Premiere of the play Jelena Anžujska she was in Budva at the beginning of September, a month later she opened the "Joakimfest" in Kragujevac, and on November 5 she will also be in the National Theater in Belgrade. At the beginning of November, rehearsals of the play begin at the National Theater in Užice Maga, and in Herceg Novi it will be premiered by the end of the same month Princesses. They are all connected by the playwright Jelena Kajgo, and further on in the text it is explained why "playwright" was not written.
The Serbian ruler Jelena Anžujska, the Montenegrin princess Ksenija and the versatile Maga Magazinović left behind countless topics, so in this conversation we only mentioned the Bitef dance company where Jelena Kajgo is the artistic director.
"WEATHER" All three did not seem to belong to their time and environment. In Jelena and Ksenija's time, and finally in Maginot, men did not achieve what they achieved either. Therefore, it can be assumed that they encountered resistance. I want to say that all three of these are your dramas, except about their life, at the same time, the relationship between the environment and the individual who overcomes it.
JELENA KAJGO: Exactly. These three women are examples of strong, grounded, penetrating personalities, who lived far ahead of their time by all parameters. In the dark thirteenth century, a century when power is stolen, conquered by the sword, in a man's world where everyone hits everyone without mercy, Jelena of Anjou, as a highly educated person, held power in a large part of the Serbian state for decades. She was loved and respected both by the people and by the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople. There are few such personalities in history. Ksenia Petrović, like Jelena, was also provided with an education because she grew up in the royal house, but she chose her own art of photography, she was the first woman in the Balkans to drive a car and the right hand of her father, King Nikola. Unlike them, Maga Magazinović had to fight for her own education, and high school was not enough for her, she graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and became the first female journalist of Politics. Then she studied acting and dancing in Berlin. In 1910, she opened the School of Rhythmic and Plastic Art in Belgrade based on Isidore Duncan's revolutionary playing style, at a time when much larger and wealthier cities in Europe did not have schools of this type. But of course, any type of progressive ideas is met with resistance by certain structures of society. In this case, maybe even with some other women, who at that time wanted to be housewives, to cook and raise children, without wanting to get an education or burden themselves with some work. Even today, you have that principle among women who want rich husbands and an easy life, without work and the need for some personal achievements, even if that position sometimes collapses their personal integrity.
A performance Jelena Anžujska, which, according to your text, was directed by Tatjana Mandić Rigonat, she drew public attention to this important woman. Why is little known about her?? Maybe because history is mostly interested in male historical figures?
It is truly incredible that her extraordinary personality has been so relegated to the margins of our history. When we talk about the period when Jelena of Anjou lived, it was certainly an era of absolute male domination. The church played a big role in the European countries of the Middle Ages, and therefore a big role in the life of every person, and there you had God, the pope, the patriarch. Male figures. Then an empress, and very rarely an empress who had substantial power. And Jelena was a woman who greatly influenced the politics of her country, she was the link between the coastal part of Zeta, which she ruled, and where the Catholic population mostly lived, and Raška, which was ruled by her husband, King Uroš, and then her sons Dragutin and Milutin. So, a Christian in the true sense of the word, baptized as a Catholic, buried according to the Orthodox rite. But what was most important to me when it comes to her character is that she was a woman who opened schools for poor girls at her courts, educated them, taught them how to tie and cook, then gave them a dowry, helped them get married and continue their independent life. life. For the time, that was an admirable feat. She tried to help the poor, of course not only girls, she was a great benefactor and a great builder. There are numerous of her endowments, churches and monasteries for the construction of which she hired the greatest artists of the time.
Jelena of Anjou was a ruler in the Middle Ages, which is rare even in today's world. In today's Serbia, women are part of the parliament, but, one gets the impression, in order to fulfill the quota implied by Europe and not because they were respected.
Yes, mostly women are part of political life because of certain quotas. It seems to me that it is similar in most European countries. Or let's take America for example - out of forty-five presidents of a country that promotes democracy and equality, not a single president has been a woman. Maybe that turn will happen just now. Of course, the situation is similar with other world powers. Or, let's say, if we are talking about the field of culture, our ministers have always been men in a large majority, and of the thirty-two directors of the national theater in its history, only twice were they women.
Princess Xenia influenced the politics of her country, which means that in addition to the patriarchal attitude of the environment, he also had to overcome the authority of his father.
