 I'm from Macedonia and this session, my role is a moderator. Since we are really late with time, I will not take more time. I would like to relate this session with the other sessions from before. Actually, today's session is about the festival of performing arts in the time of geopolitical changes. We heard different aspects about what festival means today. In a different context, talking from the aspect as a festival, as a social drama or a festival where we can address the problems in the society, also called gender setting festivals, then festivals as social imaginaries. And now this session, this is some of the keynotes actually that I could have picked up from the last days. And this session, I believe, it will extend these diverse views through the diverse presentations, what we will have today. We will go in the order as it is on the schedule. And I would like to present, actually I would do it one by one, as they speak, the presenters. The first presenter is Miss Ivana Stefanovic that comes from the National Council for Culture of Serbia. And she has a really broad biography full of different activities in her professional life. But I would say now, in 2000, she began teaching at the Center for Women's Studies and since 2001 and 2006, she was the artistic director of the Bemus Music Festival. And from 2007 and 2008, she served as the State Secretary of Culture of Serbia. I would like to give the floor to Miss Stefanovic. Yes, she's a renowned composer besides everything. Just I want to say that since we are late, we will have 10 minutes for each session. But as I have been told, since they prepared the papers, maybe some of the presentations will be long. As a person from another but related profession, I will speak about Bitef indirectly, looking for its reflection in similar cultural phenomena and activities as a mirror in which the image of Bitef will reflect itself. In particular, I will speak about the Bemus Music Festival, which became kind of twin to Bitef. But these twins, as is turned out, were not from the same egg. After the October Salon initiated 60s in Bitef and Bitef established 67, there came Bemus in 69. Two years later, the Film Festival was established, but the October package of cultural manifestation was reached, not to be forgotten. The October Salon, Bitef, Bemus, the Book Fair, the Joy of Europe, all of these events on different occasions and sometimes jointly were used to mark one important day, the liberation of Belgrade in the Second World War. Bitef and Bemus have been affiliated from the very start, not just because music and theater share the same birthplace, but also because throughout history we see these two arts as closely connected. That closeness and familiarity of theater and music was pointed out by Dragutin Gostushki in his first sentence of his text published in the program leaflet of the first Bemus. He stated, the Belgrade Music Festival comes to us slightly belatedly. Namely, in the first music festivals, quite similar to modern ones, were held in many places in ancient Greece, 2,500 years ago. The Middle Ages were equally prominent in the number of massive artistic performances in which actors and musicians had the leading roles. Our two festivals were familiar, not just because actors and musicians prevailed in them, but also because they summoned small and huge ensembles. They involved choirs, operas, costumes, scenography, orchestras, halls, the artist's demands and wishes, technique, logistic, marketing, and in-day program. Bitef and Bemus were initiated in the same city, in the same social and political system, in the same geopolitical and other circumstances. They were formed in the same center of power, control, and decision making, and with the same firm structure and cultural and diplomatic idea behind them. All of these embedded many similarities in them, but also gave rise to some differences. Milena Dragicevich Sheshich has stated that Bitef and Bemus were, quotation, important step from Yugoslav cultural diplomacy at the time, not just because they meant opening ourselves towards the world, but also because they meant our culture become part of world culture. But to what extent? From the very start, Bitef turned itself towards the world decisively and vigorously. Its direction, as it was mentioned several times here, was determined by Mira Trilović. Bitef presented the meeting of the western and eastern worlds. It was brave enough to invite dissidents from all systems. Bitef's guests may have been slightly dangerous sometimes, but were they dangerous to the extent that the state should be afraid and intimated by them? I think no. One thing is sure, Bitef encouraged critical thinking and let the crucial problems of the time be reflected through it. This last sentence is again from Milena Dragicevich Sheshich's statement. Bemus, for its part, was in certain respect just like Bitef. It presented a well-balanced meeting of cultures of the eastern and western world and the time before the fall of Berlin Wall. It was a strong and successful manifestation with many famous guests from all over the world. It brought a number of greatest musical works. Nevertheless, Bitef and Bemus were not the same. Bemus remained local and its program was deprived of any risk. My goal is not to analyze the nature of the differences between Bemus and Bitef, but with regard to their cultural and diplomatic mission, their accomplishments, courage, or their exploratory spirit. Perhaps the main differences lie in the non-verbal nature of music. Music is not an art that easily takes stands. However, Bemus's focus was on importing high-quality goods from abroad and during the first 30 years of its existence it hosted artists from both sides, east and west, like Berlin and Leningrad and Sofia and Stockholm Philharmonics, operas from Berlin and Bucharest, but also those that before Bemus had already had their performances on Bitef, like the Chinese opera and recently Henry Gables. But the music festival that was in this sense more similar to Bitef