“We must constantly fight for complete artistic freedom because it’s constantly under threat!”
Interview with Nikita Milivojević by Natasha Tripney
The 2024 edition of the Belgrade International Theatre Festival (Bitef) opened with a speech by Milo Rau, whose performance of Antigone in the Amazon was programmed as part of the festival. In this speech, entitled ‘Beauty Will Save the World,’ Rau was sharply critical of Rio Tinto and its proposed lithium mining project in the Jadar Valley, a project which the Serbian government supports, as does the EU – Olaf Scholz had recently been in town to secure supplies of lithium – despite widespread public opposition against the project. The speech was well received on the night and widely reported in the media, but it also caused consternation for the authorities. Earlier this month it was confirmed that the mandate of Nikita Milivojević, Bitef’s artistic director since 2023 and one of the leading theatre directors in the region, would not be extended. A new artistic director of Bitef has yet to be elected.
Natasha Tripney: How did you discover your mandate would not be extended?
Nikita Milivojević: We were trying to set up a meeting with the City Assembly [who appoints the board and the artistic director of the festival] for some time. This meeting never happened. Only after my mandate had finished did I receive the call that said they're not able to continue my mandate. So, after 21st February, my time with Bitef is finished. They have appointed a new board for the festival but have not yet decided who will be the new artistic director. As I understand it, there will be no artistic director. Instead, they are talking about the head of the Bitef board, the actor Svetozar Cvetković. He is a colleague and someone I have worked with many times. I don’t have a problem with this but how is it possible for someone to be president of the board as well as artistic director? There is total confusion.
It is now the middle of March, when the programme for the next edition of Bitef, which takes place in September, should be in the process of being finalised. What impact will this decision have on this year’s festival?
The moment we realised that the festival would be without an artistic director, we couldn’t continue to do our selection [for this year’s festival], because the selection belongs to the three of us [to Milivojević and his co-selectors, executive director Ksenija Đurović, and dramaturg Tijana Grumić]. I obviously can’t do it because I no longer have any contract with them, therefore it’s impossible for us to continue to work on the things that we have been talking about.
What do you believe prompted the decision not to extend the mandate?
The problems started with Milo Rau’s speech. This was a huge scandal for the authorities. We had really big pressure because of that, but we survived. However, we were sure that the consequences were coming. We were even making jokes about it. After that I gave a big interview in support of the students. I am a Professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and my students have my full support. I think what they are doing is something that must finally happen in our country.
Because of all these things I was not surprised when they said they will not continue with me. Not at all. What is surprising is that now the authorities are looking at how to continue the festival without a physical director. The board is going to control everything including the selection. This is very strange.
What does this say about the wider attitude of the Serbian government towards culture?
Even this idea of having a two-year mandate is a kind of manipulation and control, the idea that after only two years, if they are not satisfied with you, they're going to say: bye, bye, this limited our artistic freedom. This is something the President [Aleksandar Vučić] and the guys around him are doing all the time. They don't want creative, free institutions. They need institutions which they can control. This is not something that we are surprised by. We know these things, and we have to fight against them. The way that city finances the festival, the way they make decisions about the artistic director - whether it involves me or somebody else - must be changed.
Founded in 1967, by Mira Trailović and Jovan Ćirilov, Bitef is the most significant international festival in the region with a long-standing reputation as a space for presenting avant-garde performance. Given its history and reputation, what are the challenges of running such a festival and what does this mean for the festival’s future?
Throughout its history, Bitef has faced different challenges. It depends on the time. The prospect of a free Bitef has always been a problem for the authorities. You always had to be clever to keep Bitef as a provocative, avant-garde space.
Even in my first edition, we faced challenges. They did not like our choice of slogan, which was a line by a young Serbian poet. Working under these conditions is not normal. It means that anybody and anything could be seen as a problem. This is not freedom. It's like a dictatorship. Now we have to say: this is enough. Bitef has a reputation all over the world, and instead of trying to create something prestigious, they would like to control it.
The decision not to extend your mandate comes at a moment when Serbia is experiencing some of the largest student protests in its history.
It feels so strange that, after 30 years and everything my generation was doing, demonstrating against the main radio and television stations, fighting for more freedom, cancelling theatre performances and demonstrating on the streets, these students are doing the same. I can't believe that we have to repeat everything after all these years, that every single generation has to go through these same things.
What does it say that this decision was taken despite the fact that last year’s edition of Bitef, which included Milo Rau’s Antigone in the Amazon and Carolina Bianchi’s Cadela Força Trilogy - Chapter I: The Bride and the Goodnight Cinderella as well as work by rising stars of the regional scene including Tjaša Črnigoj and Žiga Divjak, was widely regarded as a success?
We wanted Bitef to be really relevant again. But they don’t care about that. They don’t care about making a good Bitef. The most important thing to them is: are you with us or you are against us? This is crazy. You can’t create a good festival in this way.
Following this decision, the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna recently issued a statement in solidarity as part of its Resistance Now campaign. How important are these gestures of support from the wider artistic community?
I think it's great that we have support now from outside and I am really thankful for this. What Milo Rau said in his speech, most people in Serbia feel the same way. The performance [of Antigone in the Amazon], which we programmed, was also talking about many of the same things. This is a kind of censorship; actually, it’s the most dangerous kind. You're not free to talk. You're not free to think. It’s not a democratic country.
Being an artist means, above all, being free. We must constantly fight for complete artistic freedom because it’s constantly under threat, and not only in Serbia. It is a process that never ends!
17 March 2025
Natasha Tripney writes the weekly European theatre newsletter, Café Europa. Subscribe here.
