Milo Rau was born in Bern in 1977 and studied German, Romance languages and sociology in Zurich, Berlin and at the Sorbonne in Paris, inter alia under Pierre Bourdieu. He has also worked as a journalist for various newspapers and magazines, since 2001 mainly for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. After completing his studies he worked as an author and director at various independent, city and state theatres in the German-speaking countries, including the Staatsschauspiel Dresden, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and the Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zurich. In 2007 he set up the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) in Cologne, dedicated to promoting productive exchange between academic theory and artistic practice.
His international breakthrough came in 2009, when he established the re-enactment as a political theatre format: his “Die letzten Tage der Ceaușescus” was performed at the Avignon festival. “Hate Radio”, about the genocide in Rwanda, guested at the Radikal jung festival for up-and-coming directors in Munich and the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2012. A performance of “Moskauer Prozesse”, which dealt in part with the trial of the punk band Pussy Riot, was raided by the authorities in the Russian capital in 2013. Rau is considered one of the most controversial theatre directors of his generation. In addition to his work for stage and film, he has also written a dissertation on the aesthetic of the re-enactment, and lectures on directing, cultural theory and social sculpture at universities and colleges of art.
“In presenting an award to Milo Rau, Switzerland is honouring an artist of international importance: one whose engagement with social issues draws on the tradition of tragic theatre while at the same time developing highly challenging new forms for it. The young Bernese director exploits the power of performance to explore the personal and collective causalities that drive our thoughts and actions, while at the same time subjecting it to a critical reappraisal.”
