Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium – Odin Teatrets founder in Holstebro, Eugenio Barba, is one of the recipients of this year's Wilhelm Hansen Foundation's honorary awards. He is among a total of five artists who have been favored with the honorable award.
In addition to the honorary awards, the foundation also supports a large number of productions and artists in music, dance and the performing arts. In total, in 2022 the foundation will distribute approx. 8 million DKK
Bjørn Bredal, chairman of the Wilhelm Hansen Foundation, says on the occasion:
"Our founder, Hanne Wilhelm Hansen, liked to say that 'the money must go back to those who have earned it'. With this year's prizes and awards, we point to a number of individuals and institutions who have contributed exceptionally strongly to making the art life in Denmark richer in every sense."
The prizes will be awarded at a festive event at Copenhagen's Gamle Børs on Tuesday 25 October.
In the justification for the presentation of the prize to Eugenio Barba it is stated:
Eugenio Barba is one of the most important figures in recent theater history, if not the most important. Based in a disused farm in Holstebro, Barba has over the last more than 50 years protected art's status as an outsider in established society. At the same time, his Odin theater has reached an audience, both local and international, that no other Danish theater institution dared to dream of. Barba's insistence on the sensuous but meticulously staged drama has been the driving force behind the country's longest-lasting theater experiment. Barba's international army of artists is constantly waging a fearless battle against mediocrity and provincialism.
