In this conversation, host Josafath Reynoso sits down with co-curators Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen and Mishelle Cuttler, along with co-producer Joe Pagnan, to talk about the Canadian exhibition for the 2027 Prague Quadrennial and the immersive spatial-audio piece at its heart, The Seventh Fire.
This is a national exhibition unlike any Canada has brought before: sound-first in a festival built on the visual, curated through a matriarchal lens that invites rather than excludes, and shaped by the PQ 2027 theme of absences and silences. Lisa is the first Indigenous co-curator across Canada’s fourteen editions at Prague, and Mishelle the first to lead with a sound design focus.
It’s a conversation about belonging and displacement, relationality over spectacle, and whether theatre can truly transform the people who enter it. The Seventh Fire draws on Anishinaabe ceremony to build a lodge you don’t just watch, but sit inside.
Full episode, shorts & highlights available on Youtube and Spotify
Support Canada PQ Team.
- Support the fundraiser through Canada Helps → https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/associated-designers-of-canada/campaign/adc-prague-quadrennial-exhibition-2027/
- The team’s website goes live in about a month → https://www.pq2027.designers.ca
Timestamps.
- 00:46 – Meet the Canada PQ 2027 team
- 03:15 – What is the Prague Quadrennial?
- 09:24 – What is a national theatre?
- 14:20 – A matriarchal curatorial framework
- 29:04 – How Canada wants to be seen
- 32:49 – The Seventh Fire, explained
- 43:39 – The pitch