went to Zagreb, however. The Zagreb Biennale established in 1961 became a counterpart to what Bitef was in Belgrade. If there was anything provocative, experimental, subversive, or dangerous in the music world, it went to Zagreb Biennale. Only a day after the opening of first Bemus, Politica published an editorial piece which contained the following sentence. The first Bemus, although old-fashioned, provoked considerable interest in the audience of the first concerts will show how much this festival succeeded in bringing back Belgrade's fairly modern audience to the classics. In these few lines, we already see a certain tension, modern versus old-fashioned, audience versus reaction, interest versus return to the classics. Although under quotation marks, Bemus was declared old-fashioned at the very beginning of its life, while the audience was branded as modern. In any case, Bemus was flourishing during the 70s and 80s. According to the monography written by academic Dan Despeche for the festival's 30th anniversary, Bemus hosted musicians such as Vadim Riepin, Andrin Avara, Michel D'Albert Torres, Dostoevsky, Galina Bekauer, Segovia Rostropovich, and Frankurt Opera, Ballet from London, and Cologne, etc. It was a period of a culture of hope, nice term introduced by French author Dominique Moise. What was missing then? Apparently nothing. However, during the 90s, when along with sanctions, there came poverty, festival programs started looking like dilapidated buildings. It was impossible to maintain a clear idea, concept or strategy of any kind. Nevertheless, everyone found the festival Bemus wonderful, just because it managed to survive and to bring new artists and new musical interpretations. And because it prevented music from disappearing into silence. In the year 2000, Bemus entered a new phase and we could call this phase second phase of optimism and hope. Document entitled Bemus for a New Era was accepted from Festival Council. Its vision included certain changes in the festival concept. Perhaps somewhat naively, those changes were brought into connection with the changes in the country's social system, in geopolitical circumstances, in the transition to a new century. Broadening the concept of the festival implied broadening the scope of musical genres, as well as the forms and moods of presentations, television, video, film, etc. It meant that much attention was directed towards the audience and its development, especially towards children and young people, as well as towards ensuring and wider social impact. Apart from regular concerts, daily performances were introduced, as well as a program for kids, choreodramas, dances, and other forms of bodily expression, world music, ethno, fusion, video presentation, film about musicians and music, musical topics, exhibitions, media tech. There was also a search for a new look, a redesign of the festival. In 2001, Bemus largely relied on musicians who had left Belgrade willingly or not. Bemus wanted to bring them back to their home music scene. In addition to that, since the year 2000, Bemus has been the only institution that in accordance with the world-wide practice, commissioned new works from Serbian composers. New Serbian opera could also only be heard at Bemus. Potentially the most serious repositioning of Bemus happened when the festival was accepted into the European Festival of Art Association in 2002. In that year, Europe came a little bit closer. The festival was opened by Franz de Routier, president of association, that Bemus joined after 34 years of waiting. In accordance with its artistic philosophy, there was one year when Bemus and Bitev overlapped. The two festivals touched one another. They came closer to their program design and shared a common aesthetic space. Ballet for Life, performed by Ballet Bezhar from Lausanne, closed the 40s by Bitev and opened the 38th Bemus in 2006. Jovan Chirilov and I, as the artistic directors of two festivals, stood together on the stage of Summit Center. This state of what Bemus could perhaps become lasted several years. I do not want to dwell on what happened later. Justifiably or not, the main organizer of Bemus Jugo concert was being put out of business in recent years. Its successor is not an agency specialized in music or stage events, but a general office. In September 2013, it seemed that Bemus would cease to exist. A few days before it's scheduled to open, there was no program, there were no announcements. The selector resigned and the director of Jugo concert was unwilling to move a finger. Then there came a rebellion, a musician's rebellion. The rebellion of those who thought that music as an art should not be simply extinguished. That it should not be neglected, forgotten, left to die silently. That musicians should not lose their professional position and public attention just like that. As Bemus silently transformed itself and went mute, hiding under the surface of the public attention, the Belgrade, a European capital, maintained, in the meantime, has been deprived of a regular concert season, and it is still deprived of it. And so the rebellion that had first appeared on social media in the form of several hundred individual voices turned into the Bund Festival. Bund is a reaction on Bemus. Bemus produced Bund. Apart from the original meaning of the word Bund rebellion, the name also became an acronym for new Belgrade artistic territory. The first Bund was a bit of an eruption and came out in a completely unprepared way. The program was made in Russia within a couple of days. Artists from Serbia and from abroad, applied by themselves, suggested what they could play, those who were in a position to do so, brought their plane and train tickets themselves. The director of the cultural institutions, some directors of cultural institutions, offered their spaces free of charge, those who wanted to design marketing material and those who wanted to translate them volunteered, as did those who knew how to tune the pianos. All of them worked for free. Communication went