Following the guest performance of Nicoleta Esinencu's Memory Distortion. M I X T A P E, the director will receive the ITI Prize 2026 for her work as a transnational theatre artist. The prize will be presented by ITI President Yvonne Büdenhölzer. The laudatory speech will be held by Kathrin Tiedemann. Nicoleta Esinencu (*1978, Chișinău, USSR / Republic of Moldova) became known in Germany 17 years ago with FUCK YOU, Eu.ro.Pa!, an angry monologue that sparked a political controversy in her Moldovan homeland. Her songs are characterised by drastic language. Many in Moldova take offence at her sound. And at the themes she brings to the stage: the incessant labour migration, the social taboo subject of homosexuality and the associated experiences of discrimination, corruption, the self-serving mentality of newly rich oligarchs and former communist functionaries, the naming of the difficult relationship between the Republic of Moldova and the EU. Nicoleta Esinencu combines the documentary with the poetic and translates meticulously researched facts into a dense, rhythmic language. What keeps Nicoleta Esinencu in her home country is first and foremost the teatru-spălătorie, which is run as a collective and works under the most difficult conditions, but is always enlightened, internationally networked and fearlessly courageous.
