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(...) Istovremeno, jer „lično je političko", okupljajući umetnike sveta koji probijaju granice svih konvencija (a u tome je kustoski talenat Jovana Ćirilova svakako bio veoma važan), jezičkih, telesnih, seksualnih i rodnih, Bitef postaje i platforma za promociju ženskog pozorišnog mišljenja (Elen Stjuart, Nurija Espert i dr.), kao i za predstavljanje do tada marginalizovanih, smeštenih u miije potkultura, pozorišnih glasova transrodnih osoba, osoba s različitim vrstama hendikepa, pa i radikalnih političkih glasova ugnjetenih unutar „sveslobodne“ zapadne kulture (potisnuti nacionalni identiteti). Tako Beograd prvi u svetskim razmerama pozicionira katalanski jezik kao ravnopravan pozorišni jezik na međunarodnoj sceni, a predstava Moskovskog pozorišta 1968, godine služi kao povod beogradskim kulturnim poslenicima (Bojana Makavejev. Branko Vučićević) da iskažu svoj politički protest povodom sovjetske okupacije Čehoslovačke, pretvarajući spačeka u tenk i kružeći oko Ateljea 212. Kultura nade toga vremena daje impuls i snagu Miri Traiiović da uprkos konzervativnim krugovima, s jedne strane, i ideološko-dogmatskim, s druge, nađe svoj put i pozicionira Bitef festival na mapi sveta, kao tačku slobode, tačku ukr-
štanja, spajanja, prelamanja i preklapanja estetskih ideja i umetničkih jezika, s jedne, i radikalnih političkih stavova i pozorišta kao delanja, agensa promene, sa druge strane. Nerazumevanju sredine uprkos (kritike desto ismevaju golotinju na sceni, nerazumljiv savremeni pozorišni jezik neverbalnog teatra, travestiju...) Bitef postaje veliki festival od strateškog značaja i za velike i za male, a za socijalističku Jugoslaviju „flagship projekat“, projekat-zastava ispod koje će stati svi tada mladi i avangardni pozorišni stvaraoci, od Arse Jovanovića do Ljubiše Ristića, Dušana Jovanovića, Slobodana Unkovskog... No kako je sama Mira Trailović bila poliglota, a posebno frankofona, neophodno je i na francuskom imenovati značaj Bitefa - svetionik (projet-phare), svetionik jugoslovenskog specifičnog puta i geo-strateške pozicije Jugoslavije Titovog vremena. Da, ne može se zanemariti, s jedne strane, duh vremena (I ' esprit du temps, Zeitgeist) koji otvara tada uobičajene pozorišne izraze ka interdisciplinarnosti, interkulturalnosti, snažnoj političnosti i angažmanu - ali ni. s druge, snaga i sposobnost Mire Trailović i Jovana Grilova da razumeju podjednako i svetski i domaći politički kontekst, stvore Festival kao platformu susreta i razmene u najboljoj tradiciji
there were the Yoruba Opera from Nigeria, Noh, Bunraku and Butoh dance from Japan, Beijing Opera, Indonesian shadow theatre, to be joined by Western traditional forms: Sicilian puppets and even the American Medicine Show... At the same time, because “personal is political”, by bringing together world artists gatecrashing of all conventions (Jovan Ćirilov’s curator gift was indubitably very important): linguistic, physical, sexual and gender, Bitef became a platform for the promotion of the women’s theatre through Ellen Stewart, Nuria Espert,,.) and presentation of hitherto marginalised (relegated to the subcultural milieu) theatre voices of transgender persons, persons with various disabilities and even radical political voices of the oppressed within the “completely free” Western culture (suppressed ethnic identities). Belgrade was therefore the first in the world to position the Catalan as a theatre language on an equal footing with others the international stage, and the production of the Moscow Theatre in 1968 served to Belgrade’s cultural workers (Bojana Makavejev, Branko Vudčević) to express their political protest on the occasion of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia by turning a Citroen 2CV into a tank and going in circles around Atelje 212,
The culture of hope of the time gave Mira Trailović the impulse and strength to find her way in spite of the conservative on one, and ideological-dogmatic circles on the other hand, and secure for Bitef a place on the world map as a point of freedom, a point of crisscrossing, fusion, refraction and coincidence of aesthetic ideas and artistic idioms on one ad radical political views and theatre as an activity, an agent of change, on the other. Despite the lack of understanding (critics often ridiculed nakedness on the stage, incomprehensible modern theatre idiom of the physical or non-verbal theatre, travesty...), Bitef became a major festival of strategic importance for the big ones and the small ones, and for socialist Yugoslavia it became a flagship project under which all then young and avant-garde theatre creators, from Arsa Jovanović to Ljubiša Ristić, Dušan Jovanović, Slobodan Unkovski... could gather. However, as Mira Trailović was a polyglot herself, francophone one primarily, one must also give Bitef a French name and call it projet-phare, a lighthouse of the Yugoslav specific road and the political geostrategic position of Yugoslavia in Tito's time.