only, solely, throughout social media. Facebook, Twitter and text messages. There was not a single piece of paper or contract. There was no flow of money, no bank accounts, nothing. And what was the program like? In the first year, one hosted nine concerts with the 61 artists taking part. They were eight film about musicians, acquired free of charge from Serbian radio television. They were four concerts dedicated solely to young musicians, as well as a program named Together, with kids with special needs. We are talking about kids with autism. There were 11 compositions by Serbian authors. Importantly, Bemus was heard by more than 2,000 visitors in the small halls. This total collision between the festival's high musical and artistic quality and the variety and excellence of its program, as well as the enthusiastic reception by the audience on the one hand, and the complete ignoring of its existence by the state and wider local community on the other, is a phenomenon worthy of consideration. Even after three years, this festival, which has had superlative reviews and great visibility and vitality, still functions entirely outside the system. It tries, through volunteers and small grants received from foreign cultural centers, the EU delegation or several foundations, to transport itself into another reality. A reality in which its undeniable virtue will be recognized. The moral and verbal support that Bund enjoys is very pleasant, but it's not enough. Another detail I deserve mentioning, a paradox that completes this picture. After the first Bund, the city of Belgrade awarded it, Bund won the April award. That high honor now adorns the biographies of Joviša Jovanović, Petya Popović and Ivana Stefanović. But it is not at all helpful for the continuation of the festival. The award did not help Bund gain any grants from the government. This rebellious festival is still outside the system. For four years now, it has been starting from scratch. By presenting these two festivals, Bemus and Bund, the former state candidate, and later completely self-reliant and receiving practically no support at all, I wanted to show how a bottom-up cultural policy defined by Amina Višnić can come about. Thank you. Thank you very much for this first of all very interesting point of view and information that probably the audience was not familiar about, especially about this first kind of historical overview and comparative analysis of these diplomatic missions of this festival and how actually the actual political and economic situation affected their future. What I really found very interesting is your talk about the transformation through this transition, how it affected the professional scene. But the most, for me, let's say, optimistic part was this Bund thing, especially because, for me, this produced this economy of exchange, which opposed this monetary economy and opposed these political actions which are taking place in our context, especially in Yugoslavia. So thank you and I hope the audience later will have questions. Back to now. Invite the second speaker. This is Deanna Milosevic that I know for some time. From Dachtheater Belgrade. She's a co-founder of Dachtheater, which is co-founded in 1991. And she's the artistic director. She has been programming different festivals, being participating in different theater projects. Also a programmer of Infant and etc. Also she has been co-founder of several networks dealing with theater. So I won't take long. And I would give you the floor so you can share your perspective about the Performing Arts Festival in the time of this changing economic, political and cultural changes. Thank you very much. I would like to just bring some ideas. Some possible, let's say, I have some titles. How can we relate to the contemporary festivals and how to go on with the alive and the meaningful festivals. In the today's world that is changing in front of our very eyes. So yesterday I was very inspired by the presentations of really all the speakers in this conference and I will relate to some of what I've heard. And yesterday, also, Alexandr Jović, which mentioned and it was coincidence because this is how I intended to start my presentation of the meaning of the word of the festival, which is the origin is from Latin. It means festum, it means big celebration. But also it is connected to the idea of the holiness, of the holy. And then it brings me to the famous and one of the most important figures in contemporary theater, Jezi Grotowski, who was the guest of the very first Bitev, who found the connection and the origin of the holiday to holy day. So how do we achieve this holiness with the festival and how at the same time we create something that is the holiday. And of course it's not the holiday at the same time because we're all very engaged and busy but how it could be the holiday for the community at the same time keeping this idea of the holiness. So in order to somehow relate to that I propose a couple of ideas. So the first important notion for every festival is the story that the festival tells. So when I say the story I mean the truth. And I was recently reading I think one of the latest books by Peter Brooke, one of the most famous directors who is still active and writing in his 90s. And the book is called The Mercy and he said and I don't know is that story the true or he invented it but I think it's very inspirational for us. And he said that when the early computer had been asked by people like what is the truth? The answer by computer was let me tell you the story. So I think that the story that the festival tells to its community or to the broader community or to the world is of the most importance for its aliveness and its relevance because the story is always related to the truth. Another important concept that I wanted to speak about is risk. So the festivals as artists need to take risks. And the first night here during the prologue the after performance talk, the Polish author said and I think this is something that we need to relate to longevity