The Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space (or simply "PQ") is the largest international event in the field of scenography. At its last iteration in 2015, more than 75 countries were represented and some 180,000 visitors were in attendance.
It presents scenography in the broadest sense of the term and in all the forms it takes on, as a fully-fledged artistic discipline that seeks to create active performance spaces and imaginary worlds. Since its creation in 1967, the Quadrennial explores every four years the notion of scenography as a transdisciplinary field where the performance, visual, and even architectural arts act and converge.
Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and organised by the Arts and Theatre Institute, the Quadrennial is largely structured around three exhibitions where the various pavilions compete:
- Regional and national pavilions;
- Schools pavilions;
- Theatre architecture and space design pavilions.
The Prague Quadrennial is a unique space where cultures and performance artists mix from around the world, an unparalleled opportunity for the exchange of experience, of discoveries of new trends, of technical means for theatre production, and workshops that allow participants to try out new ways of doing.
In parallel, it commissions a lively program of performances, symposia, debates, and conferences for which participating countries may submit proposals.
The 14th Quadrennial will take place at its historic site, the Prague Exhibitions Grounds (Výstaviště Praha), of which one wing that burned down in 2008 has since been reconstructed.
The 2019 PQ is inspired by the Golden Triga. This reduced-size reproduction of the famous statue is chosen to symbolise the prize traditionally awarded to the best pavilion of the Quadrennial. The three horses pulling the carriage of Athena Nike, goddess of Victory, three forces, metaphors for three phases of life: impetuous youth, maturity enriched by experience, wisdom of age. The three themes of 2019 are as a result: imagination, transformation and memory.
