Simon Banham PQ Commissioner – Weather

 

In 2012 Simon was invited to become the PQ commissioner for Weather and Scenography by the Artistic Director of PQ15 Sodja Lotker.

 

The main theme of the Prague Quadrennial 2015 is Shared Space: Music Weather Politics. At the core of the project are symposia, meetings and exhibitions organized in cooperation with 11 European partners throughout Europe.

 

The Section of Countries and Regions

 

The Section of Countries and Regions will take place with the themes of Music Weather Politics – basic environments of aesthetics, ethics and Mother Nature that provide space for our daily dramas. The Music Weather and Politics theme aims to explore environments that have deeper influence on our performance though they are intangible as a premise that the invisible might be the most important and powerful part of scenography. Curatorial briefs of individual themes are proposed by a director, a scenographer, and a curator to provide three approaches to scenography and exhibiting scenography.

 

Commissioners of individual themes: Music – Czech opera director Jiří Heřman, Weather – UK artist/scenographer Simon Banham, and Politics – Brazilian curator/scenographer Aby Cohen provided 

 

PQ Sections are the main structural element of PQ competition – the Section of Countries and Regions, the Student Section, and the Space exhibition (focusing on theatre architecture). Work by professionals in the fields of set design, lighting design, sound design, costume design, and others is presented in the Section of Countries and Regions. The Student Section features works by theatre, art, and architectural colleges, and academies and universities from around the world. The Space exhibition presents current architectural projects for theatres and performance spaces. 

 

Exhibitions of individual countries and regions present the best works in the field of scenography and performance design that have been realized in recent years in the respective countries. Expositions consist of photographs, videos, objects, models and installations and can include performances, live installations, presentations, lectures, workshops, art walks and fashion shows in their expositions.

 

Beside the main expositions, the PQ includes also additional exhibitions, student workshops, presentations, discussions, symposia, performances, and other live events, that individual participants can take active part in.

 

 

SPACELAB - International workshops for students and young professionals

 

Richard Downing – Lecturer in Scenography Aberystwyth University – Workshop Leader

 

Richard has been invited to give a workshop as part of the Prague Quadrennial 2015 SpaceLab workshops, which create opportunities for more than 1500 students and young professionals from around the world to meet directly with top professionals in the field of performance design.

SpaceLab will provide workshops focusing on interdisciplinary experimentation across the fields of the visual and performing arts, opening up new ideas, discourses, methods and technologies. All of the workshops will take place in the heart of Prague at the Theatre Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) and will relate to the main concept of the PQ 2015 - exploring theatre as shared space and scenography as complex performative environment and its relationship to music, weather and politics. 

Working with the Quadrennial theme SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics, the workshops will provide opportunities to explore theatre as a place where living people meet and create certain social relationships (politics), a living place of accident and the ephemeral (weather), and of course the place of aesthetics and composition (music). 

 

 

Workshop will take place in Prague - June 27

 

 

Disk Performances (SpaceLab)

 

2nd year Cohort - Scenography and Theatre Design Aberystwyth University

 

Students from Aberystwyth’s Scenography and Theatre Design programme have been chosen by PQ15 to present a piece of work created as part of their study scheme – ‘Serving the Weather’ to be included in the programme of Disk Performances and installations that will bring students from around the world to present in a public space in the centre of Prague and in the DISK Theatre at the 

 

Performances to take place in Prague - June 25th