Symposium Scenography Expanding 3: On Curating

Call for Papers / Call for Registration

Évora, Portugal

In his 2008 Whitechapel Gallery talk, Boris Groys pointed toward “exhibition practice as the cure that heals the originally ailing image, that gives it presence, visibility; it brings it to the public view and turns it into the object of the public’s judgement. However, one can say that curating functions as a supplement, like a pharmakon in the Derridean sense: it both cures the image and further contributes to its illness”.

The ambivalent gestures of curatorial practice in both “healing” and, possibly, “infecting” or “contaminating” come into particular, – and contested – focus when the object that is exhibited is nothing more but the remnant of a past performative event. Can the scenographic object be “helped” by the curators effort in order to achieve a status of autonomy beyond ist original co-authored mode of production? Or must it be transformed into another genre (installation) to be exhibited? Can we identify an intrinsic essence of the scenographic object in relation / in contrast to exhibition space and public viewing?

In the third and last symposium before the June 2011 Prague Quadrennial for Perfomance Design and Space (PQ), curators and artists from the performing arts, visual arts and spatial design disciplines are invited to enter into a transdisciplinary dialogue on the challenges of exhibiting the ephemeral, the fleeting, the immaterial – the performative event and the scenographic space.

Expanding Scenography 1-3: On Spectatorship/On Artists-Authors/On Curating

Throughout the past decade, scenographic practice and performance design have continuously moved beyond the black box of the theatre toward a hybrid terrain located at the intersections of theatre, architecture, exhibition, visual arts, and media. This terrain and its spaces are constructed from action and interaction. They are defined by individual and group behavior, and are contrasted by distinct behavioral patterns.

It is proposed here that spaces that are staged in such a way – spaces that are at the same time hybrid, mediated, narrative, and transformative – result from a trans-disciplinary understanding of space and a distinct awareness of social agency. These two factors of “expansion” are seen as the central driving forces in contemporary scenographic practice and thought.

With the aim of initiating and hosting an active and trans-disciplinary discourse on the notion of an expanding scenography, the Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space issues an invitation for participation and a Call for Papers. In preparation for the Intersection Project of the Prague Quadrennial in June, 2011, we invite researchers in practice and theory (artists, curators, programers, directors, dramaturgs, critics, and theorists) to participate in 3 international scenography symposia held in Riga, Belgrade and Évora during 2010. The overall aim of these symposia is to unfold the wide range of disciplines, genres, theoretical, and artistic positions that comprise the relationships between spectator, artist/author and curator in contemporary scenographic/performance design practice.

Scenography Expanding 1-3 will be followed up by a peer-reviewed publication comprised of selected speakers´ contributions in the form of academic papers and visual essays.

Deadline 30.6.2010:
Please send abstracts (300 words max) and a short bio to [email protected]
Find here the application form

Conveners: Thea Brejzek, José Alberto Ferreira and Sodja Lotker

Organised by the Festival Escrita na Paisagem and Centro de História da Arte e Investigação Artística (CHAIA) and the Prague Quadrennial

The Intersection project is organized by the Prague Quadrennial (CZ) in co-operation with the New Theatre Institute of Latvia (LV); Escrita na Paisagem Festival de Performance e Artes da Terra (PT); the Victoria and Albert Museum(GB); Kiosk (RS); Krétakör (HU); the National Theatre in Prague (CZ); Ente Teatrale Italiano (IT); Kiasma Theatre, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (FI); as well as with Farnham Maltings Caravan (GB); the Institute of Design & Technology, Design Department, Zurich University of the Arts (CH); Tallinn, the 2011 European Capital of Culture (EE); the International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians (OISTAT); Centro de História da Arte e Investigação Artística (CHAIA), the University of Évora (PT); the Theaterschool Amsterdam (NL); BITEF (RS) and Four Days in Motion (CZ).

Prague Quadrennial, Celetná 17, Prague 1, 110 Czech Republic Phone: +420 224 809 102 Fax: +420 224 809 225 E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.pq.cz

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With the support of the Culture Program of the European Union.

Supported by Trust for Mutual Understanding.

The Prague Quadrennial is organized and funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and realized by Arts and Theatre Institute.

http://www.intersection.cz