The new artistic director of Bitef is director and professor Nikita Milivojević. He was appointed yesterday, at the session of the City Assembly.
Nikita Milivojević will replace Ivan Medenica as artistic director of Bitef, who held this position for the previous seven years (50-56 Bitef), and whose mandate expired in December last year, Bitef announced.
Last week, Ivan Medenica announced that he was withdrawing from work on the preparation of the 57th Bitef due to his legally unregulated status after the end of his mandate at the end of 2022 and the inability to establish communication with the city's Secretariat for Culture in connection with that situation. "In such improvised circumstances, such a recognizable institution as Bitef cannot be run," said Medenica at the time.
Public reactions regarding this change at the head of Bitef are negative, but not because of Nikita Milivojević, who succeeded Medenica, but because of the Secretariat for Culture of the city, which is the reason for Medenica's departure.
Member of the "Together" party in the Belgrade City Assembly, Dejan Atanacković, believes that the government is responsible for the fact that Medenica left the Belgrade International Theater Festival, even though he brought this event to the rank of leading theater events in Europe.
"The way in which the artistic director was treated and the decision not to extend his mandate after its expiration are an indication of the way in which this government treats professional individuals."
The movement Ne davimo Beograd believes that "what the authorities could not forgive Professor Medenica for is his pointing out the systemic arrogance and negligence of the Belgrade City Assembly and the Secretariat for Culture towards cultural manifestations of public importance that promote the reputation of this city in the world, as BITEF does for more than fifty years. On the one hand, BITEF, FEST or Oktobarski Salon, manifestations of decades of importance, are collapsing, and on the other, the government promotes commercial festivals such as Beer Fest or completely non-existent, phantom festivals such as the Classico festival. These projects serve exclusively to conclude private deals of persons connected to the ruling party, as our movement has pointed out before."
Miloš Latinović, the director of the Bitef theater, says that the theater "will do everything to ensure that the next festival is in the light of what we have been doing for years. So, what Ivan Medenica created as an art director should continue in that manner. But, of course, we can't expect the same, because selectors have different affinities."
He emphasized that "it is a very short time for the organization because many troops have already completed their arrangements for this year. But Bitef has the credibility of being a festival that is a great reference for both personal and theatrical biography. That's why I'm not afraid that we'll get some truncated festival."
Bitef states that Nikita Milivojević is one of the leading Serbian theater directors and a full professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He achieved a notable career both in Serbia and around the world. He directed in England, USA, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Slovenia, Macedonia. He is the winner of all relevant theater awards in his country: the "Bojan Stupica" award, several Sterija awards, the "Politikina" award for the best director at the 31st Bitef, the critic's award of the theater magazine "Scena", the annual awards of many theaters and festivals (of the National Theater in Belgrade, Serbian National Theater, Yugoslav Drama Theater, Small Theater "Duško Radović", Šabac Theater "Ljubiša Jovanović", Grada - theater Budva...). He was the director of the Bitef Theater from 2005 to 2009 and achieved numerous international successes during his tenure.
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