Share this page on
2010 ECF Princess Margriet Award Back

2010 ECF Princess Margriet Award

26 Jan 2010

The 2010 ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture was presented to two outstanding cultural change-makers in 2010: dramaturge and activist Borka Pavićević and theatre-maker Stefan Kaegi. The award ceremony took place on 26 January 2010 in Brussels.

“Diversity acknowledges that we share space and time, but that our landscapes and histories differ...” — Borka Pavićević

As well as being a theatre-maker and dramaturge, Borka Pavićević is a tireless cultural activist working across the region of former Yugoslavia. She has devoted her career to all art forms, and particularly theatre as a podium for debate and public expression that acts against intolerance and cultural homogenisation. As the Director of Belgrade’s Centre for Cultural Decontamination, Pavićević has continued to sustain public discourse under truly difficult conditions.

Thanks to her inspiring leadership, the centre has grown into an open space for creative minds to articulate their responses to events around them; a venue in which individuals from the region can work freely together.

Borka Pavićević’s speech is accessible here.

“But I want to put the binoculars onto society and reframe how we see the people who are part of the production chain - like outsourcing, like truck drivers. ” — Stefan Kaegi

Born in Switzerland and living in Berlin and working in cities across Europe and the world, Stefan Kaegi has developed a documentary form of theatre that explores the unseen networks between different cultures, cities, countries and continents, revealing the hidden lives of globalisation. He investigates the realities and unexpected situations of everyday life beyond the headlines and behind the statistics. Theatre becomes a space for performers – not professional actors, but very diverse individuals – to tell something of their expertise and subjective experiences.

Kaegi chose to share his prize with two of his artistic collaborators, Juliane Männel and Jörg Karrenbauer – the latter for his work on “Cargo Sofia-X”. This was a project singled out for praise by the jury. It tells the stories of truck drivers and their working lives on the road, along border-crossings, transit locations and urban peripheries, exploring how the transport of goods also reveals stories and places that cannot be seen on a map.

Selection Process

In the spring of 2009, the European Cultural Foundation invited nominations from an extensive network of partners and experts in different regions and across cultural disciplines. A shortlist was then drawn up on the basis of further research, and the jury reviewed it in late May 2009 to select two recipients.

2010 Award Jury

  • Rachida Azough, Creative Director Kosmpolis, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  • Iara Boubnova, Founding Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • Robert Palmer, Director, Directorate of Culture, Cultural and Natural Heritage, Strasbourg, France (Jury Chair)
  • Mike Phillips, historian, novelist and curator, UK
Website by HOAX Amsterdam