Bitef

Biljana Tomić, Bitef 3 catalogue, 1969 "Which trends can contemporary art offer to us - or this very question is already an overused phrase? And are we really for the art? We are suddenly facing the new vitality of young generations for which every action is art and life, each nascent idea becomes a realization, and short plastic performance is a complete creative act. The piece exists and doesn't exists. Every material from our old nature is usable: earth, fire, water, air - and from our urban nature: cement, iron, asphalt, neon... But messages can't be forgotten! Shall we continue to understand them as arebellion and anti-art? Or, are these announcements of a new sensibility". Biljana Tomić, Bitef 7 catalogue, 1973 "Since every artistic engagement has its social and cultural function, I declare that engagement in organizing the Visual arts Bitef, as a non-festival, non-commercial and unofficial manifestation in the name of the culture, of new art and new artistic attitudes, has its cultural and social meaning and its justification in this time, even if it doesn't attract the immediate attention of the general public and the critics. The importance of the early Bitef lies in its approach based on the opening toward the new and the changeable in the world of theatre. With this approach, the festival openly presented a time of rebellion, changes, criticism and the opposition to the militant world politics, conservative culture, technological pollution and populism of the consumers' society. With this it entered the international circle of new trends and views of the world and the future. It presented the general cultural trends of poor theatre, body/physical theatre, minimal theatre, non-verbal theatre, public theatre, political theatre, mythological theatre, fluxus, interactive theatre... and, just like the world, it entered the futurism of the new age. It is sufficient to mention the most famous companies at the beginning of Bitef: The Living Theatre, La Mama Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theater, Pekarna... and the famous directors such as Garcia, Schechner, Ronconi, Barba, Kralj, Arrabal, Grotowski, Brook, Cunningham and Cage. At the same time, and with the same feeling of openness, in its famous beginnings Bitef accepted to include the programs of exciting new events at the international art scene. I commence the "Art Bitef" (1968-1973) in collaboration with renowned critics and artists, such as: Germano Celant, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Achille Bonito Oliva, Catherine Millet, Tommaso Trini, Lucio Amelio, Joseph Beuys, Harald Szeemann, Group OHO, as well as groups of artists from Zagreb and Belgrade. The attitudes of the young people, new groups and artists, were tautologically decisive, concrete in every phase of the work presentation, interpretation and critical decisions. Those were the positions of fluxus actions, happenings, conceptual art, land art, visual and concrete poetry, and large productions of books, photographs, experimental film, music, video, performances and other events. These young people lived out their artistic sensibilities and in one incredible moment they shared them with the whole world. The project "Art

Manifestations-Bitef 1968/1 973"is based on a cultural and historical need to present, after forty years, one specific period of artistic events, which took place simultaneously with Bitef theatre festival, and within the theatre, and the city setting. Given its significance, the international art scene between 1968 andl973 is today a historical key for all the phenomena of the new art and the new age of media culture that we live in. In that time the direct connection between theatre and the new artistic, poetic, musical actions, film, video and performances stimulated the multidisciplinary aspects of the new culture and the new forms of the multimedia behavior in all art forms. The art programs at the end of the 1960 s and early 19705, which took place within Bitef and in SKC, introduced new concepts of artistic practice and orientation to Belgrade cultural scene. The 1960 s are a cultural paradigm of the changes in the world and in our country. New groups of young artists from Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade took part in international art movements and nomadic life style, practicing art in artistic and non-artistic spaces, in urban and natural ambient, in direct relation to and in harmony with the art, life and behavior. Belgrade became a centre of international artistic events that occurred simultaneously with those in other European cities, as well as a centre in which artists from all over the world can gather and present their work. This documentary presentation is realized with an intention to bring these events to life and to show the images of active artistic changes that marked the beginning of a new culture here and to connect it with contemporary events on the Belgrade art scene. In the 19605, the theatre Atelje 212 (Atelier 212) was the most active cultural centre for young people. In the season of 1967/'6B, with a group of friends from Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana, like Tomaž Brejc, Tomaž Salamun, Željko Koščević, Ješa Denegrí, Irina Subotić, Saveta and Slobodan Mašić and many others, we started to organize art programs for the Gallery 212, located in the theatre hall, and to publish newspapers and catalogues Artistic projects within Bitef 1 968/73 are an open international program that I organized in collaboration with a large number ofYugoslav and international participants such as Germano Celant, Tomaž Brejc, Jochen Gerz, Mangelos, Franco Vaccari, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Catharine Millet, Achille Bonito Oliva,TommasoTrini, Joseph Beuys, Daniel Buren, Ida Biard, Nena and Braco Dimitrijević, Želko Koščević, Radomir Damnjan, Dunja Blažević, Zvonko Maković, Bora Cosić, Sergio Turconi and many others. The programs included all the art trends of that time, permanent artistic actions - from optical art and visual poetry to fluxus actions and concerts, arte povera, conceptual art and land art, film and video projections, and street happenings. Within special program of Art Bitef the following exhibitions were organized: "Group OHO", curated by Tomaž Brejc,"Conceptual Art, Arte Povera, Land Art", curated by Germano Celant, "Persona", curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, "In the Moment", curated by Nena and Braco Dimitrijević, as well as presentations of artists like Michelangelo Pistoletto and LO ZOO, Beuys, Buren, Ben, Christo, Baldessari, Dibbets, and manifestations like "Dokumenta 5". Within exhibition "Objects and Projects" young genera-