Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Emerging U.S. Student and Professional Designers Accepted to the 2019 Prague Quadrennial
Stage Directions: Thirty-four emerging student designers and 51 professional designers from the U.S. have been selected to exhibit and feature their work in the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (PQ), the largest performance design event in the world. The 14th PQ will take place June 6-16, 2019, in Prague. The U.S. exhibition at the PQ is supported, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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3 comments:
It's encouraging to see American artists participating (in numbers) in multilateral, international events like this. I think American artists too often buy into ideas of American exceptionalism and nationalism and by doing so isolate themselves. It’s understandable: artists are by their nature emotionally driven, and ideas like patriotism and nationalism carry emotional weight. Certainly, those concepts are worthy of exploration and analysis. However, to accept American exceptionalism (or Eurocentrism more broadly) as given feels like a grave mistake. Accepting these ideas as an artistic paradigm is just as dangerous as accepting them as a historical paradigm, perhaps more so. After all, an artist’s task is to take a different or wider perspective on a topic and to convey it to an audience. If we as American artists continue to isolate ourselves, to insist upon a linear, Western perspective of both art and the world, how can we continue to bring valid perspectives to audiences? We can’t. That makes conventions, festivals, and other events like this so important, and I hope that Americans will continue to participate not only in the Prague Quadrennial but in events that bring artists together around the world, from China to Zimbabwe to Mexico and beyond.
I am very excited that so many emerging and student artists are going to be going to this exhibition to show their work. Young artists are the future of the world, and them being able to have this opportunity to share their work with other artists as well as the rest of the world is incredible. Theatre and art have always been on the forefront of history, and this Quadrennial is an amazing opportunity to show where these young artists see the world of theatre and the world, in general, going in the future. Another exciting fact about this exhibition is that all of the work will be presented in a digital format which will allow designers to use technology in new ways to display and create their work, which will allow a unique combination of art and technology which very well may revolutionize both the artistic and technological world. I am also excited that these works will be going on a tour around the US which will allow people who maybe wouldn’t have known about PQ or aren’t very interested in theatrical design a chance to experience the incredible work these young designers are doing.
It's very inspirational to see that students all over the world are being recognized for their profound and original work at an international level. I hadn't realized that students were being featured as creators so I'm excited to see (hopefully in person) the level of talent of not only the featured professionals but my peers as well.
Something that has been emerging as a theme throughout my classes has been the “superiority of the West.” It’s been discussed in Global Histories, in Foundations, and in Basic Design as a persistent (and incorrect) notion that the Western way of doing things is correct, or the best. Broadway is considered the mecca of theater, but all over the world, theater artists are innovating and creating phenomenal and original works that fall under the broader umbrella of the theatrical arts but may not be in line with the conventions of the time. These works should not be overlooked as they can teach us a great deal more than conventional or commercial theater can.
Ideas, artistic methods, and cultural dynamics vary around the world and these things have a massive impact on the art that comes from a particular region. Viewing art on an international scale exposes us to different perspectives and can expand our minds and inspire us to create things outside of our comfort zones and current bodies of knowledge. The Prague Quadrennial is a phenomenal educational opportunity for those attending as well as those participating and I am very pleased that America is participating. I hope that as a country we continue to branch out and experiment with art and theater in ways that may not be conventional, and that we can accept that convention is not the best measure of quality.
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