of the beta celebrating 50 years. And she said something very interesting because the question was about the risk to her. She was the member of the team of artistic team of the piece Count Down Counter. And she said that she thinks that the risk involves really like the real risk is to go on with creation in the old age and older age. So that it's not that the risk is imminent to youth that it is called innovation. But when we are achieving like older or old age the risk is huge because the risk could be like the risk of being not recognized. The risk to repeat yourself. The risk to fail. The risk to completely not be able to find aliveness anymore. And so I think all of that applies to the festivals. So how to take the risk? The risk of someone, the festival that is 50 years old is completely different than the risk of the festival that is 5 years old or 25 years old. And also when I say the risk and when I say the festival of course the festival consists of people. So it's not kind of abstract entity that is taking the risk but it is the people, very people, first of all people who initiate and who create the festivals. And then the risk becomes personal. So I would say that the need to identify real risks is crucial and then of course to try to deal with it and to deal with its consequences. When I said that the risk is personal I would like also to mention I think it is very important that we don't forget people who did take enormous risks and really are inspiring us in our field. And this is, I will have this freedom to speak about very briefly Vida Ognenovich that was the chair in the previous session. And she's our super famous theater director and the wonderful author who was director of the National Theater in the beginning of the 90s. And the risk she took was when we had the big civil protest against the times of Milosevic and his government was to open up the doors of the National Theater and to let protesters and people from opposition to come and talk to address the protesters on the streets because they were attacked and they were all attacked by the water cannons and police and so on. That was, this still inspires me Vida, this kind of the risk you took. And no, not the end. It was the risk that Vida, sorry to speak in your name that Vida took and of course she was immediately, she lost the position of director of National Theater but her work developed in many other ways and is very important. But that was the personal risk that we need to take when we create festivals because of course we want to have the longevity of our festivals. At the same time we have to be aware what are the risks and to be willing to take it and it sometimes means that we are going to lose the position and that's fine because as the example shows the work goes on, the work that contains the truth. All these concepts at the time I'm mentioning are actually interconnected so we can go from one to another and backwards. Vision, vision is something that is necessary to have when we are thinking about the festivals that are really important to community and visions are always linked with obsession and obsession of the one person or a group of people even better that created the festival is crucial to the meaning, to the sense of the festival because when this obsession from being personal actually reaches the need of the polis and the origin of the Greek word polis is the city or the body of citizens and so on then we have like the event, the cultural event that really changes the community and society for the good. Connectedness is my next concept and so this is again how to connect with the other with the different on the cultural level, political level on the level of the different choices people take in all different levels of the lives on practice so how to break the isolation and connect and reach to the other and this is maybe the essential question of the Europe today as well. And my last concept is related to obstacles and we are all dealing with obstacles we can say in our country we are like constantly working with obstacles but I think this applies to everywhere else in the world and obstacles are good, obstacles are necessary of course there are obstacles that are being real threats to the work and there are obstacles that make us grow. We heard a fantastic example yesterday Milena Shashic told us the story how Mira Treilović had to accept the Nehru's gift of Katakali traditional Indian theatre form for the first edition of Bitef while this first edition was like avant-garde new tendencies in the theatre and so on and suddenly like there was the state kind of the gift that the state couldn't refuse and then Mira and Bitef could not refuse traditional Indian Katakali form and from that obstacle of course like this is again how to be smart and to work around the obstacles because if she had said I'm not accepting the gift probably there would be no Bitef we would be not sitting here today for this course so she was accepting it saying that each edition of Bitef from then on needs to have the presentation of one traditional theatre form and that was crucial because also Bitef for me was always the new tendencies but also being able to see what is the root of the theatre Katakali, Peking opera, etc. and this is how she presented it so from obstacle it became actually the real opportunity as there is also very fashionable to say obstacles are opportunities but how really to work with the obstacles that could be on the different levels and I would like just to point to a couple of examples very shortly do I have two minutes about? So there are of course I spoke about Bitef but another festival that I would like to point to is the Magdalena Project Festival Magdalena is the network of women in contemporary theatre and this is exactly an excellent example of all these ideas that I just presented how they work together in the case of that project because it started as the international network of the women in the theatre arts because they needed to they wanted to make the visibility