Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2007 - 24

...to choose an American
in such a fraught political
climate was risky and was
greeted in some corners with
skepticism and suspicion.
Because all the exhibits at the PQ are national entries,
the artistic leadership is not curatorial as it is for the directors
of many art exhibitions. Nonetheless, the Commissioner has a
signiﬁcant role in the aesthetic and programmatic side of the
PQ, matters relating to the jury and awards, and of course the
ceremonial functions. In many ways, the Commissioner functions as the public face of the event. That said, all my work was
always done in conjunction with the staff of the Institute and the
PQ team of whom my closest colleagues, in addition to Daniela,
were Sodja Lotker, Don Nixon, and of course, Ondrˇej Cˇerný, the
Director of the Institute and the PQ.

rom the beginning I had several
goals.
The PQ is a design exhibition but the overall
exhibition space had never been designed;
there was no look or unity to the event. This
applied to the catalogue and advertising as well. This had to
change.
With the ever-increasing number of national participants,
the allocation of space in the halls of the Industrial Palace and
the organization of the different sections (national, schools, architecture) had to be rethought.
The PQ had always had a thematic title which I usually
found either bafﬂing or clichéd and which had almost no impact on the exhibition. More signiﬁcant, there had always been
a theme (completely separate from the umbrella title) which
created a fourth section devoted to thematic exhibits. Past
themes had included Mozart, Shakespeare, Chekhov, and in
1983 the extremely narrow topic of musical-dramatic works of
Czech authors and composers. While no one was required to
participate in the thematic section, the topics, with the exception of "puppets" in '79, had always implied that the European
tradition was universal. But as PQ has become an increasingly
global event I felt that such a thematic approach was exclusionary and of little value.
In a similar vein, the countries represented on the PQ jury
had always been composed primarily of the key players of the
Cold War with limited representation from elsewhere. With the
blessing and encouragement of the PQ organizers I set out to

alter the composition of the jury.
I felt that the proliferation of awards and special citations
in recent years had diminished their worth. I set out to limit the
number of awards in each category, while at the same time adding some new categories to reﬂect new production practices.
I wanted to increase the opportunities for the exchange of
ideas and for interaction between students and professionals.
Perhaps my greatest desire was for a curated section of
the PQ.

hat was accomplished?
We did away with imposed themes (including the umbrella catch-phrase). Instead, each country was asked to organize
its exhibit around a self-chosen theme. The result was an exciting potpourri of exhibits ranging from political statements
to visually and spatially imaginative pavilions to a focus on an
individual designer. But in almost all cases, there was a strong
sense of unity in each exhibit. The result was a kind of world's
fair of amazing juxtapositions that were often startling and revelatory.
In the past, all the national exhibits were crammed into
the left wing of the Industrial Palace, students and architecture
shared the right wing, and thematic exhibits or special events
were placed in the cavernous center hall. This time the national
pavilions were spread over both wings and the design school
exhibits were placed in the Krˇižík Pavilion, immediately behind
the Industrial Palace. Architecture was placed on the balcony
around the central hall as well as on the terrace over the Palace
entrance that was enclosed for the event. The central hall was
turned over to Scenofest and OISTAT.

Opposite, Commissioner Aronson opening the awards ceremony on Friday night. Above, one of the
"streets" that led visitors down the lengths of the Left and Right Wings of the Industrial Palace.

THEATRE
F

2007

DESIGN

TECHNOLOGY

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2007