Bitef

multimedia projects [Lux In Tenebris, 1994, definitely not to be forgotten, was created in Bojnice, one of the most beautiful castles in Slovakia). Miroslav Benka has earned a special acclaim for his engagement in 'the theatre of movement' ( 5.0.5., 1990, and Soft Dreams, 1994). His shows have been performed in many theatre festivals: BITEF (Belgrade), MESS (Sarajevo), Sterijino Pozorje (Novi Sad), Yugoslav Festival (Užice), Festival of Professional Theatres of Vojvodina, Autumn Theatre Festival (Vršac), as well as in various international festivals in Slovakia, Romania, Austria, Norway and Finland, In almost all of his performances, Miroslav Benka is a total designer. He has exhibited his art works in the World Exhibition of Set Design in Prague Quadriennale, "Progress Gallery" in Belgrade, Biennial Stage Design YUSTAT, MPU in Belgrade, Triennial of Theatre Set Design and Costumes (Novi Sad), etc. He is considered to be an artist of postmodernism in the contemporary theatre and is a member of the Association of the Artists of Dramatic Arts of Serbia and The Association of the Artists and Designers of Serbia (ÜLUPUDS). He has been awarded in the country and abroad for his artistic work.

VLADIMIR LABAT ROVNJEV (Bački Petrovac, 1946.) Multidisciplinary artist. He was born in a Slovak Russian family. He worked as a teacher until 1976. Since 1979, as a free lance artist, he has been involved mainly with sculpture, applied arts, painting and music. He has created many commemorative objects, coats of arms, charters, trademarks, medals, etc, Vladimir Labat has been actively researching the relation between sculpture, poetry, music and the spiritual energy since 1979. He has been singled out especially for his work on the sound research through the unique sound objects sculptures, created by himself by means of the specific energy field where spirit and intellect mutually intermingle in the unique form of the meditative level. The sounds which pour out of the musical instruments form a visual acoustic theatrical picture. He has participated in numerous exhibitions, both individual and group in the country and abroad. Also, he has presented his specific

artistic engagement in many interviews, TV programmes, etc. He has been awarded many times in his native country and abroad. Vladimir Labat lives in Novi Sad (artists' studios in The Petrovaradin Fortress) and in villa Popovica in the Fruška Gora Mountain. ON THE OCCASION OF ONE INTERVIEW INTERNAL PICTURES SET IN MOTION: BEN MIRO SEEKING THE MYTHICAL ROOTS "Photography, as scenes of some theatre of dreams, helps me to pursue my inner world which, when I touch it, magnificently comes to life and needs to communicate with the audience. That world of the settled memories helps me touch and immortalize the life of small nations, stop the time which inexorably passes, and hug the whole world", says Ben Miro. His unusual "photo installation", called Panem et Circenses (Bread and Plays), opened on the artist's estate last night, in the ruins of an old, deserted inn "a mythical place" in many ways, turned into en exciting world of the photographer's studio under the wide sky of Vojvodina. The atmosphere in which magnificent pictures, exciting proto rituals, vanished worlds, long ago forgotten ancestors, seem to meet, touch and intersect. INTERVIEW MIROSLAV BENKA Question: Bread and Plays. Why? Answer: It was recorded that Junius Juvenal Decimus (around 58140), a Roman writer who wrote satires from the period of the Domitius' rule and ridiculed the rotten society of his time, supposedly shouted at the discontented mob: "Panem and Circenses" - (bread and circus), actually plays. This famous saying was a reproach addressed to the mob because of their incomprehension of higher values in life.