Bitef

value, and the meaning of the new-born art. The same seems to be the case with theatre and para-theatre in this year of 1990, at the end of a century and the beginning of a new millennium.

We have subtitled this year's BITEF festival the Theatre and Para-Theatre for, as long as the para-theatre remains a mixture of the old and new, the known and unknown, the theatre of yesterday and the theatre of tomorrow, it will not possess any clearly definable form.

At a time when we watch the history happen before our eyes, and when our own imminent surroundings Yugoslavia, Serbia, Belgrade - take part in it in most direct ways, many people will ask themselves what is the sense of having a festival of para-theatre amidst all this mess. The answer can not only be sought in what is going on today but also in what was happening before, in our historic experience. These countries have passed through many tumultuous events, through great devastation and sacrifice, but even in the hardest of times the art pushed its way through, predicting, or at least hinting at, better times. I am

convinced that this year’s BITEF festival not only foreshadows but actually creates such better times. □ Jovan Cirilov