In search of polyphony concepts of participatory theater

18th Bitef Polyphony

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 25th 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 development of theatre practices, this year’s, 18th Bitef Polyphony, focuses on the participation of young people. Open workshops, presentations, performances and discussions, inspired by current events and their impact, are an invitation to all interested in joining the search for participatory theatre concepts.

The dialogue between the authors, the participants and the audience continues with encountering various practices and hybrid performing forms, that mostly take part out of theatre or in it, but through a different approach and a different form of presence of all the participants. What is being linked are the times, spaces and people, experiences of great literature and small personal stories, and politicality which is reflected through cooperation between performers and audience in their search for the meaning of an era - an era brimming with dramatic events, maybe even in the anticipation of a twist.

The six days of 18th Bitef Polyphony have its finale at noon on September 30th with a 24-hours event, entering thus “the day after” when Bitef Polyphony officially comes of age.

This year’s programme is created by editorial team expanded for a significant number of young people, using and developing the experiences of polyphony concept as a collective hero in an adventure of testing its own actions.

Three-part inventions of Bitef polyphony

Three-part inventions of Bitef polyphony

Authors of three books: dr Ivan Medenica, a theatrologist and a theatre critic, a professor at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade, and Bitef artistic director, dr Darko Lukić, a theatrologist and a playwright, a professor at the Academy of Drama Art at the University of Zagreb, and dr Milan Mađarev, a theatrologist, a director and a drama pedagogue, teaching at the College for Pedagogues in Kikinda. Moderated by: Irena Ristić The opening will introduce the authors, the participants and the audience of 18 th Bitef Polyphony to the concept, the topics and the events this year’s programme is focused on. The dialogue with three authors about ...

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A small party of dance missed

A small party of dance missed

A Small Party of Dance Missed is a hybrid public event which falls somewhere between theatre performance, a happening, and an underground party. Audience and the performers, with or without disabilities, are together on the same “podium”, in the same “basement” and on the same “stage”. For the first time, they are where they have never been together before; where the public and the private are joined together, creating a new collective experience, where opportunities are not missed - not just opportunities to dance, but any other opportunities which make us social beings, inspiring a “beautiful feeling to be what we ...

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Day in the night

Day in the night

There is a house in Belgrade, which has been hiding the secrets of Belgrade intellectuals, artists, and activists for centuries. A house where revolutionaries and secret service members, people of dubious morals and high-class doctors, artists and common people, all passed by each other at the same place. The house where everything merges into one and one merges into all. Ban and revolt, day and night, apathy and liveliness, its noble spirit and dilapidated façade, it all creates this immersive theatre performance based on devising process and physical theatre. We would like to express our gratitude to all the good people who have recognized and supported the ...

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To think conceptually

To think conceptually

This presentation is participatory and deals with conceptual thinking of the young people within the EU project TCFT The Complete Freedom of Truth, which was being developed between 2014 and 2017. Theatre Mimart is a partner in the project in the course of which Nela Antonović has conducted a research, through Mimart methodology, on the conceptual thinking of young people from seven countries. The young people are stimulated to raise important issues on democracy and diplomacy, and to influence positive social changes together through their intercultural networks. The project is supported by EU ERASMUS+ programme and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the ...

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Said to contain

Said to contain

Tracing the routes of containers filled with goods, tracking the companies behind them and analyzing the regulations that make all this possible, the project tries to piers the opaque shell of global capitalism and looks at how the production, consumption and flow of goods shape our way of being, thinking and living. The project is realized through sessions of public thinking, a hybrid format between performance, workshop and a debate, where a cargo container placed in a public space becomes a central point of discussion performative production of knowledge. Lara Kalauz, Maja Leo and Bojan Đorđev have initiated the artistic and research project Said to Contain in the ...

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Epic games

Epic games

Serbian epic poems are used as a starting point for exploring ideology patterns typical of the times of origin, the impact of which still strongly determines social relations. We are focused on the educational potential of epic poetry as a part of school curriculum, given the fact that it actually is a part of elementary school reading list (for the age of 11 and above). Therefore, the project may be defined as an alternative reading of epic poetry, opposed to the traditional educational approach, which glorifies the epic and all other pasts, and promoting patriarchate.  

