zieglerová, Performance Space Exhibition curated by Andrew Filmer, Best Publication Award curated by Pavel Drábek and part of Performance curated by Carolina E. Santo.

9 Alma y Muertos by Daniela Portillo Cisterna, Manifestações by Jaq Lisboa, the site-specific version of Wreck by Pietro Marullo, and Florestania by Eliana Monteiro.

10 The performance was titled Ombre des Amazonies in French.

11 Manifestations in English.

12 Lambe Lambe theatre was created in 1989 by two Brazilian black artists, Denise di Santos and Ismine Lima.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carolina E. Santo

Carolina E. Santo was Curator for Performances at PQ23. She lives in Paris, France, where she works as an independent researcher, performance designer and visiting lecturer at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Université Paris 8 and École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Nantes. She holds a master’s degree from the Zürich University of the Arts and a PhD from the University of Vienna. Addressing scenography from a philosophical point of view has redefined her work as Geoscenography, suggesting that performance can reaffirm or renegotiate the notions of space, place and territory. Her site-specific and participatory performances develop complex spatial narratives for alternative productions of knowledge. Her last performance, Effets Mer, is being created in collaboration with geographer Anne-Solange Muis and musicians Thierry Balasse, Hélène Schmit and Bianca Iannuzzi, with the support of the French Ministry of Culture. The creative process involves a 1300 km walk she made along the French coastline affected by erosion and sea level rise. Her artistic work has been presented at the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon, Beaux Arts and Nuit Blanche in Paris, Center of Contemporary Arts Magasin des Horizons in Grenoble, and Site Specific Performance Festival at the Prague Quadrennial 2019. She has participated in several international conferences specializing in theatre and performance (IFTR, PSI, PQ, UDS) and has published internationally (Terre Urbaine, Routledge, Eres, Patrick Frey).