The 2014 Goethe Medals were admitted to Krystyna Meissner, the Polish director of the "Dialog" Theatre Festival Festiwalu, to the recently passed away Belgian director, Gerard Mortier and to an American artist, Robert Wilson.The Goethe-Institut appoints the official order of the Federal Republic of Germany, thus favouring people, who have made especially meritorious contributions to the international cultural exchange. Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, the president of the Goethe-Institut, will hand the distinctions on August 28th in the Residenzschloss in Weimar. The laudatory speeches will be given by a theatre critic Renate Klett, the director of the Beethovenfest Bonn Festival, Nike Wagner as well as the director of the Berliner Festspiele, Thomas Oberender.
Krystyna Meissner is a Polish director of theatre festivals and theatres, as well as a film director. She studied Polish studies at the University of Warsaw, and film directing at the Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Teatralna [State Theatrical University] in Warsaw. She made her début in 1961 in Warsaw Theatre Ateneum. "Meissner has reinforced the presence of German theatre in Poland, at the same contributing to discovering Eastern European theatre in Western Europe" says the nomination of Krystyna Meissner for the Goethe Medal. Owing to international theatre festivals: "Kontakt" and "Dialog ", which she has initiated, and directed ("Kontakt") and still directs ("Dialog"), Meissner has created a platform for both theatre artists, and theatre productions creators from all over Europe. To date, "Dialog" is the most important theatre festival in Poland. Many German directors and choreographers owe to Krystyna Meissner their first guest performance in Poland, among them: Thomas Ostermeier, Christoph Marthaler, Sasha Waltz, Jossi Wieler, Stefan Pucher and Peter Stein. Goethe-Institut has cooperated with Krystyna Meissner as far bacj as in times when she was the director of "Kontakt" festival, and the cooperation within the framework of the "Dialog" Festival is continued to date.a
