Mr. Milo Rau
In 2020, Ghent University was set to award an honorary doctorate to Milo Rau, the Swiss theatre director and artistic director of NTGent. It did not happen due to corona, and so the university will now pay tribute to Rau for his social merits a year later than planned.
Sometimes excellence is just around the corner
"Because he encourages his audience to break open all too familiar and seemingly safe, but perhaps also outdated and rusty, frames of mind. Because he initiates debate far beyond 'his' audience, and thus helps to break a lance for social change and progress.
Not by posing his own little opinions as hard facts, but by asking specific questions and researching possible answers."
Rector Rik Van de Walle is the promotor of this honorary doctorate.
Laudatio for Milo Rau in front of 'his home', the NTGent on the Sint-Baafsplein. On the same square stands Kris Martin's 'Altar', which refers to the 'Lam Gods'. Just like Milo Rau's much-discussed opening production at NTGent, with which he wanted to make a modern reflection of the famous painting by Van Eyck.
The necessity and freedom of thought and questioning
The university praises the geographical, formal and substantive versatility of Milo Rau's work. He creates theater, writes columns and essays, runs films and documentaries, all on a range of topics, often with a socio-political bent.
"Milo is a world-class culture-maker who acts from an enormous broad-mindedness," says Rik Van de Walle, "and it is precisely this broad-mindedness that is in complete accord with the pluralistic foundation of our university, namely that all views are a priori equivalent and thus worthy of investigation and questioning."
