Intimacy and Spectacle - 2009–2012

Intersection: Intimacy and Spectacle is a special international project of the Prague Quadrennial that explores performance as an important element of different art and cultural disciplines, focusing on performance design and scenography as interdisciplinary field.  The project will consist of two important parts: theoretical discussions as well as interactive installations and performances.

Theoretical symposia will be held in Zurich, Riga, Amsterdam, Belgrade and Evora, where leading theorists and artists will be brought together to explore contemporary performance design in relation to various artistic and cultural as well as different forms and uses of performance from three different points of view: audience, artists and curators.  

The main event - the interactive installation/performance - will take place during the Prague Quadrennial in 2011, and will present thirty projects working with performance and performance design.  These projects will encompass a wide variety of forms and disciplines, housed in thirty white cubes / black boxes.  The event will showcase scenographers, installation artists, theatre companies, video artists, fashion designers, and architects from all over the world. Three large performances  in public spaces will also be part of this event, and will illuminate the contrast between the intimate relationship of spectators and art inside the cubes, and the spectacle outside the cubes.  Accompanying these events will be fifty panel discussions, presentations, lectures and costume shows, and a series of forty workshops for fifteen hundred students of theatre and visual arts from around the world.

Individual projects will also be presented at festivals in Hungary, Serbia, Latvia, Ireland, Great Britain, Estonia, Finland and Portugal during 2011 and 2012.

Intersection: Intimacy and Spectacle is a project of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, and is organized in cooperation with the New Theatre Institute of Latvia; the Irish Theatre Institute; the Victoria and Albert Museum (GB); the BELEF Festival (RS); the Kretakör Theatre Company (HU); the National Theatre in Prague; Ente Teatrale Italiano; the Kiasma Theatre, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (FI); the 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); the Escrita na Paisagem’s Festival de Performance e Artes da Terra (PT); the Centro de História da Arte e Investigação Artística (CHAIA), University of Evora (PT); and the Four Days in Motion Festival (CZ).

This project is made possible with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union.