Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991 - 17

991 PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL

THE INTERNATIONAL
JURY PROCESS
BY ARNOLD ARONSON
he Prague Quadrennial
(or PQ) is a juried exhibition and prizes are
awarded in five categories: arional Exhibit,
Scenic Design, Costume
Design, Themaric Exhibir (national or
individual) and Architecture (narional or
individual). For rhe besr national exhibit
the Golden Trigue (Zlarou Trigu) is
awarded; in other categories gold and silver medals and honorary di plomas are
granted. An international jury is appointed to award these prizes.
I don't know if an exact count exists
anywhere, but if I had to estimate, I
would guess that there were berween
10,000 and 15,000 individual items on
display at PQ'91, including photographs,
renderings, models, costumes, plans,
videos, etc. Out of all these objects, the
jury had to make its choices. The process
was difficult, given the sheer quantity of
material, but surprisingly easy, given the
nature of the work on display.
Because Czechoslovakia is the host
country, the jury has one Czech and one
Slovak representative; the remaining
jurors are chosen by the PQ Committee.
This year I was privileged to serve as
Chair of the International Jury. The
other members were: Eric Alexander,
Netherlands, an educator and former
director of the Theatre Museum in
Amsterdam; Marra Jaatinen, Finland, a
theatre architect; Ivan K06s, Hungary, a
scenographer for puppet theatre; Georgy
Kovalenko, USSR, an art historian and
theorist; Yannis Kokkos, a French
scenographer who won the gold medal
for scenic design at PQ'87; Marra
Lacombe de Goes de Vasconcelos, a
Brazilian journalist and critic; Miroslav
Melena, stage designer and architect and
resident designer for Studio Ypsilon in
Prague; Hachiro akajima, Japan, a set
and costume designer; Georgy Paro,

Yugoslavia, a director; and Jan ZavarsJ...}',
a Slovak scenographer. Clearly, this jury
brought to the deliberations a wide range
of backgrounds and points of view and
was a fair representation of the active
members of ISTAT.
The jury was smaller than in past
years and only three were veterans of previous juries. This was a very deliberate
choice on the parr ofJaroslav Malina, the
new Commissioner General of the PQ, as part of
an overall attempt to give
the event a new tenor in
keeping with the new
spirit of Czechoslovakia
after the Revolution.
Perhaps most telling was
the absence of Josef
Svoboda and Ladislav
Vychodil who had been
perman en t presences on
the jury since the beginning. This change was
not unlike altering the
permanen t mem bersh ip
of the UN Security
Council.
There were no set
rules for voting other
than that the Chairman
could only vote in case of
a tie. We established a
loose process of discussion followed by a first
bailor. Any entry that
received only one vote on
the first ballot was automatically eliminated.
There m igh t be fu rther
discussion before a second bailor. A majority
vote was required, but this was usually
achieved by the second bailor. (In a couple of cases only one was required.) The
Chair could propose Honorary
Diplomas. The latter were often used to

acknowledge unusual entries that for one
reason or another were not awarded
medals but, the jury felt, deserved recognition.
In a certain sense, the jury deliberation was easy-there was relative agreement on most choices and few disputes
were serious enough to prevent quick
acquiescence. The reason, however, was
unfortunate-there were few outstand-

ing entries, either in terms of overall
exhibitions or individual displays. The
leading contenders were quickly apparent. Surprisingly, this was not always due
to quality; rather, it had more to do with
TD&T

1991

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991