Theatre director Milo Rau wins Swiss culture prize

Since 2002, Milo Rau, 45, has published over fifty plays, films and books © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The St Gallen Cultural Foundation has awarded a special prize to Milo Rau, the Swiss theatre director, writer and filmmaker, for his lifetime’s work.

On Thursday, he received the “Great Culture Prize”, which is awarded every three years by the St Gallen Cultural Foundation, for his “diverse, internationally acclaimed, significant and courageous works”.  He also received CHF30,000 ($31,000) in prize money.

“His projects are not only always at the height of the most pressing contemporary issues, they also repeatedly leave the comfort zone of the art world and go to the focal points of global conflicts,” the St Gallen authorities said.

Since 2002, Rau, 45, has published over fifty plays, films and books. These include The Last Days of the Ceausescus (2009), Hate Radio (2011) Breivik’s Statement (2012) and Five Easy Pieces (2016). His theatre productions have been staged at all major international festivals, including the Berliner Theatertreffen, the Festival d’Avignon, the Venice Biennale and the Edinburgh Festival, and have toured over 30 countries. He has been the artistic director at NTGent in Belgium since the 2018.

As well as his work in theatre, the Rau writes newspaper columns and books, teaches at art colleges, and makes documentary films. 

Milo Rau was born in Bern in 1977 and studied sociology, German and Romance philology in Paris, Zurich and Berlin.

An exhibition “Warum Kunst?” [Why art?], by Milo Rau, is taking place at the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen in St Gallen from November 17 to December 18.