Displaying scenography / Razstavljanje scenografije

Razmišljanje o razstavljanju scenografskih skic

Today I visited the exhibition Prostor v prostoru, which displays Slovenian stage design as it evolved throughout the time before the year 1991. The exposition consists of sketches and scale models. Its title is very promising, but it’s actually contradicted by the form. Thanks to that, it made me think about the general problem of exhibiting stage designer's works (any, not only the ones we can observe at this particular venue). I am a stage design student based in Prague (DAMU), where this question comes up often, at least every four years, regarding the biggest stage design exhibition in the world, Prague Quadriennale.

I believe that scenography is fundamentally connected to the place and to the actors, and throughout them to the present and actual moment of the performance. It’s not important where exactly does the event take place, what seems to me as the most important part of it is really the life and action of the stage during the performance. Stage design is crucially tied to this moment of common and shared presence of the ongoing performance and audience's perception of the moment. When it's not being used, what we're left with is basically meaningless decoration. And by that I most definitely don’t mean to judge any artistic or aesthetic values of the exhibition itself. It is a general observation regarding simply the form of the presentation. This temporality of theatre can also be very frustrating sometimes.

Scenographical drawings and final plans are not primarily artistic pieces. Of course, it depends on each and every designer’s style and some of the pictures are beautiful. Despite this, they are not meant to be a piece of art on their own, like for example a statue or a painting. They have practical purposes, they are meant for the actors to be able to imagine what can they expect, they are drawn for the people in the workshops, who will build the decoration. They are a guidance for the creative team.

In case we do want to display 2D pictures, it might be more interesting to see the truly first sketches, even the pre-technical ones. Almost every stage designer draws a lot of them before he comes up with the concluding idea. He talks with the director and dramaturg and he gathers ideas. I actually find these pre-sketches and first quickly drawn and imperfect ideas more interesting than the eventual perfect drawing. But of course, it is a matter of a subjective personal taste. Another possible way of displaying stage design is the one we see at Prague Quadriennale. Here, the curator’s (and artist's) attempt is to use some particular fragments of the whole stage designers idea and build a small installation, which stands on its own and tries to express some of the messages and emotions of the original theatre piece through different means.

Final, tidily modified pictures are interesting to look at, but they are maybe more suitable for a book, rather than for a classical gallery space. I believe, the problem which I have described is specific to exhibiting stage design and it does not relate to the exhibiting of costumes, puppets or masks. All of these can be inspiring examples ofunique craftsmanship and as objects they carry more information and can awake more inspiration than a scale model or a picture.

 

Karolína Kotrbová

Exchange student from DAMU, Prague

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Danes sem obiskala razstavo Prostor v prostoru, ki prikazuje slovensko scenografijo, kot se je razvijala skozi čas do leta 1991. Razstava je sestavljena iz skic in maket v merilu. Njen naslov je zelo obetaven, a mu sama forma razstave dejansko nasprotuje. Zahvaljujoč se temu, sem začela razmišljati o širšem problemu razstavljanja del scenografov (katerih koli del, ne samo teh, ki si jih lahko ogledamo na tej razstavi). Sem namreč študentka scenografije iz Prage (DAMU), kjer se to vprašanje poraja pogosto – vsaj vsaka štiri leta, nanašajoč se na največjo razstavo scenografije na svetu, Praški kvardienale (Prague Quadriennale).

Verjamem, da je scenografija nerazdružljivo povezana s prostorom in z igralci, ter prek njih s sedanjostjo in dejanskim trenutkom uprizoritve. Ni pomembno, kje natanko se dogodek odvija, kar se meni zdi najpomembnejše je v resnici življenje in akcija odra med uprizoritvijo. Scenografija je ključno povezana s tem trenutkom skupne prisotnosti trajajoče uprizoritve in percepcija trenutka s strani občinstva. Ko scenografija ni uporabljana, nam pravzaprav ostane samo še dekoracija brez pomena. S tem nikakor ne želim soditi kakršnihkoli umetniških ali estetskih vrednosti same razstave. Gre za splošno opazko, ki se nanaša zgolj na formo prezentacije. Ta začasnost gledališča zna biti včasih zelo neprijetna.

Scenografske skice in načrti namreč niso primarno umetniška dela. Seveda, odvisno je od sloga vsakega oblikovalca posebej in nekatere risbe so čudovite. Kljub temu njihov namen ni, da bi bile umetnost same zase, kot je na primer kip ali slika. Imajo praktične namene – namenjeni so igralcem, da si lahko predstavljajo, kaj lahko pričakujejo, narisane so za ljudi v delavnicah, ki bodo scenografijo zgradili. So vodstvo kreativni ekipi.

V primeru, da bi želeli razstaviti dvodimenzionalne fotografije, bi morda bilo bolj zanimivo, če bi lahko videli prve skice, še pred tehnično obdelavo. Skoraj vsak scenograf namreč nariše mnogo skic, preden najde pravo idejo, govori z režiserjem, dramaturgom in zbira misli o nastajajoči predstavi. Te nepopolne ideje se mi pravzaprav zdijo še bolj zanimive, kot končna skica. A seveda je to stvar osebnega okusa. Druga možnost za razstavljanje scenografije je ta, ki jo vidimo na kvadrienalu v Pragi. Tu gre pravzaprav za poskus kuratorja (in avtorja), da uporabi specifične fragmente iz celovite scene in zgradi majhno instalacijo, ki je na tej razstavi samostojno umetniško delo in skozi druga sredstva poskuša izraziti nekatera sporočila in čustva izhodiščne predstave.

Navsezadnje so urejene slike scenografij zanimive za pogled, a morda prej kot v galerijo sodijo v knjigo. Verjamem, da se problem, ki sem ga opisala, nanaša smo na razstavljanje scenografije in se ne navezuje na razstavljanje kostumov, lutk ali mask. Vse to so lahko navdihujoči primeri unikatnega obrtništva in kot objekti nosijo več informacij ter lahko vzbudijo več navdiha kot model prostora ali njegova fotografija.

 

Prevod: Manca Lipoglavšek, Urša Majcen