What kind of Bitef do we need - is the question that started a series of discussions that will be organized during the preparation of the 57th edition of the festival, and which was the occasion for the new artistic director, Nikita Milivojević, to present his team.
That's it for now, since it's too early to announce the shows that will come to Belgrade at the end of September, and the main news about the new Bitef. Namely, Bitef also got a co-selector team which, apart from Milivojević, also includes the producer of the program Ksenija Đurović and the playwright of the festival Tijana Grumić.
Milivojević explained that better ideas come from three different perspectives, and that he believes that it is better for the festival if the selection does not depend on one person.
He also said that the participants of the 57th Bitef will be announced at the end of May, so when it was announced, the only thing missing was a decision on one or two more performances. He also said that the fear of whether there would be enough time to form the program was justified, but that he expected everything to be fine.
The lack of time he mentions, let's recall, refers to the circumstance that Nikita Milivojević was appointed as the new artistic director of Bitef in February, instead of Ivan Medenica, who had been in that position for seven years, and that meant that the festival program had to be prepared in just three months.
Elem: what kind of Bitef do we need, that is, what is the answer to the question that was the occasion and reason for the aforementioned conversation?
Ksenija Đurović, co-selector of the Bitef festival, tells the "Vremena" portal that they invited "Bitef's audience, people who actively participate in the creation of the theater scene" to the interview.
"It was important for us to hear their memories of Bitef, to find out which of his changes stand out and how they evaluate them, whether they were good for Bitef or not." These data are very useful guidelines for future programs," says Ksenija Đurović.
The concrete answer, the conclusion of this first conversation, he says, is that "we still need a brave and uncompromising Bitef", and he points out that we need a Bitef" that will be open to all audiences".
"Simply put, we need Bitef for everything." The existing public perception of Bitef is that it belongs to high culture. We, as a selection team, would like to keep the experiment in the program, and to keep the level of high culture, but to make it accessible to everyone. When I say that, I don't mean a populist program, but a program that will be able to communicate with everyone."
Ksenija Đurović announces that there will be more conversations like this because they want to review themselves and thus improve their work.
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