About symposium
PQ 50th anniversary celebrations will culminate with an international autumn symposium of curators and scenographers, held from 12 to 14 October 2017 in Prague. The symposium, which is suitably called Porous Borders, will take place inside the former Federal Assembly, which during the communist era erected figurative political hurdles, barriers within the oppressed Czechoslovak society. After the Velvet Revolution, this space – which to this day is a symbol of communist oppression – became a temple of freedom soon after it became the new home of Radio Free Europe.
Main topics of the symposium
The Prague Quadrennial has invited curators, theatre professionals, scenographers, teachers, and theorists from around the world to join us at our autumn symposium to share their thoughts and opinions on national values and identities. Another topic of discussion will be the evolution of curatorial trends at today's biennials, triennials, and quadrennials, including how they differ and what they have in common. What does the preparation of national exhibitions within the context of international exhibitions involve today, and what does the term “national exhibition" even mean in today's day and age? These are the questions that we would like to discuss during the symposium's presentations and discussions.
We live in a constantly changing world, where our approaches to life(and not just that) are influenced by the subject of “borders". In many parts of the world, increased tension between local and global developments raises many questions regarding our personal identity and the identity of society as a whole. We also continually encounter the question of borders in our performance design work, where the dividing line between reality and imagination is blurred and the main task of the profession is to create new experiences far beyond the limits of daily reality.
Over the course of the symposium, we will also look back at five decades of the Prague Quadrennial and take an exclusive look at the locations for the next (14th) instalment of the Prague Quadrennial.
More on PQ website: www.pq.cz
