Open Call for the concept of the Student Exhibition ─ Extended application deadline

As previously, the Theatre Institute is the producer of the main Polish exhibitions during the Prague Quadrennial. All information about the open call for projects to be exhibited at the Student Exhibition is available in the Open Call Terms and Conditions.

The “RARE Stories of Unique Places” motto proposed by the main organisers of the PQ 2023 was inspired by the many different reflections and experiences that the world owes to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a sudden, unexpected, and dramatic change not only in lifestyle, in the way that we function in the world, but also in our approach to mortality, all against the backdrop of a serious threat to life, brought about quite a share of reflection and triggered the need for change. Change not just in terms of spirituality, the way of thinking, but also physicality, lifestyle, and perception of the world. The changes, which are observable almost everywhere, struck the arts and culture community particularly hard.

“This was an unprecedented moment in living memory, but not the first time a challenge of this magnitude has happened. Similar life-changing moments are reflected in many different areas of art, theatre, and performance; we can find it in tales, legends, myths, stories, poems, music, dance, and games from various cultures across the globe. These can inspire us to reconsider the defining events of our past, help us better understand our current situation, and direct our future steps. Many of these inspirations, embedded in local customs and habits, can also instruct us on how to create a more sustainable life within our own cultures”, write the authors of the artistic concept of the Student Exhibition. The organisers invite creative interventions that take inspiration in local knowledge, bringing the genius loci of a given place closer to propose visionary solutions that come to fruition physically in performance design, stage design, in the world of theatre and performance.

The Theatre Institute has invited professor Marek Chowaniec, set designer, graduate and lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, a collaborator of many Polish theatres (including: Ateneum Theatre, Współczesny Theatre in Warsaw, Nowy Theatre in Poznań, Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk, Stefan Jaracz Theatre in Olsztyn, the Roma Theatre and the Buffo Theatre in Warsaw, as well as the Television Theatre) to act as subject-matter supervisor of the Polish proposal for the Student Exhibition at PQ 2023.

In addition, the war in Ukraine has caused a spontaneous return to the tragic past, to the wartime events and traumas that Poland experienced years ago, to name but World War II. On a universal scale, the loss of security, the tension, and the sense of danger ensuing from the invasion reinstated anxiety and change into the lives of the Polish people. In this context, paired with the official slogan “RARE Stories of Unique Places”, we want to learn more about the perspectives on this new reality of the young generation of artists. The experience of good, the selfless willingness to help others, the general attitudes adopted and actions taken, and the need to redefine one’s own position given the new situation that we have had to face since ‘5:55 Moscow time’ on 24 February 2022 until today. We are also interested in the belief in the decision-making process, in the experience of the mechanisms that affect our lives, which are beyond our control.