Same as last year thanks no:Bitefu to Belgrade Milo Rau came with a play "Playing Process" although the local authorities consider him persona non grata, so this September 20, on second edition ne:Bitefa, come authors who refused to participate in Bitef.
Namely, after being a sign of solidarity with the local art scene and the libertarian spirit of Bitef, canceled coming to this year's institutional edition of the festival, the German collective Gob Squad and the Italian theater troupe Motus are still coming to Belgrade.
Gift-after-the-performance-Proces-Peliko_Photo-Jelena-Janković-01-e1765878792735-1000×560 Jelena Janković FDUGift to the audience after the performance "Proces Peliko"
Milo Rau will come to no: Bitef this year, Anja Suša, perennial selector of Bitef and winner of the Grand Prix "Mira Trailović" in 2023, will also be there, director Euđenio Barba confirmed his online presence, Dragan Živojinov is coming from Slovenia - in a word, it will be a festival with international participants.
We are talking to by the author team ne:Bitefa, which is the same as last year: with Miloš Lolić, Ana Vujanović, Borisav Matić, Jelena Knežević, Miona Đenisijević and Mladen Savković.
The Bitef selector does not deal with contemporary theater
Ana Vujanović says that they did not hope for this year's edition.
"Last year's no:Bitef was the result of enormous enthusiasm, invested time, sincere emotions towards Bitef and its values, but also the free work of engaged cultural workers. We were all happy and proud of what was achieved, but we believed that this somewhat crazy action was a one-time event."
However, says Ana Vujanović, "this year, the autocratic ruling structures once again overstepped the mark and provoked us to gather in free spaces and oppose the devastation of our oldest and largest festival. For those of us who grew and formed with Bitef, it has grown into a kind of mythical symbol of freedom, experiment and critical thought. It may be a bit romantic, but we need such inspiration to maintain faith in the importance of civil disobedience, which is remained unchanged".
Photo: Promo/Nata KorenovskayaFrom the play "Proces Pellico"
"On the other hand, organizational-production misunderstanding and aesthetic-political insensitivity to the place and importance of such a festival for the local cultural community remained. This can be seen in the election of the new selector and president of the Board of Directors The rescue of Z. Milovanović, who does not deal with contemporary experimental theater at all, and did not even visit Bitef as an audience."
Ana Vujanović believes that there is also "censorship that we simply must not agree to. We do not forget that Srđan Obrenović and Ana Veljković, who participated in last year's censorship, are still in the Board of Directors, while the Secretary of Culture Jelena Medaković has also not commented on that censorship. In a broader sense, what remains is the semblance of normality in a time of great social dramas. We just want to respond to that time. Because it is our time."
Guerrilla enterprise beyond the reach of the authorities
Borisav Matić says that the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade cannot prevent them from holding non:Bitef.
"The secretariat, under the direction of the previous and current secretary, is only skilled in not holding events of public importance or holding them in a bizarre form. It is precisely because of them that Bitef and Fest were not held last year in their institutional form, and in 2026, together with the October Salon and the Book Fair, they will be held unrecognizable and with fierce opposition from the cultural community."
Photo:Promo/Nata Koremovskayanot:Bitef 2025.
Matić believes that "if the occupiers of the cultural scene - Minister Selaković, Secretary Medaković and their apparatchiks in the administrations of institutions - expected the community to passively observe their shameless seizure of public cultural assets like Bitef, they were mistaken. It is the duty of the Bitef community to resist the kidnapping of the official festival through non-Bitef".
"The occupiers of culture cannot prevent us from doing so, because our guerilla enterprise is beyond their reach - they are only skilled in preventing the manifestations for which they are responsible for taking place. In addition, more than a hundred cultural workers from Serbia and Europe joined together in organizing this year's no:Bitef - what can the secretary imagine to prevent that?"
Why should we cooperate with censors?
