Institutionalized Resistance: Milo Rau's NTGent Period

"Institutionalized Resistance: Milo Rau’s NTGent Period" will explore Swiss-German director Milo Rau’s work with Nederlands Toneel Gent (NTGent), one of Belgium’s most important cultural institutions, looking at both Rau’s work as a director with the theatre and as artistic director. The scope of the project will range from 2018, when Rau was named artistic director, to ca. 2024, engaging with three central lines of inquiry about this period: (1) What does Rau’s work as a director look like with NTGent? (2) What does Rau’s work as NTGent’s artistic director look like? (3) Does Rau’s work reinforce the hierarchies, colonial and neoliberal assumptions, and cultural hegemonies that it purports to resist and rewrite? To answer these questions, the project will situate Rau’s work within existing theatrical and performative traditions such as documentary, engaged, and intercultural theatre. It will position Rau among other white, European intercultural directors and use the discourse surrounding political art to explore the critical frameworks available to critique Rau’s political theatre. The project will engage in a mixture of onsite and archival research with NTGent: attending rehearsals, performances, and talkbacks, and conducting interviews with Rau and his collaborators. It will seek to generate a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of Rau’s innovations, creation processes, programming, and interactions with NTGent and the city of Ghent.