of women in theatre arts much bigger they wanted to create professional conditions for women theatre artists to develop and they wanted also to become very international and so on the project was funded in 1986 in Wales and for some years it had the funding so the festivals and different workshops and so on had been organized and then the funding was cut completely so what happened instead of stopping with the festival, with the whole project Magdalena Project decided and when I say Magdalena Project I speak about women artists that are the base and now it's the network that is all around the world that consists of literally thousands of theatre practitioners men and women they decided to go as they said, albatross so that albatross is the bird that flies about the earth and then she sees the land, she lands and so that was the same with Magdalena Project they say ok now we are going to fly and to see where is the need in which community, in which country there is the need for us for the project, for the festival to happen and we shall land there they couldn't offer any money but they could offer experience the network and the idea and the miracle started to happen from then on until today there were like thousands of Magdalena events hundreds festivals happening on all continents being organized and produced by the groups of theatre artists or by individual women that connected sometimes with institutions or sometimes with independent scenes or sometimes being on their own and this completely changed and shifted the idea of the theatre scene in the world today so I just wanted to bring this example and by the way you can all check it it's on the internet, it's the Magdalena Project like www.magdalenaproject.org because it's still very alive in many events and festivals every year so to finish my presentation I would like to point to something that was heard in the previous presentations and it was Solidarity and we are speaking about Solidarity a lot these days and when we were organizing this summer the 25th anniversary of Dark Theatre and for that occasion we initiated the festival and conference being becoming because my company is 25 years old and we wanted to mark the milestones of our company with the festival so it was like I don't know which force bigger festival that we organized we got the promises from officials that the festival and the conference will be fully funded and then of course in May and the festival was supposed to happen but we didn't get any funding the guests were invited many of them bought already their tickets and so on and so on that we were supposed to reimburse after so what happened and then we said we cannot cancel it, it's impossible so what happened was we got really minimal grant from the reconstruction women fund the women organization, the foundation that really supported us in the full Solidarity and with that grant and with the Solidarity of all participants that came paying their own travels, accommodations and being eager and ready to accept conditions we had very meaningful exchange in the festival and the conference where we were discussing how to sustain the work, how to go on as artistic organizations. At the end of the festival I got the actually like the email from the very dear friend theatre director Jill Greenhoch from UK and she said you know this was incredible example of the Solidarity and the meaning of the word Solidarity is the whole sum so if we are all together in what we are creating and then to come back to the festival then this means Solidarity and then this is also longevity, thank you Thank you very much Diana especially because somehow you gave a really different perspective through interrelating these concepts of story risk vision, connectivity obstacles and also Solidarity with the notion of the festival it is a complex perspective I would say that opens up different questions thinking actually and also that you gave kind of perspective of how you can address some conflictual situations or situations that we can find ourselves as professionals in the field. I would I'm a bit rushing you know because the time is pressing us and I would like to invite Jovanka Visakruna Jankovic from Arts Link Association Belgrade which is the founder of Association Arts Link Arts Link Association but also she is the president of the Serbian Festival Association and represents the Serbian HUB in the European Pilot Project Europe Festival for Europe and herself is an artist, a pianist and she will give the perspective actually about the regional and interregional collaboration as a geopolitical strategic approach Thank you for presenting me I would like to be short first of all we heard so many interesting and very useful points related to festivals and the life of festivals and I would like to say just few words I will read the very short short article about the festival and the Serbian Festival Association and then I would like to mention and to point out few keywords. I'm sorry, I'm so tired because last night we opened our festival it is very young festival Arts Link Young Talents Festival and it is third edition now and last night was the opening I'm a little bit exhausted because the team of the festival is not big because we are actually very small independent association and as you already heard it is not easy to run the festival nowadays especially in Serbia so artistic festivals are the meeting places of different cultures and manners of communicating with the audience the keyword audience they often represent a driving force in the life and development of the communities in which they operate they are a view ahead a step out of the ordinary a reflection of creative efforts concentrated strength to find creative solutions to the complex questions facing the contemporary society international festivals are bridges towards other and the means of artistic and societal dialogue they play the role of moderators of innovation, of mobility of cooperation, synergies they are also an attractive form of engaging and animating the