Biography

Theatre director, dramaturge and actor Prodromos Tsinikoris is one of the most influential public figures in contemporary Greek and European theatre. His intensively researched documentary works thematise migration, social inequality and repressed historical narratives. He has attracted international attention with widely performed productions such as Clean City, Telemachos– should I stay or should I go? and 96%, in which social realities are negotiated from the perspective of those affected.

Tsinikoris was born in Wuppertal in 1981 as the son of Greek labour migrants. He studied at the theatre faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 1999 to 2005 and was invited to the International Forum of the Theatertreffen Berlin in 2008. He has lived in Athens since 2009, where he has worked as an actor with Dimiter Gotscheff and as an assistant director with Rimini Protokoll.

Since 2011, he has been developing a series of documentary theatre projects together with Anestis Azas, including Telemachos– should I stay or should I go? (Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin and Onassis STEGI, Athens, 2013), X Firmen (Theater der Welt, Mannheim 2014), Clean City (Onassis STEGI and Münchner Kammerspiele, 2016), Hellas München (Münchner Kammerspiele and Athens Epidaurus Festival, 2018), Trashland (Schauspiel Graz, 2022) and Romaland (Onassis Stegi, 2023). Other works include the audio walk In the middle of the street (2015) with homeless protagonists in Athens and the play 96% about the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki and their dispossession during the Nazi occupation in Greece.

In May 2015, he was a member of the dramaturgical team and responsible for the research of X Apartments Athen (concept: Matthias Lilienthal), which took place in the homes of Athenian citizens. As a dramaturge, he worked together with Lola Arias, Encyclopedie de la parole, Martín Valdés-Stauber and Paul Preciado, among others, as part of the Exercises of freedom for Documenta 14 in Athens.

From 2015 to 2020, Tsinikoris was Artistic Director of the Experimental Stage -1 of the National Theatre in Athens together with Anestis Azas. He has been co-curator of the International Forest Festival in Thessaloniki since 2020 and teaches at the directing school of the National Theatre in Athens.

Justification of the award

As a theatre director, actor and dramaturge, Prodromos Tsinikoris is a key figure in the Greek theatre world. Born in Wuppertal in 1981 as the child of Greek migrant workers, he has long since developed into a formative figure in the European theatre landscape, working with great sensitivity and political awareness. In the audio walk In the middle of the street, he turned homeless people themselves into narrators of the reality of their lives during the financial crisis, in Clean City (in collaboration with Anestis Azas) he juxtaposed the voices of migrant cleaners with the rhetoric of neo-fascist movements, and in 96% he addresses the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki and the looting of their property during the Nazi occupation. Tsinikoris is an exceptional talent who sees the documentary not as a mere reflection of reality, but as an artistic resonance chamber for social fault lines.