Good evening.
My name is Milo Rau. This is the second speech I’m going to give in Belgrade.
I gave the first one in 2024 at the opening of the 58th BITEF Festival. A few days later, the festival director at the time, Nikita Milivojević, was sacked. His ‚crime‘ was that he had not retracted my speech. My ‘crime’ was to draw attention to a crime in my speech: the EU-backed lithium mining in Serbia.
The lithium was intended to enable Volkswagen’s transformation into an electric mobility empire, but unfortunately this would also have destroyed Serbia’s most fertile region.
My speech was a poetic, perhaps even naïve one. It ended with the words: ‘Let us say no to the deadly ideology of our time. Let us celebrate beauty, togetherness and respect. Here in Belgrade and everywhere else.’
The audience applauded. But I also remember the German ambassador, who stood up and left the hall. Shortly afterwards, Nikita lost his job.
Then came Ana Vujanovic, Milos Lolić and Borisav Matić. They, too, believed they could save the BITEF Festival. Their mistake was the same: they invited me – or rather, one of my works, The Pelicot Trial. The production was censored. I was declared persona non grata.
Well, so be it. My works have been banned in several countries. In some, I am no longer allowed to enter. Russia is one of them – by the way after I organised a show together with Pussy Riot, who are here today as well. You almost get used to it.
Milos, Borisav and their team, however, said NO. And because the Board insisted, they resigned.
They had realised that the spirit of BITEF could only be saved by protecting it from censorship. And then something rare happened: the official BITEF didn’t happen. Because all the artists stood in solidarity with the BITEF team, with me, with the freedom of art. They, too, said NO.
From this NO emerged NE:BITEF, the NO:BITEF, a huge self-organized initiative of local cultural workers and artists.
And that is why I am standing here today.
For BITEF is not simply one of Europe’s most significant festivals. It is perhaps the most defiant.
It emerged in the midst of what history books call ‘real existing socialism’. Not exactly the ideal environment for an avant-garde festival, as even I, as a utopian socialist, must admit.
From the very beginning, the BITEF was a living ‘no’ to dogma, oppression and fear. Its force seemed invincible. The BITEF survived socialism and its collapse. It survived the break-up of Yugoslavia, the wars, Milošević, and neoliberalism.
To actually destroy its spirit, something far more banal was needed: a mixture of cowardice, careerism, stupidity and obedience. It took a board like the current one, a government like the current one.
Because it all began with my speech, I sometimes feel a little like Gavrilo Princip and the activist organisation „Young Bosnia“ who, as is well known, triggered the First World War by shooting the Austrian heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand.
Not because of his deed – I’m not going to shoot anyone. But because even the actions of a small group of individuals can have consequences that nobody can control. Believe me: I never wanted to play any part in destroying BITEF. But perhaps the old BITEF had to die so that its spirit could survive.
For the official BITEF, which has just come to an end, has about as much to do with the historic BITEF as a police state has to do with democracy. It is a farce. A zombie. The undead administration of an idea that was once alive.
The true BITEF is here today.
The true BITEF is the NE:BITEF.
For the true BITEF is not an institution. It is a gesture. A clenched fist, whose fingers are all of us.
It is a NO to censorship. A NO to lies. A NO to intimidation.
It is Rosa Parks’ NO, transformed into a festival.
Let us remember: when the black activist Rosa Parks, membre of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was asked to give up her seat for a white passenger, she said just one word:
NO.
When she was threatened with the police, she replied:
‚You may do that.‘
Ne:BITEF, too, says to its opponents: ‘You may do that.’
You can sack us. You can ban us. You can destroy the BITEF.
But you will not rid yourselves of its spirit.
And Volkswagen?
The company whose criticism sparked this story two years ago?
Shortly before my trip to Belgrade, Volkswagen announced the cutting of over a hundred thousand jobs.
One might say: history has spoken.
But Volkswagen wouldn’t be Volkswagen if things weren’t about to get even worse. Whilst jobs are being lost, one of VW’s largest plants is now set to become a production site for Israeli war equipment.
From green capitalisms to war industry: that, too, is a form of progress, a progress in the art of destruction and death, in the style of Volkswagen.
So our work is not finished.
It’s only just beginning.
We’ll need NE:BITEF for many years to come. Perhaps another sixty.
Therefore: Thank you for being here.
Thank you for saying NO.
And I hope that this speech does not mean we have to meet at the NE:NE:BITEF next year.
Although, of course, a double negative results in exactly what we are looking for:
A YES.
A YES to art.
A YES to community.
A YES to life.
A YES to this festival.
And one thing is certain: I will carry this spirit over into my own festival. Next year, the Vienna Festival will transform itself into a republic of civil society: a Peoples‘ Republic.
Thank you for your courage. Your strength. Your friendship.
Long live the freedom of art!
Milo Rau
Artistic Director Vienna Festival | Free Republic of Vienna
