Music Stars at the Prague Quadrennial 2015: Glastonbury Festival, CocoRosie, Young Gods

	Setting the Scene with Sound. Photo: John Collins

After four years, the largest international theatre and scenography event, with a tradition dating back to 1967, is once again returning to Prague. This year, during the 11 days of the thirteenth edition of the Prague Quadrennial, which is focused on live exhibition, tens of thousands of visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy the presentations of artists and various works from a record number of 78 of the world's countries. The main theme of the PQ 2015 is SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics. As music is one of the sub-themes included in the PQ's SharedSpace concept, a large part of the program is devoted to it. An exhibition curated by Jirí Herman under the title Music and Space will rise up in front of the Rudolfinum for the full 11 days of the PQ 2015. Workshops for sound designers will be held at the New Stage of the National Theatre. Swiss musicians, including members of the Young Gods, will perform at the Podolí Swimming Complex. The lecture series speakers also include music stars, such Bianca Casady from CocoRosie. The premiere of a multimedia installation dedicated to the phenomenon of the Glastonbury Festival will run for the entire month of June at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery. Because sound and music are often the main means of expression used by the curators of the individual expositions of this international event, the topic of music is also heavily covered in the Section of Countries and Regions, which is the main program component of the PQ 2015.

The official opening ceremony for the thirteenth Prague Quadrennial will take place in Old Town Square on Wednesday, June 17, starting at 6pm. The program includes the Polana z Jarabiny folklore group performing with members of the Farm in the Cave theatre studio under the direction of Viliam Docolomanský, and the BERG Orchestra conducted by Peter Vrábel.

Visitors may look forward to many unconventional sound and music experiences during the presentations made under the Section of Countries and Regions. Attendees can look forward to: The Polish national exposition, which has been prepared by the scenography legend Jerzy Gurawski, will introduce visitors to the secrets of sonification and provide them with the opportunity to "touch sound" and to hear sound transmitted through their own bones. The Finnish installation Meteorology Station uses several methods to explore the role of sound as a scenographic element in the performative arts. For example, artists will work together with Prague Quadrennial visitors to determine how weather affects musical instruments and, consequently, the music they produce. While playing their instruments, the Finnish musicians will be exposed to rain, snow, suffocating heat, flooding, wind, and all possible combinations of these elements; as the instruments gradually start to degrade, visitors will be able to observe how the music itself changes. Catalonia will present recordings from some of the recent opera stage designs of Alfons Flores. The team from Israel will bring to Prague a video art installation covering 45 Israeli musical and opera productions.

Glastonbury: Land and Legend (May 28 - June 28, Jaroslav Fragner Gallery) at the Victoria and Albert Museum will feature the first immersive video and sound installation about the Glastonbury Festival for the Prague Quadrennial 2015. This is the world premiere of a captivating multimedia installation that presents a video archive of the legendary festival. The installation introduces an as-of-yet unscreened film shot at Glastonbury in 2014. It explores the ethos of what is the world's largest performing arts festival held outdoors in green fields. The festival, closely linked to the idyllic Somerset countryside, is itself shaped by the distinctive topography, saturated with century old myths and legends, and, at the same time, helps to shape it even further. The installation aims to capture this complexity through various perspectives of the ideals and scenography of shared space.

Music and Space Zen Garden Installation in Front of the Rudolfinum (June 18 - 28, 2015, Jan Palach Square) is where Jirí Herman, the PQ commissioner of the music exhibition, is the creator of the installation entitled Music and Space. The project, conceived as a Zen garden, will provide a quiet zone for visitors and passers-by in the heart of the busy metropolis and several times a day they will be able to enjoy listening to the compositions of the conductor and composer Marko Ivanovic. On Saturday, June 20, the music will also sound at sunrise (4:39am) and at sunset (8:48pm). The installation aims to draw attention to the relationship between music and space and how they influence each other -- the staging of music in space, and space as an inspiration for music composition.

Podolí Swimming Pool Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary with an Audiovisual Concert from Switzerland - Bernard Trontin (Young Gods), OY, and Sunfast (June 18, starting at 10:30 pm, Podolí Swimming Complex). The art installation and performance Podolí Wave, which is a part of the Swiss exposition, represents a singular audiovisual project prepared for the 50th anniversary of the completion of the swimming pool in Podolí. Thus, as a part of the Prague Quadrennial, on this very day, the complex will be the site of a unique performance inspired by the space it offers. On this occasion, the wave symbolized by the building's design will be flooded with light and inspirational music will resound throughout, causing the entire building to appear as if it was in motion. On June 18, starting at 10:30pm, the creators of the audiovisual project will offer a completely different perspective of the swimming complex during the time when it is generally not open to the public. The concert, composed specifically for this occasion, will include performances by Bernard Trontin from the Young Gods, who is only one of the artists from the Swiss team participating in the PQ 2015. An entry ticket to the Podolí Swimming Complex will serve as the ticket for the event.

Musical Circuit Tour Through the Awakening City of Prague (June 19 - 22, Slovanský Island). During the first few days of the Prague Quadrennial visitors will have the opportunity to embark on an early morning cruise around Strelecký Island on board a small boat belonging to the Australian exposition. The boat will be equipped with audio and video equipment, thus making it possible to tune in to the same radio frequency on board as well as on shore and to listen to the musical accompaniment created specifically for the cruise. It will be possible to experience the atmosphere of the awakening metropolis on four successive mornings from June 19 to June 22. The 40-minute cruises depart from Slovanský Island at 7:00 am sharp.

Sound Kitchen Presents the Live Work of Sound Designers (June 22 - 24, 2015, New Stage of the National Theatre). For three days in June the foyer of the New Stage of the National Theatre will play host to the Sound Kitchen, a project providing a platform for presentations and discussions by sound design artists from around the world. The Sound Kitchen will be open free of charge to the general public from 10:00am to 6:00pm. Almost 50 sound artists will meet at the New Stage of the National Theatre to present their compositions, sound art, sound installations, and sound design projects.

The PQ Talks program offers interesting lectures and discussions with music artists. Bianca Leilani Casady of the American sister duo, CocoRosie, will supplement the program with her lecture entitled "Faded Like a Rose at the End of a Dream." The central topic of her talk focuses on theatre as a space for developing the artistic process. The lecture will take place at 2:00pm on Thursday, June 18, at the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace.

The singer Ridina Ahmedová will lead a creative workshop exploring the relationships between the human senses and the surrounding world. Her workshop, which starts at 6:00pm on June 23, will surely captivate anyone who wants to discover his or her own voice and the connections that exist.

The Prague Quadrennial offers many more, non-theatre-related, experiences. This is the first time that the entire program will take place in Prague's historical center -- both inside the city's important buildings and landmarks as well as outside in public spaces. In addition to the main program component -- the Section of Countries and Regions -- attendees can look forward to theatre productions, street performances, installations in public spaces, workshops, lectures, and discussions led by well-known personalities from contemporary theatre, scenography, and even film, such as Robert Lepage, Robert Wilson, and Julie Taymor.

The Prague Quadrennial is organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and realized by the Arts and Theatre Institute. The project is supported through the EU Culture program.

The Prague Quadrennial 2015 is part of the three-year SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics international 2013 - 2016 project.