Битеф

ON THE BACK OF A RAGING BULL

Half a century ago, when Mira Trailović and Jovan Ćirilov conceived Bitef, Belgrade, Serbia and Yugoslavia were on „no man’s land“, between the two parts of the ideologically deeply divided Europe and the world as a whole: on the boundary between the Western and the Eastern Bloc, Among other things, it enabled Bitef to become, on a worldwide scale, a singular meeting and exchange point of artists who could hardly come together in a different context. That is from where Bitef drew its international social significance, strength and reputation. When the Berlin Wall fell we believed with a great deal of sincere enthusiasm that it meant the end of ideological divisions, and even the „end of history", but it turned out that, historically speaking, it was a very short-lived illusion. Of late we have become horrified witnesses to the rage of the bull which carried Europa on its back in the ancient myth. Not only through a fault of its own, Europe is splitting up again, digging trenches and putting up barbed wire fences. Serbia and Belgrade are in a similar position again: as a boundary except that'this time it is the boundary between the rich and arrogant North and the poor and powerless South, the centre and the periphery, the societies which close up and protect their interests and those which are a transit path for a sea of desperate and helpless people, refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

We are confident that this position should not frustrate Belgrade and rather that it should represent a challenge and an incentive to become once more a unique place of meeting, exchange and. first and foremost, solidarity among different and often painstakingly joined cultures, in the spirit of its cosmopolitan and libertarian values, drawing, among other things, on the tradition of the Non-Aligned Movement, suppressed due to xenophobia and the wars of the 1990s. That Belgrade, which would be born from the deep insight into its own misconceptions and errors from the 90’s, could become, both in geographical and culture sense, one of the main gates of Europe, the Europe that we want and which is nowadays under strong blows and challenges: the Europe of the openness, solidarity, embracement of differences, civic ideals of liberty, equality, independence, rational and critical thinking... The first institution which should accomplish the mission of that Belgrade, Belgrade we should like to live in is precisely - Bitef. A very important theme and problem axis of the Main Programme of the jubilee 50 th Bitef, as suggested by its subtitle On the Back of a Raging Bull, comes down exactly to issues such as the refugee catastrophe, closing of the borders, building walls... This set then extends to a kindred topic, that of the "neo-colonial attitude” of the Western towards other cultures: projection of a desirable image of these cultures, their ‘exotisation’, construction of stereotypes etc. It is important to point

između ostalog, i tradiciju Pokreta nesvrstanih, a koje su bile potisnute usled ksenofobije i ratova iz devedesetih, opet postane jedinstveno mesto susretanja, razmene i. pre svega, solidarnosti između različitih, često i iz muke spojenih kultura. Ovaj Beograd, koji bi trebalo da se rodi iz suočavanja sa sopstvenim zabludama i greškama iz devedesetih, mogao bi, u geografskom i kulturnom smislu, postati jedna od glavnih kapija Evrope, Evrope koju priželjkujemo i koja danas trpi žestoke udare i izazove: Evropa otvorenosti, solidarnosti, prihvatanja različitosti, građanskih ideala slobode, jednakosti, nezavisnosti, racionalnog i kritičkog razmišljanja... Prva institucija koja bi trebalo da ostvaruje misiju takvog Beograda, Beograda u kakvom mi želimo da živimo, jeste upravo - Bitef. Vrlo bitna tematsko-problemska linija Glavnog programa jubilarnog 50. Bitefa, a što sugeriše i njegov podnaslov Na leđima mahnitog bika, svodi se upravo na pitanja kao što su katastrofa izbeglica, zatvaranje granica, podizanje zidova... Taj se korpus dodatno proširuje srodnom temom, temom „neokolonijalnog odnosa“ zapadne prema drugim kulturama: projektovanje poželjne slike tih kultura, njihova egzotizacija, konstruisanje stereotipova, itd. Važno je istaći da predstave iz Glavnog programa 50. Bitefa ne govore o ovim temama samo na direktan način već i da istražuju, problematizuju i osvetljavaju njihove uzroke. Ima predstava koje, na primer, od same izbegličke krize više ističu ratove koji su do nje doveli, u čemu veliku odgovornost imaju i

NA LEĐIMA MAHNITOG BIKA

Kada su, pre pola veka, Mira Trailović i Jovan Ćirilov osmislili Bitef, tada su se Beograd, Srbija i Jugosiavija naiazili na „ničijoj zemlji“ između dva dela ideološki duboko podeljene Evrope i sveta; na granici između Zapadnog i Istočnog bloka. To je, između ostalog, omogućilo Bitefu da bude, u svetskim okvirima, jedinstveno mesto susreta i razmene umetnika koji bi teško mogli da se spoje u nekom drugom kontekstu. Odatle je Bitef crpeo svoj međunarodni društveni značaj, snagu i ugled. Od pada Berlinskog zida poverovali smo, s puno iskrenog entuzijazma, u kraj ideoloških podela, öak i u „kraj istorije“, ali se ispostavilo da je to bila, u istorijskom smislu, jedna vrlo kratka iluzija. Poslednjih godina sa užasom svedočimo tome da je bik, koji u antičkom mitu nosi Evropu na svojim leđima - pomahnitao. Ne samo svojom krivicom, Evropa se ponovo deli, kopa rovove, podiže bodIjikave žice. Srbija i Beograd su opet u sličnoj poziciji - u poziciji graničnog područja - samo što je ovog puta to granica izmedu bogatog i osionog severa i siromašnog i nemocnog juga, centra i periferije, društava koja se zatvaraju i štite svoje interese i onih koji su prolazna ruta za more očajnih i bespomoćnih ljudi, izbeglica s Bliskog Istoka i iz Afrike.

Duboko smo uvereni da za Beograd ovakav položaj ne treba da bude frustracija već, naprotiv, izazov i podsticaj: da u duhu svojih kosmopolitskih i slobodarskih vrednosti, onih koje baštine,

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