Bitef

Od samog svog početka, Bitef festival se umrežava na vise razlidtih nivoa u umetničkim i političkim krugovima sveta - postaje interfejs za susret politički sukobljenih ili razdvojenih kultura. Pozicioniran kao cutting-edge festival novih pozorišnih tendencija u doba „kulture nade" (Dominik Mojjsi), Bitef je uspostavljao nove parametre savremene kulture Zapada, prekoračujud granice hladnog rata i svetskih geostrateških podeia. Istovremeno, _mnogo pre no što će antropološki pristup teatru odvesti Šeknera i Bruka u tred svet, a Barbi omogudti „tred put“, nesvrstanost jugoslovenske poiitike dovodi na Bitef tradicionalne pozorišne izraze sveta, a Mira Trailović im, svojim kustoskim talentom, nalazi i pravo ime i pravo mesto - otvarajud prvi Bitef 1967. godine Katakali predstavom - „korenima svetskog teatra", predstavom koju Bitef i Jugoslavia dobijaju upravo kao zalog tome da i politika nesvrstanosti mora da ima svoju adekvatnu kulturnu politiku, koja će omogudti da glas do tada nečujnih i nevidljivih počne da odjekuje sa svetske kulturne scene. Hladni rat dovodi najbolje iz socijalističkog bloka na Bitef, jer Istočna Nemačka želi ne samo da pokaže da je podjednako dobra već da je bolja i snažnija u umetničkom pozorišnom izrazu, a Sovjetski savez, iako u „dilemama“ da

li i koliko disidentima dozvoliti da budu prikazani „pušta" i one teatre koji su čuveni zbog svoje otvorenosti i razlidtosti spram zvanične ideologije. To je već vreme kada cvetaju teatarski studiji u Poijskoj, kada u Čehoslovačkoj ili Rumuniji teatar postaje retka mogućnost javnog iskaza, te su Grotovski i Kantor, s jedne, a Krejča i Pintilije, sa druge strane, važni gosti - reperi festivalskog programa. Istovremeno, zapadni svet kulture dolazi i sa svojim reprezentativnim, institucionalnim, ali inovativnim formama (pozorišta Antoana Viteza, Rožea Planšona, Patrisa Šeroa, Petera Štajna, Boto Štrausa, Hajnera Milera...) kao i sa svojim eksplicitno disidentskim formama (Living teatar, Hieb i lutke, La mama...) pa i levičarskim pozorištem zajednice - intervencionističkim, animacionim angažmanima (Verkteatar Amsterdam). Tred svet je na Bitefu prikazao svoje umetničke korene, tako inspirativne za savremeni teatar: pored Katakalija stiže i Joruba opera iz Nigerije, No, Bunraku i Buto pies iz Japana, Pekinška opera, Indonežanski teatar senki, kojima se pridružuju i tradicionalne forme Zapada: sicilijanske lutke, pa i američki Medisin šou...

From its very beginning Bitef has been networking at different levels in the artistic and political circles the world over. It has become the interface where politically confronted or separated cultures meet. Positioned as a cutting -edge festival of new theatre tendencies at a time of the “culture of hope” (Dominique Moisi), Bitef has been establishing new parameters of the modern culture in the West and crossing the frontiers of the cold war and universal geoostrategic divisions. At the same time, long before the anthropological approach to the theatre will take Schechner and Brook to the Third World and open the ‘third road’ for Barba, the Yugoslav non-aligned policy brought to Bitef traditional theatre expressions from around the world, and Mira Trailović, with her curator talent, found for them the true name and the true place by opening the first Bitef in 1967 with a Kathakali production - the “roots of the world theatre”, a production which Bitef and Yugoslavia got as a guarantee that even the non-aligned policy needed to have an adequate cultural policy enabling the voice of those hitherto inaudible and invisible to begin echoing from the world cultural stage. The Cold War brought to Bitef the best from the socialist bloc because East Germany wanted not only to demon-

strate that it was not just as good as, but even better and stronger in artistic theatre expression while the Soviet Union, even though facing 'dilemmas’ whether and how much to allow the dissidents to present themselves, “let out” theatres famous for their openness and difference from the official ideology. This was already the time when theatre studios in Poland flourished, when theatre in Czechoslovakia offered a rare opportunity for public expression so that Grotowski and Kantor on the one hand, and Krejča and Pintilie on the other, were important guests - the reference points of the festival programme. At the same time, the Western cultural world brought their representative institutional but also innovative forms (theatres of Antoine Vitez, Roger Planchon, Patrice Chereau, Stein, Botho, Strauss, Heiner Muller), explicitly dissident forms (Living Theater, Bread and Puppet, La Mama...) and even the leftist community theatre - with interventionist, animating arrangements (Werkteater in Amsterdam). The Third World brought to Bitef its roots that were so inspirational for the modern theatre: in addition to Kathakali,

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