Torn Space has been selected to the internationally curated exhibition Acts of Assembly as part of the Prague Quadrennial. Torn Space will join Netherlands, Uruguay, Spain, Greece, France and Brazil among others countries in this international survey of the best in contemporary stage design and scenography
The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space was established in 1967 to bring the best of design for performance, scenography, and theater architecture to the front line of cultural activities.
The Performance Space Exhibition: Acts of Assembly
The Performance Space Exhibition explores how theaters and performance spaces operate as acts of assembly and sites for community: creating connections, facilitating encounters, and functioning as sites for social action and the making of culture. In approaching performance space through the concept of assembly three related meanings are set in play in this exhibition: firstly, that of assembly as the gathering of a group or crowd of people, secondly, assembly as the putting together or construction of an object or piece of machinery, and thirdly, assembly as the gathering of a deliberative or decision-making body.
Torn Space’s Installation: DECADE
An installation of monitors will display a rapid succession of images and sound that capture Torn Space’s decade-long exploration of creating performance within an abandoned campus of grain elevators.
An installation of monitors will display a rapid succession of images and sound that capture Torn Space’s decade-long exploration of creating performance within an abandoned campus of grain elevators. The company has developed site-based performances within the context of the public ritual by a fictitious society composed of traditional and non-traditional performers; ranging from military re-enactors, marching bands, blacksmiths, horseback riders, boxers, farm animals, gospel singers, operating engineers, to name a few; providing a unique patchwork of early 21st century America.
Decade acts as an archaeological excavation of this society and its ceremonies, asking the question: what can we make from what is left behind? Viewers will experience remnants of images, sound and architecture providing an entry point into this realm of performance.
“Focusing on the dynamics of different acts of assembly, and positing performance itself as an assemblage, the exhibition explores the productive continuities and antagonisms between more traditional theatre architectures and the broader emergent qualities of performance spaces”
- Andrew Filmer, Curator of the exhibition