Битеф

commented during our negotiations in charming poor Serbo-Croat: Ach, we also our o’n schtabilization have. True. All countries in 1982 face their own stabilisation which they call different names. Nevertheless... The United States of America, at the time when reaganomics are being launched, i.e. avoidance of state financial intervention of any kind, in particular in culture, has this very year granted the largest subvention to one of its ensambles to enable it to participate in BITEF; Romania, where battles are waged for every single calorie, sends its most spectacular play to BITEF; the Soviet Union, in which cuts have been made in the field of foreign cultural policy, is sending its fourth theatrical ensamble succession to Yugoslavia, to BITEF; the Federal Republic od Germany, God knows how many times now, is covering the highs costs of sending its representatives through the Goethe Institute; the Democratic German Republic too is financing one of its best theatre; the Hungarians are sending the Kaposvár Csiky Gergely színház - one of their best - for the second time this year across the Yugoslav border; the Czechoslovaks are placing their ensamble under the label of cultural cooperation, although formally no provision has been made for any group attending the BITEF this year; the Italians, in spite of a complicated procedure for getting a subsidy through for a theatre to go abroad, are giving a substantial sum of money to the Teatro de la Maschera of Rome; while the Fins are paying their Mr Luggage full luggage and travel costs of the actors from distant Helsinki to have Finland represented for the first time at the BITEF. And finally, the Japanese, the artists themselves, are making a sacrifice and coming under extremely modest conditions so as to open this year’s BITEF at the Sava Centre. Finally, Belgrade itself, the capital of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, struggling with manyfold economic problems, decided to preserve its internationally aclaimed

Dans notre note liminaire nous avons, depuis ces quinze ans de l’existence du BITEF, parlé de tout: de l'idée du Festival International Théâtral de Belgrade, de la conception du choix des spectacles, des tendances de développement du théâtre contemporain dans le monde, de la différence entre l’avant-garde et les nouvelles tendances, de la nouvelle présentation des classiques, de la sortie du théâtre dans des espaces nouveaux, du style du théâtre de ce millénaire en essayant de lancer le terme fin de millénaire par analogie avec fin de siècle. Nous n’avons cependant jamais écrit sur un aspect important dans la réalisation de l’idée même du BITEF - nous n’avons pas parlé de son rapport avec la situation économique mondiale. En réfléchissant - et en écrivant là-dessus - il serait facile de constater que le thème n'a pas d’aspect artistique et qu’il n’a donc aucun rapport avec l’essence de l’idée du BITEF. Le Festival International Théâtral de Belgrade a été inauguré en 1967, au moment d'un certain boum économique aussi bien dans notre pays que dans le monde. Sans entrer dans la

festivals, and BITEF among them. The Republies which have their representatives at BITEF are subsidising their attendance. This time these are the Socialist Republic of Croatia and, for the first time at BITEF, the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this world of bad news, a few good intentions and rare “zero options” when speaking of armament, we have within BITEF a modest but obvious example of good will of all, first of all our own and then of others, to cross the frontiers of circumstances and in spite of economic problems, to gather in Belgrade something one could refer to as the noble luxury of the World theatre spirit.□ Mira Trailović and Jovan Ćirilov