Since 1987, the Institut del Teatre represents Catalonia in the Prague Quadriennal, the world’s premier event in scenography that is held every four years in Prague (Czech Republic).
The theme of the Prague Quadriennal 2023 is “RARE”, in the sense of unique and raw realities created by every single artist. Accordingly, the projects will spring out of ideas, materials, artistic approaches, and design practices that connect the human being with the environment.
Catalonia will be present at PQ24 with the collaboration of The Institut Ramon Llull, participating at two of the competitive and more relevant and prestigious sections of the event: the Exhibition of Countries and Regions and the Student Exhibition.
In the Exhibition of Countries and Regions, the team formed by the professors of the School of Dramatic Art (ESAD) Raquel Cors, Albert Pascual, and Carlota Ricart will showcase the Crops project. At the same time, in the Student Exhibition, the students of scenography from the ESAD Quim Palmada, Pol Roig, and Mireia Sintes will present the project El cant de la Sibil·la (The Song of the Sibyl).
The Catalan delegation is complemented by a web archive that will be created to share and document the Catalan creations at the PQ23.
Showcase at the Institut del Teatre
During this week, the working process of the two teams can be seen at the Institut del Teatre, where the two installations have been set up to get the first feedback about the projects and to foresee possible issues that need to be solved or modified before presenting the installations in Prague.
The Catalan delegation
Crops is set in the future, beyond the year 2053. It is a deployment of the remains of costumes of the people and the fictions that transited the spaces of the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC) between 1996, the year of its foundation, to 2053, when for some reason that remains open to speculation, the activity of this space has undergone an interruption or strong transformation.
Thus, we are faced with remains found in the TNC space, which will be discovered as a repository for realities, contradictions, and experiences of all time. The sound space will be a voice and sound display which the visitors of the installation will be able to hear through headphones.
The proposal focuses on TNC as a symbol and representation of a culture, society, and country and is based on contemporary archaeology for its ability to connect past, present and future and to look at our times from a different perspective.
The Project presented by the students, El cant de la Sibil·la, is a free interpretation of the liturgical Song of the Sibyl, a Greek legendary figure that evolved with Christianity to the present day.
In the last edition of PQ in 2019, Catalonia won the award for the best installation in the Exhibition of Countries and Regions with Prospective Actions (Catalunya 2004-2018), created by the set designers Laura Clos "Closca" and Xesca Salvà, and playwrights Marc Villanueva and Pau Masaló, the four of them graduated from the School of Dramatic Art (ESAD) of the Institut del Teatre.
Catalonia will participate in the PQ23 with the exhibitions:
Countries and Regions - CROP Project by the professionals: Raquel Cors, Carlota Ricart, and Albert Pascual.
Student Exhibition - EL CANT DE LA SIBIL·LA (The Song of the Sibyl) by 3 students of ESAD: Quim Palmada, Pol Roig, and Mireia Sintes.
Fragments 2 – with a scale model, based on the last show by Carles Santos, by the set designer and former docent at IT Montse Amenós (this is the 1st time that Catalonia participates in this section).
