Artist in Residence: Calle Fuhr

René Benko has dominated the business headlines for over a year.

The insolvency of his company, Signa, is one of the biggest financial collapses in recent years. In Germany, Austria, and Italy, major construction projects are at risk of becoming abandoned ruins. In Switzerland, the bankruptcy of the Globus department stores was only narrowly avoided. Many have lost millions because of Benko, and public investments have vanished into thin air.

But how did the Benko system work? How did a high school dropout from Innsbruck manage to become Austria’s model entrepreneur and deceive everyone?

These are the questions that author and director Calle Fuhr explores in his acclaimed performance. In collaboration with the investigative platform DOSSIER, he spent months researching the case.

At SQUARE, this theatrical evening—blending stand-up and lecture performance—will be shown in Switzerland for the first time.

Calle Fuhr is a storyteller specializing in stage performances as a speaker, director, and writer. In 2024, he collaborated with the OSTEN Festival and Theater Magdeburg on a stand-up program addressing economic issues, which was later invited to the Berliner Ensemble. At the Volkstheater Wien, he created a play about René Benko, which gained international attention from media outlets such as ORF and the Financial Times. His investigative work with CORRECTIV on LEAG sparked discussions at the Staatstheater Cottbus and was featured at the Radikal jung Festival.

Fuhr has spoken at conferences such as re:think Media in Vienna and has been featured on networks like BBC and Deutschlandfunk. His production "Die Redaktion" brought DOSSIER’s investigation into OMV to the stage and was performed over 40 times across Europe. It also inspired the podcast "Kein Kommentar", which was a finalist for the German Podcast Awards.

Fuhr has been featured in publications such as the Financial Times and Berliner Zeitung and has curated events on topics like the climate crisis.