No: Bitef became Bitef

It was crowded, and there was no chance to enter the hall of the Center for Cultural Decontamination and attend the "Art, Resistance and Solidarity" forum, which finished second no:Bitef.

There is no one who was not there., like once on Bitef. It was standing in the yard, on the Birčaninova sidewalk around the CZKD building. People came eager for a good word, an idea that moves forward, art. They were positive and together, they were Bitef.

Photo: Mina Ciric

Ne:Bitef celebrated Bitef's 60th birthday as befits on Saturday, September 20. In Belgrade, whose culture is still Europe, no matter how far they move away from it.

Photo: Mina Ciric

And until then, from noon to 18 p.m., Belgrade was under the sign of no: BTEFA. Programs on the occasion of 60 years of Bitef were held in 60 places in the city. Entrance was free, everyone could come to the microstage they were interested in, and stay as long as they liked.

Here are some impressions.

Reflektor theater

Those who chose to return to Sarajevski 84 to the poetics of Rene Poleš, an author who was part of the 39th Bitef, who understood the theater as a space of free thought and collective creation without a fourth wall, became the first audience of the Reflektor Theater.

Photo: Mina Ciric

On the ne:Bitefa website, it is written that the space is still a construction site, and Minja Bogavac, director of the Reflektor Theater, announced to those present that the opening will be on October 7.

Ljubica Beljanski Ristić talked about Polyphony, which until recently, for 25 years continuously, was an obligatory ingredient of Bitef, the attendees read excerpts from Poleš's plays, interviews, reviews, catalogs and newsletters of the 39th Bitef, his performance was played on the big screen...

Photo: Mina Ciric

And yet, the spotlight took away the new space, the future place of the "Reflektor" theater, and joy because it was created.

Ivan Medenica

"From Peter Stein to Thomas Ostermeier", the story of Schaubine am Leiner Platz, whose plays have been performed at Bitef for decades, was a microstage program curated by Ivan Medenica.

Photo: Mina Ciric

He began the story with a description of the theater building itself, a pearl of modernist architecture from the 20s of the 20th century, then he spoke live with Thomas Ostermeier, the artistic director of this theater since 2000, plays were shown by the founder of Schaubina, Peter Stein, and Ostermeier, and at the end they were discussed.

For former students of professor Medenica, this ne:Bitefa program had a special sentimental and nostalgic emotion.

Eternal Persia

In Knez Mihailova 23, on the ne:Bitefa program, there was a video work by Ognjen Obradović and Nikola Polić Eternal Persia, inspired by Aeschylus To the Persians directed by Dimiter Gočev and performed at the 42nd Bitef in 2008, as they were previously declared the play of the year by the critics of the Theater heute magazine.

Photo: Promo/Sonja Žugić

The two men fighting over the wall, the central image of Gočevl's play, became part of the video work, which asks the question: are we still standing in front of the same wall, so many centuries later? Exciting.

Selected not:Bitef tour

Marina Madjarev, theater critic of "Vremen", chose to see Dragan Živadinov, founder of Gledalisč Sester Scipion Nasica and multiple participant of Bitef, at Uzun Mirkova 10, and to hear a lecture by Ksenija Radulović, a professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, and a conversation between director Nikita Milivojević and Milo Rau in Cetinjska 15.

Here's what she said:

"The building where Živadinov was, is an old, very beautiful Belgrade high-rise. When I entered, I had the feeling that I had walked into a play by Vaclav Havel Mary fights with angels. In that play, the actress Maria is banned from performing and decides to have a theater in her own house. Of course, this is not about a ban, it is about a performative act, about information, a form of development that informs the audience. Everything happens in the library of an apartment.

In the dark, which was necessary because the artist uses a power point presentation, Zivadinov waited for us, and from the dark he spoke to us the verses of the Slovenian poet in Slovenian. He then spoke about his own projects, the relationship between him and Bitef, the importance of Bitef for his artistic development, and the importance of Bitef for European art. He connected all that with what is the tradition of the first avant-garde, with Maljevic.

His performance was very exciting. It was not a classic lecture, a story that has a beginning, middle and end, but while listening to it, you have the feeling that a man is following his own train of thought, telling you some impressions and important things that concern him, now.

About Kantor and Mira Trailović

Professor Ksenija Radulović talked about Tadeusz Kantor and his relationship with Bitef. She wrote a book about Bitef and Mira Trailović, so it was a very interesting story about Bitef and Polish culture and artists, and the importance of Mira Trailović as one of the first female theater managers, who started an important festival, and her position in that, one might say, masculine world.

Nikita Milivojević and Milo Rau

Nikita Milivojević and Milo Rau discussed Milo Rau's former projects and current ones, the relationship between art and politics, art and society, and the possibility of a way to defend freedom through art. So it was an extremely important conversation."

In the hope that there will be no need for the next one, the second no has been completed: Bitef. In today's Belgrade, this guerilla festival was the only real way for Bitef to celebrate its 60th birthday.

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