After many years and published books, I today understand writing work as a necessity of personal choice. My choice, and intention, is to take artistic action in society, while my job as a writer is to imagine and construct, dream and search, and thus create my own reality, just as God created the world
I once wrote: “the Hamburg Score (a term first used by Viktor Shklovsky in reference to the secret fights between wrestlers in Hamburg that would be used to determine which of them was stronger, but for themselves and not for the audience) of my life is complicated, but it is exclusively the fruit of my personal choices and actions”.
In my practice, autonomy of choice and action relate to the duality of devotion to literary creation and the parallel creation of a repertoire, artist selection, the atmosphere at work and responsibility for the work and operations of Bitef Theatre and the festival. The artist is thus both a servant and a ruler.
And that is the most precise result of the preceding computational operation – a serious but liberal upbringing, which came to represent the foundation of preparedness to make important yet conscious decisions. Coupled with another fundamental factor, which is often overlooked by those who write about themselves, and that’s growing up in a tolerant multi-ethnic milieu – of Banat, Vojvodina, Serbia and Europe.
After many years and published books, I today understand writing work as a necessity of personal choice. My choice, and intention, is to take artistic action in society, while my job as a writer is to imagine and construct, dream and search, and thus create my own reality, just as God created the world.
I’m not happy about everything happening in Europe, but I’m happy because Belgrade is again a place where we can all come together. Artists and journalists, politicians and financiers, visionaries and spies
The job of Bitef Theatre and Festival director is colourfully defined as the responsible task of the guard of a treasury, with the obligation to periodically dust and move the exhibits to more attractive locations. Even after 35 years, we still don’t have anyone like the “lady from the big world” that was Mira Trailović, nor her artistic partner Jovan Ćirilov.
Conceiving Bitef was an endeavour that’s difficult to imagine when one considers the historical context of the late 1960s. Devising and organising a groundbreaking festival in the “land of peasants in the hilly Balkans” was an incredible vision, but also the only possibility during that time of the bloc division and the bifurcating of the world that we are still witnessing today. In the Belgrade of the time, Bitef was a link binding two worlds. It seems like nothing’s changed today. I’m not happy about everything happening in Europe, but I’m happy because Belgrade is again a place where we can all come together. Artists and journalists, politicians and financiers, visionaries and spies. May everyone do their own job, but may there be peace and let the game of the theatre continue.
The task of my free will – which has been transferred to the Bitef team – is for me to enable everyone to do their job: the artistic director and his associates fulfil creative visions; the artists who find optimal conditions, the journalists who provide relevant information, the guests who have the comfort of accommodation and a unique theatre offer.
This differs from the lonesome and troublesome work of writing, but it is similar in part through dynamic plot changes and the introduction of new characters to the story. It is sometimes still necessary to haul the halyards and release the mainsail to stretch and catch a good wind in order to direct the ship towards the land of happiness. The writer suffers slightly when the director works, while the director, in rare moments of leisure, dreams longingly of a balcony overlooking the sea, a small table in the shade of an olive tree, Pastis in a glass, pen in hand and white paper in front of him.
The truth is that a person is happy when they get that which they love, and not when they get that which others think they should love.
Photo: Tanja Drobnjak