The Performance Design Futures Symposium 2025, held from 21 – 23 February at ARTos House, Cyprus, convened an international community of performance designers, academics and theatre practitioners to engage in critical discussions on future practices of scenography in the context of conflict, division and displacement.
Produced by CYCSTAT, the Cyprus Centre of Scenographers, Theatre Architects, and Technicians, the symposium built upon the success of Performance Design Futures 2022, continuing its mission to foster dialogue on the social and political dimensions of performance design – with a particular focus on the southern Mediterranean and Middle East.
The symposium was co-curated by Dr Marina Hadjilouca, Programme Director for Design for Performance (BA Hons) at Rose Bruford College, alongside Mariza Bargilly (Scenographer/Visual Artist), and Eleni Ioannou (Performance Designer).
This year’s symposium explored the theme: ‘Scenographies of the Here and Now: Navigating Conflict, Division, and Displacement’. Over three days, participants examined a range of critical topics, including:
- Scenographies of care and resistance
- Borders, boundaries, and edges
- Theatre in conflict zones, refugee camps, and displaced communities
- Dramaturgies of memory and conflict-inflicted spaces
- Embodied materialities
- Investigative scenography and forensic architecture
- Political acts of scenography
- Objects and materialities of war
The symposium featured keynote presentations by Dr Dorita Hannah (independant academic, New Zealand), Professor Pamela Howard OBE and Dr Sofia Pantouvakι (Aalto University, Finland).
Dr Marina Hadjilouca, Programme Director for Design for Performance (BA Hons), presented her own research on Protest Scenographics and chaired the plenary that took place on the last day of the event exploring scenography as a form of activism.
Dr Marina Hadjilouca said:
“As curators we felt the need to focus on the urgent topic of conflict and displacement that is currently affecting the area, especially with the ongoing crisis in the Middle East – but also a notion that Cyprus is no stranger to. During the three-day Symposium key questions were raised by our three keynotes around Theatre of Life, Life or Theatre (Pamela Howard), can design as performative spacing help us deal with the current realities (Dr Dorita Hannah) and how Scenography can act as a form of resistance (Dr Sofia Pantouvaki). We spoke about practices of care, about polyphonies and hope.”
As a practitioner, Marina creates ‘Scenographic Interventions’ in contested public spaces and designs sets and costumes for theatre and opera. She has collaborated with major theatre organisations in the UK, Cyprus, and Greece, including Arcola’s Grimeborn Festival, the State Theatre of Cyprus (THOC) and the International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama. Her research explores performance design as a methodology for social art practices.
Find out more about Design For Performance BA (Hons).