What do I know about the lives of my grandparents? Which deaths and births have shaped my life? What was I and am no longer? What else would I like to become? Over the course of twenty years, the artist of conversations Mats Staub has developed his own unique working methods and created formats that lie somewhere between theatre and visual art, journalism and literature. Attentive listening, careful editing and collaboration with a wide variety of people characterise his projects, which have grown over a long period of time and across different continents. In a polyphonic conversation, he retraces biographical memories and narratives together with the audience.

“Mats Staub’s artistic projects take us on a journey to the four corners of the globe, inviting us to take time to listen and watch. Without recourse to simple spectacle, Mats Staub has, over the years, developed an exceptionally coherent poetry that gives us portraits of intense humanity. With refined delicacy and meticulous formal rigour, his works explore our most intimate and personal dimension, confronting us with the multi-layered complexity of our times.” (Jury member Cristina Galbiati, on the bestowal of the Swiss Theatre Award on Mats Staub in 2020)