At the session of the City Assembly on Tuesday, new rules were adopted for 14 cultural manifestations of importance for Belgrade. Thanks to them, the government has the opportunity to influence the artistic and programming concept of those institutions. Here's what it's all about.
According to the Secretariat for Culture, the need for new rules arose because of the city's decision two years ago that cultural events important to the city can get a selector.
On Tuesday, it was voted that the city assembly elects the selector from among "established personalities in the field of culture" for a period of two years. The selector prepares and proposes to the event committee a part of the program and performs other tasks related to the determination of that program part.
Both the artistic director and the selector are appointed by the City Assembly from among "established personalities from the field of culture". Both the artistic director and the selector have the right to compensation for their work, the amount of which is determined by the mayor (!) of Belgrade, every year.
It was also voted that each manifestation has a committee with a president, a representative of the City of Belgrade. Neither the president nor the other members of those committees were specified to be persons from the cultural sphere.
How it will look in practice can be seen on the example of the Bitef festival.
The city assembly appointed the artistic director and the Board of the Bitef festival. Nikita Milivojević is the artistic director, and the president of the festival board is Nataša Mihailović Vacic, city secretary for culture. The other members are Olja Milošević, Miloš Latinović, Nebojša Jakovljević and Ana Ilić.
The Board of the Bitef festival, as well as all other manifestations important for Belgrade, determines the program and the amount of funds needed for the realization of that program, determines the place, time and duration of the manifestation, among other things.
The selector of the Bitef festival, as well as other important manifestations, has not yet been chosen.
We will repeat: the parliamentary decision states that cultural events significant for the city can get a selector. That depends on the Festival Committee, headed by, we will repeat, a representative of the City Assembly. Thus, the Board, for example the Bitef festival, can assess that in addition to the artistic director, a selector is also needed, some person affirmed in culture, who will implement a program that the Board will agree with.
Miloš Latinović, director of Bitef and a member of the festival board, says that until now, before this decision, "legally and formally there was only an artistic director who also did the work of a selector", and he believes that "it is good to separate those two functions".
"It would be best if the artistic director, who designs the concept and takes a broad and long-term view of the festival's physiognomy, has a mandate of four years, and the selector, who chooses performances based on the artistic director's concept, for two."
It goes without saying, Miloš Latinović says, that their cooperation "would have to be harmonized and free of any other interests than artistic ones", but he does not rule out another possibility.
"Who will be the eventual selector depends exclusively on the City Assembly," says Latinović.
He says that the preparation of the 57th Bitef has continued where it was interrupted by Ivan Medenica's recent decision to leave the festival.
"The deadline is short, but Nikita Milivojević will choose the best performances from those we can get," Latinović announces.
Latinović says that among them are not the plays proposed by Mihail Shvidkoi, the cultural advisor of Russian President Putin, during his visit to Bitef. "At that meeting, he neither offered nor did we arrange any Russian performance. We mentioned the Chekhov Festival, but we didn't talk about specific performances."
He explains that the choice of possible plays "does not mean that we will declare all the plays we can get to be the best, but rather we will choose, for example, five of them, or as many as they deserve to come to Belgrade, regardless of the shorter duration of the festival. Nikita Milivojević has his own selection, and we are here to help him," says Miloš Latinović.
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
