Tbilisi Biennale of Stage Design 2024

National Exhibition of China

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Curator and ​Exhibition designer: Tan Zeen

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‘Real’ism

curatorial concept of country/region exhibition, China

The pioneer of Chinese theatre design, Dianjie Xue, mentioned in his research, Stage as a Stage: A Place for Performance, that acknowledging the stage as a place for performance does not mean we must use it within its limitations. Instead, the stage should be considered from the perspective of theatrical aesthetics rather than material or technical constraints. As Brecht once said, it is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theatre; our theatre must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.

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Therefore, theatre as a performance space is the greatest reality we need to confront.

Artists have always been the most sensitive to the world around them. Otherwise, their work would become disconnected from reality, resulting in ‘poetic lies and falsification.’

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In contemporary performances, reality—such as a political election, an old building, a journey, or a specific area of a city—relates to theatrical works in unprecedented ways. These tangible, experiential realities replace traditional literary scripts and become the basis for the beginning of some theatrical creations. This can be understood as contemporary theatre’s response to reality.