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We touch each other by... What? By dreams

We touch each other by... What? By dreams

As a part of the project “Sign the Dance”, a dance performance has been created, incorporating the elements of sign language. The authors are deaf people while the choreographer and process moderator is the first professional deaf contemporary dancer in Serbia. The performance is based on personal materials involving childhood dreams and imagination. Dance materials have been created through the work with an object and through exploring moving backwards. The process is based on individual and group work.  

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Departure terminal

Departure terminal

Dramaturge’s Statement: Boris, Dragan and Manja are simple young people. Except that they are not. They leave, change their lives, try to move. One moment, they know their direction, the next one they don’t. There is no dilemma whether they should stay or leave, but how to grasp life. Sloba Cevka has a band for singing, crying and shooting guns. He also once left with his band from war to peace…Director’s Statement: There is no answer because there is only an illusion of a choice. We think that we are making significant moves while we are firmly grounded…

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Partnerships for the future

Partnerships for the future

Partnership for the Future is a presentation of various experiences and thoughts about the development of partnership and establishing full participation of young creators and audience in international projects. Theatre Mimart from Belgrade and Opera Circus from Great Britain have been cooperating on the youth participation since 2009 in successfully accomplished EU projects, which continue through TCFT The Complete Freedom of Truth in the period 2014 - 2019. Teacher’s platform “The Dice Has Been Cast” and the Theatre Farmakopea, from the High School of Pharmacology and Physiotherapy, together with the School Vuk and Dositej from ...

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(Non)working hours

(Non)working hours

The audiences are subtly (even unknowingly in the beginning) drawn into conversations with the actors at other tables, thus becoming the protagonists of the play (instead of only identifying with them, as is usually the case). Instead of reaching catharsis through empathy, the audience experiences it first-hand. This concept erases the borders between theatre and reality, which only proves that theatre is everywhere, and that it is returning to its roots - the ritual.

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Scrape

Scrape

Scrape has appeared as a premonition, a feeling - a carnal, somatic one. It has turned into the articulation of a state, which combined bodies, dancing bodies and the other ones. Shudder, pain, numbness, they all exist only if there is someone to feel them. Bodies appear and disappear at the borders of the lit-up area. A mirage that appears through car windows at night. The making of the performance was based on the principles of the analysis of dance act as suggested in the research Four Discursive Points of Dance Practice by Marko Pejović.

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Love, bread and stories

Love, bread and stories

Love, Bread and Stories - 24-hours event is a multidisciplinary programme with performances, theatre troupe, music, interactive events which last for 24 hours. The programme is a part of the project ExploreZ on Tour, which is organized by ZID theatre in cooperation with POD theatre within the European project Caravan Next - Art Feeds the Future . The programme is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Belgrade, by the Embassy of Greece in Belgrade, European Cultural Foundation ECF and the Fonds Podium Kunsten NL. The 24-hours event begins on Saturday at 12:00, with an interactive opening, performance lecture The actors eye and a fast ...

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Alice

Alice

Alice is based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland . It is a story about a girl growing up, about her transition from something naïve and harmless, as almost everyone’s childhood is, to something cruel and dark, as is the world we, the adults live in. The performance is played in various rooms of the same building, and the audience is invited to enter the interaction with the performers, becoming thus an active participant in this unusual trip through space and time. The performance is a coproduction of the First Suburban Theatre - Puls Theatre and Cultural Centre Valjevo. Supported by: the City of Belgrade, RMK, Divac foundation, EPS and CZK Lazarevac. ...

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Negotiating reality

Negotiating reality

Where is the line between the reality and fiction, and what is it that makes us believe something is real and something is not? What happens if we allow our perception to be tricked and open for new experiences in which the borders between planned and unplanned events are vague and dubious? What if we start negotiating reality? Centre for Negotiating Reality is an international art platform, which creates the audience experiences relying on everyday situations in the real world. The project is directed at active participation (by both artistic and non-artistic) audience in the pre-created scripts which subtly transform the chosen locations, overlapping between the ...

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