Bitef festival is at the end of its historic year - it will soon be known whether it will survive or not.
Bitef is extremely important for the culture of Serbia: it is our biggest theater festival, one of the most important in Europe and renowned in the world. The state, however, behaves as if Bitef's crisis is not worth any attention and is pushing it towards closure. In the eyes of the public, it's a big scandal.
Where to start?
Since the opening of last year's 58th Bitef festival on September 25, from speech by the Swiss director Milo Rau, director of the Vienna Festival, in which he said that "Scholz called on the Serbs to make sacrifices for Europe, for so-called 'sustainable' energy." The local government heard this as an attack on Rio Tinto, felt threatened, got very angry with Rau and the entire Bitef, and set out to take revenge.
Nikita Milivojević, new Board
The director was the first to be punished. Nikita Milivojević, artistic director of the 58th Bitef - The city assembly did not extend his mandate, because he invited Rau and his play "Antigone in the Amazon". The decision was made in mid-March of this year, at a time when the program for the next, 59th Bitef should have been almost formed.
Photo: Promo/Bitef "Antigone in the Amazon"
In those days, the Board of Bitef was appointed, the president is the actor Svetozar Cvetković, and it was thought that everything would again take its course towards the new edition of Bitef. However, a legal crisis arose. According to Bitef rules, the City Assembly should appoint an artistic director. The Assembly did not do that, because it was waiting for the adoption of the Change in the Rules on City Cultural Manifestations. That is why the Bitef program had no one to select. The Secretariat did not pay attention to the objections of the Board and the public that time was running out.
"All this is happening terribly late, because the Rules dictate that the Board must adopt the program no later than 60 days before the start of Bitef, and we still don't even have an artistic director," Cvetković told Vreme at the time and emphasized:
"I understand that for some generations Bitef does not mean what it means to us who have been associated with it since Tito's time, but it means to us. Don't forget that Bitef has a great reputation in the whole world, and that's why I would never want anything to happen that would jeopardize that. After all, that's why I accepted to be at the head of its Board."
Bitef and the City Assembly
It was the end of March, and The city assembly did not sign the contract with the Bitef theater, the producer of the festival, and thereby called into question the implementation of the entire program.
At the beginning of April, the Secretariat for Culture proposed to the Board to take on the role of selector. The board refused and suggested that Nikita Milivojević's mandate be extended. The secretariat refused, with a hint of a new candidate for Bitef's artistic director, who will immediately prepare the entire program.
"We will not agree to such a decision being imposed on us. We will decide on our own, in accordance with the new rules on the city's cultural manifestations that have been announced. We will do what is best for Bitef," Svetozar Cvetković told "Vremena" at the time.
Lolic
In the middle of May (only) the City Assembly adopted the Change in the Rules on Cultural Institutions. The change gave greater freedom to the institution - for example, the Board could choose the artistic director and not the mayor as before, which enabled Cvetković and the Board to immediately announce that the new artistic director would be European director Miloš Lolić.
Photo: Promo/NPMiloš Lolic
"We finished all the agreements with him, and we were only waiting for this session of the City Assembly and their decision on the new rules," Cvetkovic told "Vremen" and announced that the Bitef Board will also propose a new date for the festival. "Instead of the current appointment in September, we will ask for a postponement to the last ten days of November."
Thus, after three months, the crisis was overcome, and it was finally possible to start preparing the program for November's 59th Bitef. It started with a bang, Miloš Lolić worked with a team that included Borisav Matić and Ana Vujanović. They were assigned a budget of 20 million dinars, never smaller in the history of Bitef.
Lolić and the Committee
And then a new crisis arose.
At the meeting on September 29, Miloš Lolić and his team proposed their program for the 59th Bitef to the Board. The list of plays also included Milo Rau's "Proces Pellicot", which talks about sexual and gender-based violence against the French woman Giselle Pellicot, who was drugged by her husband for decades and raped together with his friends.
Of the four members of the Board present (the fifth, playwright Đorđe Kosić, withdrew earlier due to personal reasons), only Svetozar Cvetković voted for the proposed program. Journalist Borka Golubović Trebješanin, producer Srđan Obrenović and representative of the Secretariat for Culture Ana Veljković were against it. Their arguments were not about the quality of the play, they didn't even talk about it, but about Rau, that is, that he is unwelcome in Serbia.
Resignations
The artistic team understood this decision of the Board as censorship, which is why Miloš Lolić and Borisav Matić resigned, and Ana Veljković left the Artistic Directorate back in September.
Then they two members of the Board also submitted their resignations: Svetozar Cvetković, and then Borka Golubović Trebješanin.
Photo: Tanjug/Strahinja AćimovićSvetozar Cvetkovic
At that moment, Bitef was a festival without an Artistic Directorate and with two Board members.
Last week, when Lolić and Matić sent a statement to the public about disagreements with the Board, the public reacted violently. It was assessed that such a decision by the members of the Board was not ethical and it was suggested that Bitef should not be held this year and wait for some more free times.
New attempts
And yet, they are still trying to make Bitef at the end of November.
"We are working to ensure that Bitef exists and very soon we will announce what Bitef's repertoire looks like. Something can destroy it, but I don't believe it," Cvetkovic told "Vremen" last week.
Namely, the Board exists in its entirety because it has not been dismissed and until then it will continue to do its job - preparing this year's Bitef.
When immediately after this announcement by Cvetković, Lolić and Matić sent a statement to the public about disagreements with the Board, the reactions of the public were stormy. It was assessed that such a decision by the members of the Board was not ethical and it was suggested that Bitef should not be held this year and wait for some more free times.
The current conclusion of the "Bitef case" is that there is hope.
U conversation with Cvetković prompted by the announcement of Lolić and Matić, which we published on October 24, it says the following:
"With good intentions, I agreed with the management of Bitef and the Board that as the central event of the festival we would invite the performance of Bros. Romeo Castellucci, which was in Miloš's selection, and to work on holding the festival. For this, an agreement was reached with the mutual termination agreement that the festival can use one title from the program defined by Lolić. Despite the indignation that as a result of the Board's vote on his selection, censorship was implemented over the selection of one author, we both wanted the festival to remain in life and be preserved, perhaps according to Miloš's suggestion, even with one or two titles.
My contact with Lolić on that occasion is with mutual good intentions, even if he is no longer officially part of that program.
However, I came before the Board with several proposals that I hope will be possible to implement."
We are waiting for a resolution.
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