Since 1967, the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space presents the best works in scenography with emphasis on the self-sufficiency of this artistic field. The 15th edition took place from 8 to 18 June 2023, the main location was the Holešovice Market, and numerous parts were also hosted in the National Gallery and The Academy of Performing Arts. PQ does not operate merely as a festival, gradually it has evolved into a platform, which explores progressive approaches, new media, virtual spaces and interdisciplinary relations. PQ2023 introduced artworks from dozens of countries from hundreds of artists within the scope of projects curated by an international PQ team and the main competitive exhibitions including PACE.V4 partner countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Armenia.

Czech Republic
Limbo Hardware

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 our rational thought, but also our perception of space and physical distance.

Curator: Pavel Švec
Creative team: Artist: David Možný, Production: Šárka Možná, Performer: Max Lysáček
Organisation: Heat Wave, s. r. o.

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Slovakia
Home is warmth

Home is warmth – Slovak pavilion changing in time and space. Will we find our home and create it out of matter that we thoroughly change?

We look for it, 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 a nearby life and penetrated its cold and solid mass. The cube felt an original warmth. It did not want to lose the warmth, so it treated it 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 was talked, breathed, and made love with warmth. The mother mass began to slowly vanish and life in her began to grow.

Authors: DOXA: Tomáš Boroš, Pavel Bakajsa, Ondřej Jurčo, Maroš Mitro, MICHAL MACHCINÍK, DIVADLO NA PERÓNĚ: Peter Kočiš, Jana Wernerová

Creative 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, Jana Wernerová
Organisation: Divadelný ústav. Produced by INDIVIDUMdesign.

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Poland
Look Around

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

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

Creative 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, Zuzana Šklíbová Music: Marcin Dymiter, Ola Rzepka, Tokyo Drift – Pavla Bastlová Voice: Małgorzata Biela, Anna Majewska, 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), Michał Fronk Project Production: Ania Rudek-Śmiechowska, Krystyna Mogilnicka and Karolina Dziełak-Żakowska

Organisation: Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute

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Hungary
winterreise.box

winterreise.box is 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 can follow the stages of the protagonist’s solitary journey through a twelve-part video installation. From time to time Máté Borsi-Balogh, the performer, appears in the box and sings Schubert songs.

Curators: Botond Devich and Jakab Tarnóczi

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

Organisation: Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute

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Armenia

War leads to peace…  but peace is always very painful, full of human losses. And it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose.

The two are interrelated: peace after war, war before peace… By comparing these two opposite realities we emphasize the importance of peace… what we see and what we cannot see…

Wars are supposed to be prevented by civilised conversation, neat attire and a well-groomed appearance. Yet it is the people who are caught up in the war who really see…

Curator: Nelly Barseghyan

Creative team: Poet, Composer: Narek Cosmos Director: Gor Margarian

Presenting organisation: ScenoLab Art Laboratory

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