Sandro Lunin
Building bridges with his programmes
Swiss Performing Arts Award 2023
Sandro Lunin was born in Zurich in 1958 and ranks among the leading artistic directors in the independent theatre and dance scene both in Switzerland and internationally. He has dedicated himself to the scene, and particularly to cultural exchange with the Global South for around four decades. Having originally trained as a primary school teacher, he became co-director of the theatre at the Rote Fabrik and co-founder of the Blickfelder festival, both serving a young audience in Zurich, during the 1980s. In 1997, Lunin was appointed Artistic Director of the Schlachthaus Theater Bern. He was in charge of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel’s programme from 2007 to 2017 and then moved to the Kaserne Basel in 2018, his last job before retiring in the summer of 2023. During this time, he was also responsible for two editions of the biennial Theater Festival Basel. Lunin has been active on a wide range of committees, including as a board member of Reso – Dance Network Switzerland and expert for the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
Dialogue between the developed and developing worlds was always at the heart of Lunin’s theatre, dance and performing arts programming. He was one of the first promoters to use the novel forms of circus performance influenced by the French Nouveau Cirque, to give street artists their own stage at the Theater Spektakel and to put sustainability and inclusiveness on the festival agenda. When travel became possible once again while he was organising the 2022 Theater Festival Basel, Lunin stepped up his interaction with international curators, involving specialists from Japan, India, and South Africa together with two young Swiss dramaturges. He is aware of the colonial gaze of a white European who can afford to showcase exotic arts from around the world, and yet he offered artists from crisis-hit regions in particular an opportunity to perform and build up long-term relationships with certain companies. In most of the Global South, there are scarcely any government subsidies for the performing arts.
Sandro Lunin has played a vital role in the Swiss independent theatre and dance scene in recent decades as a theatre and festival director. Promoting artists from the Global South: Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East and liaising with European cultural institutions are very important to him: visiting artists to learn how they work, building mutual trust and making longer-term collaborations possible. His tireless efforts in cultural policy circles have helped to put topics such as the economic disparity, diversity and cultural exchange between equals on the theatrical map.
Béatrice Goetz, Chair of the Federal Dance Jury
