Milo Rau, born 1977 in Bern, is a director, writer, filmmaker, and artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen. He studied sociology, Germanic and Romance languages and literature in Paris, Berlin, and Zurich, under Pierre Bourdieu and Tzvetan Todorov, among others. Critics call him the “most influential” (Die Zeit), “most award-winning” (Le Soir), “most interesting” (De Standaard), “most controversial” (la Repubblica), “most scandalous” (The New York Times) or “most ambitious” (The Guardian) artist of our time. Since 2002, he has published more than fifty plays, films, books, and actions. His stage productions have been presented at major international festivals, including the Berlin Theatertreffen, Festival d’Avignon, Venice Biennale, Vienna Festival Weeks, and Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, and have toured more than thirty countries around the world.