audience to create all the beauty within us in a decade that is not particularly kind to art and culture showcase international festivals in Serbia and their organizers came together in the Serbian Festival Association joined by a common desire to attract the public attention to the importance of festivals through the synergy of their individual authority and quality and create a new powerful creativity and production level in a dialogue with founders, funders and sponsors to thus renew and intensify the struggle for a better societal, cultural and infrastructural position of festivals as well as a more prominent status of culture and art in general. On that journey until today, a total of seven SEFA member festivals have survived who equally effectively and substantially lead to European policy of Serbian Festival both within the European Festival Association EFA and in the framework of the Festival platform for networking and visibility on the international level within Europe for festivals festivals for Europe project all of them have been mapped on the European Festival scene by receiving EFA label for 2015 and 16 and remain determined to both survive and last the EFA platform is an immense opportunity for the festival community to focus on the real values of festivals it gives the whole sector the opportunity and even the responsibility to speak loudly about the arts and the artistic development through the work of festivals the involvement of festivals in local communities as well as the view festival share develop on the world and the life we live in should be highlighted in all its diversity the label is a recognition on a European level as well as an incentive for smaller festivals to develop their activities further in this view the more voices and examples we can include the better this was a short article about Serbian Festival Association EFA and our motivation to join the project I mentioned audience and I mentioned the bridges and I mentioned cooperation I think that we all have to be in tune with these new geopolitical changes that we are facing every day I think that festivals should be actually the bridges we try to create a bridge and we have the bridge in the focus of this edition of the festival this is inter-regional bridge between two regions Balkan and Vissegrad and this is not the first time that Artlink Serbian Festival Association is creating a project inter-regional project the first project was actually Nordic Balkan project maybe many of you know about this project it was a project that was funded completely by Nordic Council of Ministers in 2004 and Artlink was at that time coordinator for the projects in the field of classical music coordinator for the Balkan and motivated by this project Nordic Balkan we try to create a new bridge and to create this Balkan-Visegrad culture bridge and try to put this cooperation in the focus of this edition of the festival I would like to just read the short presentation of this Vissegrad Balkan project and then I would like to actually have questions from you and maybe when we finish this session maybe we could try to give answers how we could approach audience how we could actually get more media attention and if we have audience and media then we can also easily have founders funders and sponsors and donors I'm sorry I cannot find my short text I'm a little bit lost in my papers but if you want to wait just a few seconds or maybe you can ask a question we have another the essence of the Vissegrad Balkan culture bridge project is to create a long-term network of institutions from four Vissegrad countries Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovak and institutions and individuals from five Balkan countries in order to have a common cultural space where we can all communicate, cooperate, exchange the ideas, artists and programs and this was second edition of the festival focused on Balkan Vissegrad and I can say that we are all very happy because we managed to have a very rich program and with a special focus to young artists on young artists and with a special focus on career development program for young artists I think that the project is also very much in tune with this geopolitical changes that we are now facing and that Balkan as a region is put in focus very much as you all know and especially through this cooperation with Vissegrad region we should be actually a role model for us how we should create unique cultural space and also a fund that could provide funding for a common culture projects within the region so I think that now we have a Balkan fund for culture starting I don't know if they officially started to work and operate but international Vissegrad fund is I think a very good example how regional projects and regional cooperation could be supported on a regional level so actually this regional inter-regional cooperation within the European framework is actually something that we here in the Balkans should be concentrated on in order to to reach better programs cooperation and funding so I think that maybe this is what I have to say for now and I would be very happy to answer your questions later Thank you very much for sharing your experience for running for sharing your experience in your field but also to give kind of an examples of how the collaboration can be extended and how it can have a different let's say effect in our context I'm a part of this regional inter-regional actually more regional collaboration for last 12 years and I think that really kept us alive in all these years otherwise I think on this small and very problematic political economically problematic context we would have I don't know disappeared so I would go to our last presenter and that is me Mrs. Diyana Grzanić-Tepović president of Asitez Serbia a national center of Asitez yes and member of Executive Committee of Asitez International which is actually national center of theater for young artists and audiences theater audiences okay and she will present actually the mechanisms of the festival through the