Битеф

IN MEMORY OF JOVAN ĆIRILOV

„This introduction which I undersign alone after very many years, is written in the belief that theatre is not made of such fragile stuff as it usually seems to us." The Introduction by Jovan Ćirilov dedicated to Mira Trailović, Catalogue. 23 rd Bitef, 1989 This wll be the first Bitef without Jovan although he never once appeared last year due to his progressing illness. And I nevertheless hoped he would; we all hoped even though we knew that it would be next to impossible. Night after night I would take my seat in the audience sensing ominous void although there was always somebody sitting next to me. This year it will be the same, only a little sadder because now we all know that Jovan will definitely not come. I shall miss the irritating rustle of cellophane over hard sweets he always toyed with in his pockets and which, with the precision and skill of a ninja, he managed to unwrap in a split second in the middle of a performance so that. I suppose, nobody else ever noticed but me. I shall miss also the flash of the camera with which he invariably recorded events and people around him - including me at different moments that I did not really care to remember. And he kept it all and remembered it all whilst never misusing his long and weighty memory. One could say even that he used it sparingly and judiciously, as a valuable spice, particularly in those hard and traumatic moments when we worried together about the future of Bitef. On such occasions a comforting anecdote would usually spring forth, always involving prominent theatre personages or politicians, which Jovan would tell somehow off-hand as if he had just happened to be there and with those people even though he was often one of the protagonists of the event he was telling us about. He always preferred to look at others - through the camera objective, from the theatre hall, in the street, on television - rather than to be looked at. And this is precisely what I am doing writing the text dedicated to memories. I watch Jovan's photograph, the proposed graphic design for our poster this year. Black-and-white, one might say just an ordinary portrait. Jovan, the perfect spectator of many productions, leaning on his elbow, gazes at a distance, over our heads. Or higher? When you look closer, you see two blue Bitef stars in his eyes. And that is it. That is all. The whole forthcoming Bitef is dedicated to the memory of Jovan Ćirilov and it is, unavoidably, the

memory of Bitef itself - as it has been from the beginning and as it, in spite of daily political haggling, must live on. The survival of Bitef is a chance for the victory of the cosmopolitan over the parochial spirit, the victory of the freedom of choice over any type of coercion, the victory of civil resistance over the petit bourgeois apathy, the victory of collective creation over collective destruction. It is Mira's, Jovan's and our Bitef whose long and glorious existence imposes an obligation on all of us. Jovan, I don’t know if I could agree with your belief that theatre is not made of fragile material or spent ideals. I do not know although I live and work as if I have no doubts about it. Distinguished Bitef audience, I shall say nothing about the selected productions. They are here because they are, each in its own way, exciting, disobedient. inspiring, heretical, innovative and brave. Like Bitef itself.

Anja Susa, Curator

Belgrade, June 2015

Jovan Ćirilov i Anja Suša na konferenciji za novinare povodom 45 Bitefa 11 / Jovan Ćirilov and Anja Suša, at 45' h Bitef 11 press conference

CURATOR’S INTRODUCTION

I SELEKTORSKI UVODNIK