from the PQ

I spent the first part of last week at the Industrial Palace for the Prague Quadrennial Exhibition, which was massive in size and scope, but strangely disappointing when it came to actual design.

(the exhibition hall in the Industrial Palace)

There was an overwhelming amount of stuff on show; some great, some good and some quite mediocre. Each country had its own themed exhibition space. New Zealand's was actually inflatable, which is no wonder as it was designed by this woman:



Yes, her hair does actually come to a point several inches above her head. I saw her in person and can attest to the fact that she does indeed style it like this every day.

There were some things I loved. Latvia's space had lightboxes with images of Monika Pormale's hyper-real performance spaces...










..and the Czech Republic entry was my absolute favorite. The Forman Brothers designed a self-contained fairground space with a sloth puppet operated by pulleys, a booth where disembodied hands painted your face, the world's tiniest ghost train (in which you had to pretend to be the size of an insect and were attacked by a bird), a band of musician bears you could operate yourself, and a heartbreaking little puppet lounge singer in a booth with her very own tiny band..


exit for the insect ghost train


handpainted sign for the musical bears


the face painting booth

The Forman Bros. were also responsible for the Mystery Boat, which could be animated via a series of levers, buttons and pulleys:








More pics from the exhibition (click pictures for larger images):


a costume from the student exhibition


Iceland's exhibition space


Bulgaria's little automata tent


a Quay-esque moving box in the student exhibition


a pleasing row of teabags


from the Russian students' exhibition


disconcerting Israeli puppets


costumes from Taiwan


tiny deck chairs


costume design for The Birds, schools exhibition


sketches from Ireland