.REASONS

IX Premio Europa per il Teatro a

MICHEL PICCOLI

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Michel Piccoli began his career on the stage - his Don Juan remains celebrated - before crossing to the "other shore", the cinema, finally coming to accept the relativity of travelling back and forth between the two and taking full advantage of their potential interaction.
Piccoli captivates us because he is halfway between the clearly defined identity of the film actor and the ductile identity of the stage actor. When Bondy, Brook, and Chéreau turned to him, despite his reputation as a cinema performer, it was undoubtedly because of this receptiveness and adaptability. He was not trapped by an image, but brought a unique presence. He was also ready to take on an unprecedented variety of roles, which took him from Schnitzler to Chekhov and Pirandello, from Shakespeare to Koltès. The film actor was able of step back and make way for his double, the stage actor.
What is it that we love about Piccoli? The fact that he is an artist who has lasted over time without turning into an effigy… he provides certainty and maintains a hidden dimension. The light does not expel the shadow, which always accompanies the brilliance of the legendary actor that he is. There is nothing one-dimensional about him.
Michel Piccoli is a European figure. In him we do not see so much an international star unaware of borders, but an open-minded actor who strives to cross them. A free citizen, he does not want to become a prisoner and his whole life bears witness to this unquenched desire to go beyond limits. National as well as artistic limits.
Michel Piccoli refuses civil indifference. He has never lacked commitment, and has always taken sides and got involved. His ethic is constant, whether as an actor or as a citizen .
If he is taken as a model, it is always despite himself. He is not a hero who puts himself on display. More than anyone else, Piccoli has managed to maintain his humanity. A vibrant humanity that continues to guide his actions and his words. Michel Piccoli is an exemplary actor, responsible towards himself and towards his art.

VII Premio Europa Nuove Realtà Teatrali a
HEINER GOEBBELS
ALAIN PLATEL

Beginning in the mid-80's, Heiner Goebbels has managed to reinvent musical theater. Composer, director, musical arranger and playwright all wrapped up into one, Goebbels has worked with actors, singers, musicians, writers, artists and set designers from all over the world. His "Konzeptionelles Komponieren", constructed using Heiner Muller's dialectic, Gertrude Stein's audacious linguistic constructions, pop music and philosophical tracts, allow the spectator to see the music, hear the space and experience the text with polished simplicity. Acoustic and visual elements are not merely juxtaposed in their on-stage associations but linked together by a multiplicity of inter-relationships. To accomplish this, the divining rod of a sense of humor serves as a necessary tool in his search for their very essence. Goebbels is one of the most important representatives of international music and avant-garde theater, with an evocative aesthetic that is simultaneously unmistakable and inexhaustible.

Alain Platel
Alain Platel has pursued an artistic career, rather than a profession or a craft. He is a unique personality, and has no parallel in the world of dance and theatre. His work as a social educator has led him to be deeply concerned with the human condition in his native region: East and West Flanders, and Ghent in particular. He is able to communicate, without artificiality or affectation, all the anxieties, contradictions, desperation, dreams and drives of a fascinating and tragic young generation that he truly empathises with. His productions, from "Bonjour Madame..." to "Tous des Indiens', have been staged throughout Europe, despite the fact that they are (or precisely because they are) completely rooted in the life of the Flemish suburbs. This only goes to show that, by freely combining theatre, music and dance in the "family portraits" he renders so well, Alain Platel has succeeded in revealing the universality of the human soul.