© Andreas Simopoulos
Talk
Meet the artist Mario Banushi
February 28 2026, 5.30pm
Free admission upon registration
On the occasion of the performance MAMI, presented in its Italian premiere as part of the FOG Festival, we organize a talk with Mario Banushi: a moment of conversation and reflection on the artist’s work, with particular focus on the role of the image within his artistic research. Creator of a stage language all his own, the 26–year–old Albanian–born Mario Banushi is already touring the world with his first plays and is hailed internationally as the wunderkind of Greek theater. In 2025, Mario Banushi received the New Theatre Artist Award from the Hellenic Association of Theatre Critics. In 2026 he received the Silver Lion by the Venice Biennale. The talk will be moderated by Massimo Torrigiani, curator, artistic director, publisher, and co-founder of Fantom, an independent organization for sound and visual arts.
Mario Banushi (1998) is an awarded theater director whose work has been presented internationally in cities including New York, London, Berlin, Milan, Vienna, Montreal, and Taipei. His practice moves between intimacy and myth, memory and family, articulated through a rigorously visual and non-verbal theatrical language. Born in Greece and raised in Albania until the age of six, when he moved back to Greece, his artistic universe is shaped by displacement, family narratives, and a distinct visual sensibility. His works have been noted for their visual poetry and emotional depth, unfolding without words and inviting audiences into a sensory experience that transcends conventional theatre.
He studied acting at the Drama School of the Athens Conservatory, graduating in 2020. That same year, he directed his first short film, Pranvera, which was selected for the Tirana International Film Festival. His theatrical debut, Ragada, was created and presented in Athens during the pandemic lockdowns, marking the beginning of a practice developed outside conventional theatrical spaces.
In 2023, Banushi premiered Goodbye, Lindita at the Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece. The work has been invited to major international festivals, including the Vienna Festival, the International Theatre Amsterdam, the Adelaide Festival, and BITEF in Belgrade, where he received both the Jovan Ćirilov Special Award and the Politika Award for Best Director. His subsequent work, Taverna Miresia – Mario Bella Anastasia, premiered at the Athens Epidaurus Festival and has been touring internationally in multiple cities, including London, Montreal, and Taipei. Together with his earlier works, it forms the triptych referred to as Romance Familiare, a cycle exploring family memory through image-driven, text-free theatrical storytelling. Banushi’s most recent production, MAMI, is an international co-production with leading European festivals and institutions. Premiering in 2025 in Athens, the work deepens his poetic and visual language and was met with widespread acclaim following its presentation at the Festival d’Avignon, where critics praised its emotional precision and visual excellence.
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The talk will be held in English, with consecutive Italian translation
