Quadrennial of Prague opens today with Portuguese project
The Quadrennial of Prague – PQ19, an international exhibition dedicated to stage design and architecture, is now officially inaugurated in the capital of the Czech Republic, where Portugal will be represented with the ‘Windows’ project by José Capela.
The fair is scheduled to open at 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. in Lisbon), at the Vystaviste Industrial Palace in Prague, and the Portuguese representation will be inaugurated the following day at 6:30 p.m. in the same space, with the presence of the Secretary of State for Culture, Ângela Ferreira.
The “Windows” project is integrated with the “Countries” section of the quadrennial, this year occupying for the first time the central area of the main exhibition space, considered the heart of the event since it was founded in 1967.
The 14th Quadrennial of Prague, which runs until June 16, will be dedicated to the theme ‘Imagination, Transformation, Memory’ under the general direction of Pavla Petrová.
Ângela Ferreira said last week that “the presence in international events is an important projection strategy for Portugal”, in connection with this participation in the Quadrennial of Prague.
This strategy “gives visibility to the work of national artists and creators and projects the country as a creative and cultural force,” he added at the time.
Asked about the importance of the Portuguese presence in the event, Ângela Ferreira pointed out that Quadrennial of Prague “is the most important and the most relevant international manifestation of scenography and theatrical architecture, a symbol of an exercise of imagination and transforming power of theater.”
As for curator José Capela’s choice, “it is also the choice of a singular and exemplary artistic project in transforming architecture into a fully-fledged dramaturgical element”.
“It is a work representative of a diversity of artistic collaborations at national and also international level,” he added.
Asked about the investment of the Directorate General of the Arts in this official representation, said that it amounted to 99 thousand euros.
According to a text by the Portuguese curator, Windows is an installation consisting of a set of mirrored containers with a double function: “They are a piece of landscape that reflects the landscape around them, and each container has a shape that is deduced from the mechanisms of vision and/or representation used in the scenarios that, in miniature, can be seen inside. ”
The Portuguese presence in the Quadrennial program, in addition to the official performance, also includes the spectacle ‘Oneby1’ by Nuno Pimenta and Ana Renata Polonia, which questions the concept of a square meter per person as a limit space to ensure individual comfort and safety in space public.
‘This Night, Morpheus!’ is another show from Portugal included in the program, by the theater company of Sui Generis Cultural Association, in a collective performance with text by Tiago Filipe, which explores the plasticity of the body and voice.
In the section Fragments Gallery Talks, it is also planned the participation of the designer and designer Cristina Reis, with the project ‘The English Cat’, set design that created in 2000 for the opera of Hans Werner Henze, in a co-production of the National Theater São Carlos, Lisbon , with Rivoli – Porto Municipal Theater and the Cornucopia Theater in Lisbon, which he directed with Luís Miguel Cintra, and for which he conceived most of the scenarios and costumes of the performed performances.
