Lukas Bärfuss was born in Thun, Bern canton, in 1971.He worked as a tobacco farmer, fork-lift truck driver, steel fixer, gardener and trained bookseller before causing a sensation as a theatre-maker since 1998 and as a prose writer since 2002.He received numerous distinctions, including the Werkjahr of Zurich canton in 2008, the Spych literature prize in 2007, and the Gerrit Engelke prize of Hanover.His plays have frequently been invited to bill at the Mülheim Theatertage, and he won the Mülheim playwright’s prize in 2005.A critic’s survey held by Theater heute voted him young playwright of the year in 2003 and playwright of the year in 2005.His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages.Most recently, his first novel “Hundert Tage”, dealing with the genocide in Rwanda, was published in spring 2008.Lukas Bärfuss lives in Zurich.
Noël Dernesch was born 1977 in Zürich. He graduated from the F+F Schule für Kunst- und Mediendesign, Zürich with the emphasis on film/video (1999-2003). Since 2001 he has been working on various film- and videoinstallations and for dance, film- and theaterprojects et al. “Remember me?“ and “Ego Boost“ (Artrepco Galerie Zürich, 2007, 2004), „Blond Dreadlocks“ - a cinema documentary. Among other prizes, he has received the Kiefer-Hablitzel prize from the SwissArtAwards for his short documentary “Breakfast in America” (2004) and for his film installation “Selbstbedienung – Drei Räume. Zwei Leben. Eine Begegnung.” (2002); he received the Young Talent 2005 prize for his “Ego Boost!” video installation. Dernesch also works as an advertising film-maker and is currently working on his first feature-length film. Noël Dernesch lives and works in Zürich and Berlin.