perspective of Asitez and can tell more about thank you very much but I would like very much if somebody can help me with the power and have a power in my computer no one please there is something going on with this power which is switching off and taking off I don't know what's going on it is something that we can't rely on it's I've been invited a few days ago and I'm also very tired since we have finished our bit of polyphony program yesterday and it was running like a half of the program Asitez this year was a program partner it was a lot of programs that we had including our guests from the road and we had a pleasure to have Mrs. Yvette Hardy the international president of international Asitez world with us which was really fantastic support since lately as a national center we have not either get any funds through this year in the Ministry of Culture fundraising which is really unbelievable because we are national center and we should be supported as representatives of what is our theater for young audiences in Serbia working and doing and I think we have done for last several last years from 2003 when we have come back in the community of international Asitez because of the reasons from 90s we have been expelled we have not been present in the work of the association which is fund in 1965 actually and we ex Yugoslavia was actually one of the founders not many of them it was about 20 and something, thank you so much so in 1960s Yugoslavia was really very very open and very in this mood of world of hope and the culture of hope in many ways including theater for young audiences obviously no no no I skipped the presentation because I loved them but I thought we are going to be short of time and it's usually become like that and I'm used to have this last place children for the young audiences is always at the last place so we are always short of time and I decided to have to how would I say equilibrate in the measure of the time that we can have I'm used to it so Asitez is actually as association fighting for better position of the theater for the young audiences most of the people in the world of the theater accepting this position of the theater for the young audiences is seen as somebody who is actually preparing the young audiences to be audience for the theater for the adult which I don't accept and I disagree with it very much and I would like to underline one thing last year 2015 we had 50 years of celebration in Berlin of establishing this association it's complementary with the Belgrade when I was asked to come here and listening yesterday and these days about the place of the Belgrade in a situation when it was a really point where the East and West are meeting I was clearly having association of Berlin and Asitez work because in Berlin in the physically divided city in 60s year it was physically divided you could feel and all of us who have been in time before the breaking the world in 1989 we could feel the completely two phases of two divided worlds of East and West it was a grey in the East you could see it if you went to see a Brecht museum you could see grey city grey faces on contrary of the West Berlin which was really so powerful in the colors and a lot of lights so it's a paradigma of what was going on in the 60s and the people in the East Berlin wanted very very hardly to make this position and make the feel where the people from the East and West can and should exchange and make a dialogue because everything is basis we know all of us especially in the theater who are working and devoted to the theater work everything is based on our personal engagement we could see also that about the stories about our big theater makers including the persons who made this Bitef so I would just like to say and use this opportunity to say that personally I was very happy to see the opening of this fifth of Bitef with the speech of Mr Bob Wilson and he's reminding us on the story how he had personally come to be involved in a theater by story about the deaf boy and also it was tremendous for me it was like coming home because I'm the one who have been very young student and fissioning stories in the 80s and I was raised on this idea that Bitef have gave us through the tremendous artists like Peter Brook and Peter Stein and you know Grotowski and all these names of Johnino Barba and more and more Pina Bausch and finally Bob Wilson and what I would like actually to say that Assitej is gathering now from these 50 years more than 100 many individuals in institution and festivals gathered inside included from the many more than 800 countries they are coming from and through the years Assitej had this main spot in each three years in the congress having the congress and festival and that was the moment where the people from all around the world could suddenly set together not only to vote for the another executive committee and the president who would lead and have ideas about what will go on in the association but also to have some programs like seminars like a festival and seminars forums and all kind of moments where the people can share their experience that's for me in a festival one thing is when you have a performances where you can measure and so co-measure where are you your aesthetics and when your work is but also the side programs are very important like this one here they are giving us real possibility to talk and to meet and this is what have Assitej fine in the last six years we find that this is not enough to have only congress and possibilities to meet around the congress and the festival we have started to have each year one festival as a gathering Assitej artistic gathering where beside the program of the festival who should include a lot of different aspects of what is going on in the world like you know that our audience is really different in the ages there are many genres that we are including like dance like music theater like inclusivity work and like puppetry so there is not easy to make a program for the festival but the side programs are something which