Side program

Due to the multilayered complexity of modern art in general and the performing arts in particular, it is impossible to recognize and highlight aesthetic phenomena without some theoretical support. This year, as well as last year, the central aesthetic phenomenon as defined by the festival’s main program is brought into focus and contextualized in a theoretical debate, except that this year artists will participate side by side with theorists. The subject of the panel is a phenomenon that decisively or significantly determines the performances Quizoola! by Forced Entertainment company, Mount Olympus by Jan Fabre, and even The Bible , the first attempt ...

As part of the Meeting the Authors accompanying program, Bitef continues to foster the tradition of public debates between its authors and their audiences. Since the founding of the festival, this program has been envisioned as a space where the authors of the productions from the main program would meet with the Bitef audience, in order to discuss the productions, processes, artistic principles, issues raised by the plays, but also the broader social context within which they were created. All significant authors who have presented their work at Bitef in the past 50 years, took part in this program, and all discussions were recorded, transcribed and preserved in the ...

The purpose of this programme is to seize the unique opportunity offered by the presence of foreign critics and guests in Serbia and show them selected local productions not included in the main programme of the festival. While creating this programme, Bitef’s artistic team is not necessarily led by the accordance of the performances with Bitef’s “new tendencies”, but is more focused on choosing the ones which constitute relevant artistic achievements. This year, however, it seems that all “Bitef” criteria have been met. In this programme, we shall show what we believe is one of the most interesting and potent segments of the ...

In search of polyphony concepts of participatory theater Bitef Polyphony, symbolically linked by its name to the music form which marks its concept, once again explores and develops its multitude of voices, multitude of sounds, variations and counterpoints. We recognize its “strangeloops”, its cyclic organization and feedbacks in structures of originating from within itself and countinuance of self-constructing. The opening will take place at noon, on September 25 th with an interactive presentation as an introduction between the participants and the audience, while introducing them also to the programme and the dialogue about the concept. Following the ...

Sumnjiva lica ( Persons of Interest ) is a professional development programme for young theatre critics organised by the Serbian Association of Theatre Critics and Theorists. The project aims to develop a new generation of theatre critics and provide them with opportunities to work professionally, while at the same time creating new platforms for critical considerations of theatre, its societal and political role, and the relationship between audiences and theatre makers. The first stage of the project took place in May this year, with nine young critics participating. The programme consisted of daily workshops and theatre visits, and the critics had a chance to write ...

  Not every end is sad In 1976, we celebrated Bitef’s ten exciting years. It was a truly festive event equally in terms of the number and quality of events and the importance and fame of its participants. It was also the Theatre des Nations.  However, Mira Trailović and Jovan Ćirilov were still not happy so they gave it a thought and came up with the idea that an appropriate birthday contribution would be films related to theatre. I used to work in the film industry, organised the FEST programme, knocked about theatres, translated Slovenian productions shown at BITEF, was friends with Mira and Jovan and it was probably only natural that they chose me to ...