First Europe – Artistic Leadership

Máté Czakó (HU) was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1985. He is an actor and director, known for Csuhaja (2015), Behind Me! (2016), and Tropic of Cancer (2016). He earned a degree in acting from the University of Kaposvár (2009) and then graduated as a theatre director, physical theatre choreographer from the University of Theatre and Film Art, Budapest (2014). He is working as a dancer, performer, choreographer, and director as well. He is co-founder of Tinda Pundi Cultural Company and the Symptoms_LAB. He previously worked on several international cultural heritage interpretation projects with the consortium partners Pro Progressione and the Museum of Lepenski Vir.
As an artist and creator, he works regularly also with companies as The Symptoms and the Ziggurat Project. He finds it important to bring art among people. To create a second layer above reality, reality of art which helps us to find a new perspective to observe our life and its surroundings.

Ljubomir Nikolic (RS) was born in Tuzla (now Bosnia and Herzegovina) in 1976. He graduated in 2002 at the Composing Department of Academy of Art in Novi Sad, Serbia. He worked and performed in the UK, Germany and the USA.
He participated in the European project “Rivers of Europe” where he fulfilled the role of a composer and musician and where his music was performed throughout 8 countries in Europe. He also participated in a historical project which included a concert from an orchestra of 30 harps where he contributed with two compositions, “Bulgarian woman” (originally: “Bugarka”) and “Serbian dance” (originally: “Srpska igra”) and which was organized within the framework of the 13th International festival of harps held in Belgrade in 2014.
His unique style is a mixture of electronic music and acoustic instruments. His compositions have been performed in famous music halls, such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment (Belgrade) and his pieces for percussions have been presented at the international convention for percussionists in the USA. His compositions have been performed in Italy, England, Poland, Romania, Austria, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany and the USA.

Pier Lorenzo Pisano is a director and writer for cinema and theatre. He graduated as a film director at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome (National School of Cinema). His debut short film Così in terra was selected in official competition at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. At the same time, he dedicated himself to writing, gaining mentions in a few of the major Italian screenwriting and playwriting awards, including the Riccione – Tondelli Prize, the Solinas Prize, the Hystrio Prize. He was also selected for the international project Fabulamundi.
His plays have been translated into English, French, Romanian, Czech, Russian and Polish and his work was presented at the 72nd Festival d’Avignon in the programme Forum des Nouvelles Écritures Dramatiques Européennes. In 2019 he was part of the international writers’ residency at the Royal Court Theatre in London.