Others don't: Bitef celebrates 60 years of Bitef. That is why, symbolically, it is held at 60 locations in Belgrade. In that context, did the Bitef festival offer them cooperation?
To this question, Miloš Lolić answers with a question:
"What kind of cooperation?! First, we live in two different calendars: a handful of ignoramuses are still unsuccessfully trying to organize the 59th Bitef for us, and the community of a large number of cultural workers is already celebrating the 60th edition of the festival. Second, who could wish to cooperate with proven censors? Certainly not us from not: Bitef, but neither the majority of cultural representatives in Serbia, nor artists from the region and the world. The new chairman of the Board obviously agrees with last year's censorship, otherwise he would not have accepted that in his The censors from last year, whom Anna already mentioned, sit on the board."
Lolić notes that "the secretary of culture avoids speaking about last year's censorship in public appearances, which makes people laugh due to the general absurdity, but actually automatically disqualifies her. She trusts that last year will be magically forgotten, that all wrongdoings will be covered up by holding a barely concluded theater gathering falsely presenting itself as Bitef".
"Since their first selection collapsed due to the solidarity that world artists gave to our cultural workers, their second selection is bogged down in a dead end of incompetence and politicking. That hard-to-remove stain inflicted on the long history of the libertarian Bitef only serves the secretary to have something to pin on her party lapel this fall," says Miloš Lolić.
Everyone was happy to respond to the invitation
Mladen Savković points out that in the second edition of ne:Bitef, "more than a hundred people from different parts of Europe decided to stand in solidarity with ne:Bitef. There is, above all, the local scene that grew up and developed with Bitef. Many of them were an integral part of the main or supporting program of the festival in previous years, others participated in its organization, and some were loyal audiences and it is unthinkable for them that September pass without the festival".
Photo:Promo/Nata KorenovskayaMilo Rau
He says that "everyone very willingly responded to the invitation and agreed that this year, as well as the previous one, they will work together to win ne:Bitef - free of charge, with a lot of effort, time and ideas. In addition to them, there are also artists from our region, from Europe, as well as from other meridians. Just like last year, this year too many people came to ask how they can get involved and contribute to ne:Bitef. This is more than a clear sign that they also recognized who was behind the censorship at Bitef, why there was no institutional Bitef last year and why this year they do not want to have anything to do with the aforementioned Board and the selection made by Spasoje Ž. Milovanović".
Those to whom Bitef belongs
Second no: Bitef takes place on September 20, the same day that the 59th Bitef ends. Accidental or intentional?
Jelena Knežević says that according to their time calculation, "the 59th Bitef ended last year, in December. Now it's time for the 60th Bitef - and that's why this year we are celebrating 60 years of Bitef."
He notes that "what is currently announced as the official edition of Bitef has, unfortunately, almost nothing to do with the idea of Bitef, neither in terms of programming nor in the organizational sense. It is difficult to call it anything other than the collapse of what Bitef has represented for decades. In contrast, this year's commemoration of 60 years of Bitef has gathered relevant actors from the domestic and international scene to whom this festival belongs and who have created and shaped it throughout its history. This takes place through an experimental festival format in which the community is the bearer curatorial and production capacities".
According to her, "Bitef and Not:Bitef today represent two parallel realities, so it is increasingly difficult to establish any relationship between them - even a relationship of criticism. Therefore, the question is no longer whether their dates overlap, but what we recognize as Bitef today. After everything that happened to Bitef, the fact that Bitef was not canceled can hardly be declared a good ending."
And next year?
If the circumstances in the country and its attitude towards culture change by the time of the next Bitef, will there be no: Bitef again?
"If the change in the attitude of the state towards culture leads to the maintenance of an independent Bitef, it will happen and ne:Bitef only under its original name - Bitef. And it will be, like these sixty years, where we gather", announces Miona Đenisijević, part of the ne:Bitef team.
And until then, let's take a look at the free festival of 60 micro scenes with which ne:Bitef marks the jubilee 60th edition of Bitef this year.
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