THE NEXT FOUR YEARS
Curated by Tom Creed
The Irish Society of Performance Designers in association with Once Off Productions presents
THE NEXT FOUR YEARS at Prague Quadrennial 2023 and Irish Tour
The Next Four Years is a speculative retrospective of Irish performance design in the years 2023-2027, which challenges the designers of today to imagine the theatre of tomorrow.
Curated by Tom Creed
Featuring Ciarán Bagnall, Lian Bell, Katie Davenport, Mel Mercier, Rob Moloney, Eimer Murphy, Jack Phelan, and Sinéad Wallace
Final Online Conversation - Wednesday 17th January, 5.30pm – 7pm
Free but ticketed
Join some of Ireland’s leading designers for a conversation about the role of design in the future of Irish theatre, following the project's presentation at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial and subsequent Irish national tour. This final online event on zoom, facilitated by designer Lian Bell, will reflect on the journey of this project and consider the future for performance design.
The accompanying film (duration 53 minutes), The Next Four Years, is worth a watch ahead of the online event and is available to watch below.
Prague Quadrennial (PQ 2023) 8-18 June 2023
Irish National Tour Autumn 2023:
Friday October 6th, 3.30pm: Screening and Conversation, National Concert Hall (Carolan Room) as part of Dublin Theatre Festival.
Saturday September 30th - Saturday October 7th, 11am -8.30pm: Film Installation, Project Arts Centre Foyer as part of Dublin Theatre Festival.
Sunday October 15th, 3pm: Screening & Conversation, Lyric Theatre, Belfast. Supported by the Lyric Theatre and featured as part of Belfast International Arts Festival.
Thursday October 27th, 7.30pm: Screening & Conversation, Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick.
Wednesday November 22nd, 7pm: Screening & Conversation, Galway Arts Centre.
Thursday November 30th, 7pm: Screening & Conversation, The Factory Sligo.
Established in 1967, the Prague Quadrennial showcases the best of international performance design every four years, and the 2023 event sees Irish design represented for the fourth time. Eight leading Irish designers - Ciaran Bagnall, Lian Bell, Katie Davenport, Mel Mercier, Rob Moloney, Eimer Murphy, Jack Phelan and Sinéad Wallace - will join curator Tom Creed to collaborate on this project.
If performance designers could offer new possibilities for Irish theatre after the pandemic, what shapes and sounds, spaces and acoustics, materials and formats, structures and hierarchies might they propose? What new creative and collaborative practices might emerge? What new social and artistic functions for theatre might present themselves? How might an exhibition of design indicate new directions rather than just revisiting the past?
The Next Four Years is a speculative retrospective of Irish performance design in the years 2023-2027, which challenges the designers of today to imagine the theatre of tomorrow. It investigates new approaches to design to speak to the PQ 2023 theme of RARE, which asks “what the world and theatre could look like in the post-pandemic future” and calls on designers “to imagine, visualise, and even create rare visions of the future”.
The Next Four Years comprises a film, publication, and physical installation exploring ideas, challenges and opportunities for the future. At the heart of the project is a conversation among a group of Irish performance designers, as well as a series of artistic responses to the theme. The public will be invited to engage with the participating designers during the exhibition’s run in Prague, extending the frame of the conversation into the exhibition space. The film and publication will also be presented with a series of associated public events as part of the PQ 2023 National Tour in Autumn 2023.
The fifteenth edition of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space will present over 250 artworks in ten programme sections creating a platform for critical reflection on the contemporary state of the performing arts. The theme of the 15th edition of PQ in 2023 is RARE, in the sense of unique and raw realities that artists create. In the current state of precarity, uncertainty, and epochal change, PQ 2023 is calling on performance designers and practitioners to use their RARE imagination and creativity to help envision what the world and theatre could look like in the post-pandemic future.
The Irish Society of Performance Designers (ISPD) is a professional organisation offering unique opportunities to Irish and Ireland based designers to showcase their work on a major international platform. The society (formerly the Irish Society of Stage & Screen Designers, ISSSD) represented Ireland in PQ 2019 with the VR exhibition, Design & Destroy, curated by Jo Mangan and produced by Tríona Ní Dhuibhir.
Chair of ISPD, Catherine Fay, said “ISPD is delighted to present The Next Four Years in association with Once Off Productions as part of Prague Quadrennial 2023. Tom Creed’s vision for the exhibition brings insightful interrogation of how the world of performance design is progressing and the place of Irish designers in this ever evolving artform. The participation of these leading designers showcases our professional excellence and creates an opportunity to extend knowledge and collaboration with other international designers on the world stage. The following national exhibition will be used to promote and interact with designers at home and expand the conversations begun in Prague to the whole performance designer community on the island of Ireland.”
Curator, Tom Creed, said “It’s an enormous privilege to be invited by ISPD to curate Ireland’s representation at PQ 2023. Previous exhibits at PQ have cast a retrospective look at the past, but this time we’re turning to the future to tackle head-on the opportunities and challenges presented by the next four years and imagining how we might look back on them in 2027. We invite our international colleagues to come and join in the process with us in Prague in June, and we look forward to bringing the conversation home later in the year.”
Arts Council Director, Maureen Kennelly, said, “The Arts Council congratulates and is delighted to support ISPD in its plans for this internationally prestigious event. It’s an opportunity for Irish performance design to be recognised and celebrated in an international context, and for Irish design to be showcased at the highest level. We are also excited that Irish performance practitioners and the wider public will be able to engage with this great work at a later point in the year as part of its national tour.”
Culture Ireland Director, Sharon Barry, said “Culture Ireland has been supporting an Irish presence at the Prague Quadrennial since 2007 and is pleased to continue this for the 2023 edition. We believe that Irish performance designers have made a vital contribution to the excellent reputation for Irish performing arts globally and their presence at Prague is both a celebration of their achievements and a welcome opportunity to engage with international colleagues.”
In parallel with The Next Four Years, Irish performance and design students will participate in the PQ 2023 Student Exhibition with the project Beyond the Barricades: a Rare Story of a Unique Island, curated by Niall Rea and taking an all-island approach with student groups from institutions in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
For further information contact Orla Flanagan: orla@onceoffproductions.com
The Next Four Years is funded by the Arts Council and Culture Ireland.
TEAM
Curator: Tom Creed
Participating Designers: Ciaran Bagnall, Lian Bell, Katie Davenport, Mel Mercier, Rob Moloney, Eimer Murphy, Jack Phelan and Sinéad Wallace.
Filming and Editing: Michael-David McKernan
Publication Design: Niall Sweeney / Pony Ltd.
Line Producer: Grace Morgan
Executive Producers: Maura O’Keeffe and Orla Flanagan
Technical Director: Ronan O’Shea
ISPD Producer and Communications Manager: Noelia Ruiz
ISPD Committee: Catherine Fay (Chair), Katie Davenport (Vice-Chair), Laura Fajardo (Secretary), Jack Scullion (Treasurer), Ciaran Bagnall, Valentina Gambardella, John Gunning, Lisa Krugel, Patrick Molloy, Molly O’Cathain, Niall Rea and Conleth White.
ISPD PQ 2023 Subcommittee: Deirdre Dwyer (Chair), Sarah Jane Shiels (Secretary), Owen Boss, Liam Doona, Sinéad O'Donnell-Carey, Pai Rathaya and Kata Rozvadska.
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