Ukrainian Student Pavilion PQ 2027: preparations begin

Very soon, the curators of the Ukrainian Student Pavilion Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2027 will be heading to Prague — the first working trip will take place from 11 to 17 April.

The non-governmental organisation ‘Scenography Gallery’ is organising the project and will present the Ukrainian Student Pavilion as part of one of the two main exhibitions of the Prague Quadrennial of Stage Design 2027.

Project curatorial team: 

🔹Oleh Tatarynov  — set designer, chief artist at the Kyiv Academic Theatre for Young Audiences on Lypky, lecturer at the Department of Set Design and Multimedia at the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine 

🔹Maria Pohrebnyak  — set designer, member of UNIMA-Ukraine, chief designer at the Kyiv Academic Drama Theatre in Podil, lecturer at the Department of Puppet Theatre Arts at the I. K. Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television

🔹Olena Polishchuk  — set designer, member of the ‘Gallery of Scenography’ NGO, head of the exhibition department at the Museum of Books and Printing of UkraineThe Ukrainian

Project Manager:

🔹Yulia Glushko — member of the NGO ‘Scenography Gallery’

The Ukrainian Pavilion at the Exhibition of Countries and Regions  PQ’27 is organised by our friends and partners — UAScenography (NGO ‘Theatre Spaces’).

Curators:

🔹Anna Dukhovychna— artist and set designer at the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre

🔹Lilia Voloshyna (Danileiko)  — theatre scholar, candidate of arts, lecturer at the Department of Theatre Studies, Ivan Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television

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The theme of PQ’27 is of particular relevance to Ukraine — Absences and Silences as Spaces of Potential for New Scenographic Futures.

The year 2027 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Prague Quadrennial — sixty years of uninterrupted development despite the turbulent historical events and crises of the 20th and 21st centuries. In this context, the theme of PQ’27 addresses that which has remained unseen or unheard — that which exists beyond the limits of attention, beyond established systems of perception, traditional canons, centres and textbooks. Absence and silence can also point to loss—to that which existed in the past but has vanished or no longer has a voice.

PQ 2027 focuses on exploring a range of issues:

• How do set design, the performance space and curatorial practices interact with absence and silence?

• How do they capture our attention — visually, aurally or even through touch? What do they reveal, and what do they conceal?

• How does silence shape the rhythm and enrich the visual dimension of the performance?

• What role does the body play in scenographies of absence and silence?

• How can set designers collaborate with other artists to explore the experience of conflict through silence?

Above all, absence and silence can create an opportunity to imagine that which is only just beginning to take shape, or which is yet to happen or come into being. In the context of full-scale war, these concepts are reimagined; they cease to be a void and emerge as a space of experience, memory and the unspoken.

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The aim of the Ukrainian Student Pavilion at the Prague Quadrennial 2027 is to create a cohesive project that will bring together student set designers from two leading educational institutions and represent Ukraine with dignity on the international stage. Active development and conceptualisation of the pavilion is currently underway.

The project is being implemented in collaboration with:

🔹the Department of Scenography and Multimedia at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture 

🔹the Department of Puppet Theatre Arts at the I. K. Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television