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This year's Bitef, with 1664 Blanc as general sponsor, will be taking place under the slogan "Beauty Will (Not) Save the World". With a few regional and two domestic productions in the Main programme the voices of the region will courageously examine everything we've learnt when it comes to sex education, gender perspectives, identity markers, as well as our relationship with nature.
One of the three lecture-performances that constitute a distinct part within the festival’s main programme is Sex Education II: Fight by young Slovenian director Tjaša Črnigoj, co-produced by the Nova Pošta (Mladinsko Theatre, Maska Ljubljana), and City of Women. This lecture-performance explores the struggle for reproductive rights in post-war Yugoslavia, at the same time informing us about the contemporary context that defines this issue at present day.
In a convincing, empowering, and often humorous manner, two female performers guide us through the exciting history of this struggle and its leader in Slovenia - Vida Tomšič, a participant in the National Liberation Struggle, a national heroine, Slovenian Parliament speaker, president of the Women's Antifascist Front (AFŽ), a revolutionary and feminist. She was one of the key figures responsible for Yugoslavia inheriting progressive practices regarding reproductive rights, which, although hard-won long ago, unfortunately, are not guaranteed at present day, even in nominally progressive parts of the world.
this is my truth, tell me yours is yet another lecture-performance in this year's festival programme, produced by the Centre for Drama Art Zagreb (Croatia) and Via Negativa and City of Women organisations from Ljubljana (Slovenia). Author Jasna Žmak explores her own relationship with the artistic field of her own creation - dramaturgy.
This anxious dramaturge, alone on stage, strives to conquer her inner unrest by bravely and wittily telling us of her experience in the theater process, which led to her developing tinnitus. At the same time, she explores themes of misogyny, working in culture and homophobia, drawing from her personal authorial experience as well as in the broader context of performing arts in general.
Jasna Žmak will present this is my truth, tell me yours twice - 30 September and 1 October at 6pm, at the Bitef theater stage.
This year's Bitef programme is also comprised of two domestic productions, one of which is We Are Going to Make Something about War, Gender and Liberty, It Will Be Titled: What Would Chelsea Say by authors and performers Đorđe Živadinović Grgur and Irena Ristić. This is another piece at this year's festival focusing on the lecture-performance format, but it goes a step further by simultaneously presenting a kind of a theatrical inquiry, inspired by American whistleblower Chelsea Manning, a transgender woman and former US Army intelligence analyst.
An additional intriguing aspect of this inquiry is the collaboration with architecture students who, alongside the authors, contemplated the design of spaces where Manning found herself during key moments of her whistleblowing on US military war crimes. In addition, the uniqueness of this performance is also reflected in the audience’s chance to choose between being observers behind the scene (sometimes also literally behind the curtain), and actively participating in the inquiry, thus contributing, in a kind of co-authorship, through their insights, actions and reflections, to the development of this exciting and important story.
We Are Going to Make Something about War, Gender and Liberty, It Will Be Titled: What Would Chelsea Say will be presented at Bitef 28 and 29 September at 5pm and 8pm at the Podroom Gallery at the Cultural Centre of Belgrade.
The performance Future by Žiga Divjak, a co-production between Belgrade Drama Theatre and City Theatre Ljubljana, is yet another domestic production in this year's Main programme. Slovenian director, whom the audience of the 56Bitef22 had the privilege of meeting through his piece Crises, continues to explore dystopian visions typical of his style, only this time shifting the focus from an anthropocentric perspective to non-human experiences.
This almost nonverbal performance of striking aesthetics tells a story of birds encountering the waste that humans leave behind. Divjak explores the destructive impact of capitalism and consumerism on the natural world, creating a touching piece that urges us to re-examine our relationship with nature.
Future will be presented at the Olivera and Rade Marković Main Stage of the Belgrade Drama Theatre 30 September at 8pm.
Patrons of the festival are the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. General sponsor of this year's Bitef is 1664 Blanc, which has recognized the significance of the festival as a cultural event and contributes to its success. Traditionally, the festival has received support from Goethe Institut, Institut français, and the EU Delegation. Partner and friend of the Bitef festival is the New Moment New Ideas Company, creative agency of the festival. Generali osiguranje Srbija, Erste Bank a.d. Novi Sad and Coca-Cola Hellenic Serbia are once again partners of the festival.
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