That's right, but I think that King Nicholas saw in her a good collaborator and that she very quickly broke all prejudices if he had any. To me, the entire Petrović dynasty is endlessly interesting, with seven penetrating, intelligent daughters, headed by the extraordinary Jelena Savoy, the then Queen of Italy.
photo: milan radovanovic...
Maga Magazinović was versatile and successful in everything she did, primarily thanks to personal abilities, but also thanks to the influences she received abroad. That is why the story about her is also a story about Serbia and Europe. Do you agree?
Yes, the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century was a time of great prosperity in Serbia, which, unfortunately, was interrupted by the First World War. At that time, many future intellectuals and artists were educated in Vienna, Paris, Berlin... Maga was one of them. On the other hand, at that time we also had very good relations with America and, for example, we "sent" Tesla and Pupin to them. In any case, I am sorry that Serbia did not continue on that path, but was constantly dragged backwards by wars. Currently, we have a large outflow of young people to Europe, but I don't really like the image of that new Europe. A Europe where you are not allowed to play variations on Tchaikovsky's music at a ballet competition in Germany or Norway, or where it is not desirable to protest or speak out against the suffering of the Palestinian people. I am really deeply concerned about the direction taken by European diplomats, and with them the wider cultural community.
The world is run by men.. Who is to blame? Whether it was men who suppressed women in order to elevate themselves or women because they failed / they had the need to fend for themselves?
Of course, in the first place, the responsibility for the unequal position of women throughout the centuries has been borne by men. Honor the exceptions. Let's not forget how many injustices women endured until they finally got the right to vote, one of the basic human rights. In Switzerland, they received it only in 1971. Misogyny is widespread, especially in the Balkans, violence against women is everyday. Activism in this sense, no matter how boring it may be to some, must not stop. On the contrary.
The position of women in society is, justified, mandatory and frequent topic of everyday life, and it became an obligation to be prominent, so be it, for example, it stands out if an award is won by a woman. Does this endanger men??
Social circumstances change and that is normal. I don't think women can threaten men in any segment of life. What can happen is a change in the relationship of power in a marriage or relationship, today when women are economically independent. Recently, we had an example of that, ingrained in our beings, pattern that men are the ones who are powerful, rich, successful: we went to visit a friend who has a wonderful villa with a swimming pool. One joking comment was that his wife married well. The house turned out to be hers. Therefore, it is still rare for women to engage in business that brings in big money. Big capital is still in male hands. Hence, I guess, constant arming and constant warfare.
How do you introduce yourself? in masculine or feminine gender determiner playwright and artistic director?
Mixed, as a playwright and art director, because honestly, when it comes to gender in our language, I am a supporter of spontaneous and not imposed terms. Language is a living mechanism, it changes, accepts something, rejects something. I think it's cosmetic and not the essence. Let's say, in Britain and America, therefore, in the English language spoken by a large part of the world, you have only three feminine nouns: waitress, actress and queen. You don't have a minister, a doctor, a professor... Again, England was ushered into the golden age by a woman, Queen Elizabeth, and one of the most important political figures of recent times was Margaret Thatcher. I am, of course, a supporter of introducing and using the names of professions in the feminine gender, but what is really important is that women have the same wages as men for certain jobs, the same conditions for education and advancement in work, good conditions for childbirth and raising children..., and of course, to participate fully equally in the political life of the country.
And now a question that has nothing to do with the occasion of our conversation, but it cannot be skipped: can you even perform this second duty, artistic director of the Bitef dance company, considering that the Ministry of Culture rejected your projects?
It is truly inexplicable that the only professional dance company in Serbia did not receive support for its work from the Ministry of Culture, in a year when we are celebrating fifteen years since its foundation and when we have behind us forty one dance productions with some of the most important European, regional and domestic choreographers , won forty awards and more than two hundred and fifty guest appearances realized in the country and the world. But the easiest thing would be to withdraw and give up. On the contrary, we will celebrate the jubilee on November 22 on the stage of the Bitef Theater with the premiere of the play The Island, which was created for the Bitef dance company by the famous Norwegian choreographer Jo Stromgren, one of the leading European choreographers. We realized the play with our co-producers, the Adriatic Dance Festival in Budva and the company "Jo Stromgren Co". Stromgren's dance style is attractive, dynamic, poetic, often filled with comic and witty dramatic situations. I'm sure the audience will enjoy it.