is really the most important thing in the life of our association this is really opportunity where the people can meet and talk and there you can find such differences all around the world that are having with the heritage of the culture with different aesthetics with different way of talking and different engagement and different scales of the support of the government it is really impressive to see how we can see one pattern everywhere the same more or less we can see in advance western mostly western countries how the governmental officials they are so aware of the importance of supporting this through this element of the theater for young audiences they are really standing behind with a lot of money not only in the performances but securing that their people are present in these gatherings we are in a situation that we have now fantastic enormous number of wonderful artists they are taking you know they are so high level artistry that they can offer like in a dance Dali Archie she is very known already in the east far east and thanks to Asitas as well because Asitas is supporting it supporting our artists we want to present our artistry all around so I would just like to mention few topics that we are dealing with for example just to have idea what is going on in this side program because I think we have only maybe two minutes more left so I will just read that yes I just want to say that when we are having a festival we are dressing with two different audiences one is the audience that we are having they are like a proper audience with different age and the other one most important is the artist themselves so when there is a festival going on we are also addressing to the artist they can feel and find out what is going on in the other side of the world but the artistic gathering there for example in the three years time we have some kind of idea what would we explore in 2012 our main focus was on facing the society it was in Okinawa in 2013 facing the artist it was in Lenz 2014 it was facing the audience next round in three years time the program was concerned by what is going on behind the 50 years because we have celebrated in Berlin 50 years of the existence of association so the step behind in Berlin was international exchange we have discussed about international exchange how is it visible in our work and how does it influence our work then in 2016 it was interdisciplinarity exchange which was really under the very strong influence and impact of the Brexit because it was started just two days ago after in Birmingham after the UK have decided to go out of the European Union so all the artists have been involved in all the topics have been involved in this question and trying to find the measure how they are going to go on with it and the next one in 2017 it will be a congress and it will be a huge one and for the very first time it will happen in Africa South Africa in Cape Town and the main subject would be intercultural exchange so as you can see through these titles we are really going behind what is only the theatre aesthetics and Jean division what we are working in the theatre for young audiences is really very serious and I have to say the people are very, very devoted the ones who are gathering and working on it as for us in Serbia we are presented quite a lot in 2003 we have come back in the community from that time until 2009 we have been very powerful presented with very strong and advanced theatre and I have to say that in that time Mrs. Sanya Sousha was as a head of Dusko Radio which and she had invited a lot of people young people to work in the house and to work some incredible expiring and interdisciplinary work she have opened some things and then at the end as a president of Asitas Serbia we are trying and executive committee member whenever I am going around I am taking these things that we are producing with a lot of work there is not a lot of money but inside are actually the presentation of our artists and we are working a lot in collaboration project with for example French and Japan for this moment I will stop I can see that you are annoyed a lot because of the longness of my speech thank you very much sorry that I interfere with the stress I have already because at 2 o'clock also I have to be we all actually have to be somewhere else thank you very much for sharing your experience about Asitas and also being a really this excellent example of how you should address some certain audiences and how you can interrelate these geopolitical issues as you mentioned to the festival content for example but I would not take the time from the audience and I would like to give the floor to you so please questions I am not that person so I took the role of the commentator obviously so I don't know okay sometimes you know I take time and the audience then no? okay we just started meeting and this is how but it's not possible in this time everyone to present themselves yes yes please Jonathan I'm not experienced festival organizer or goer to festivals but I know that sometimes it's a challenge to create festivals that meet the audiences we want to reach out to and this has been my name is Jonathan from the freedom theater in Janine Palestine and this is always a challenge for us in Palestine not only for the freedom theater organizations to be able to meet the expectations and the interest of the people that we aim to target is this also a challenge that some of you face when you try to organize festivals of art thank you Jonathan if there is no one else maybe I can just say that it was really inspirational for me especially working as in the field of independent cultural scene and being a co-programmer for the last eight years of a contemporary dance festival and performance in Skopje and Macedonia unfortunately we are going to stop it but let's see what the life brings forward also I was kind of very interested in a theoretical overview of the festivals being writing, reading and this was really inspirational because for me what I've heard is also from my perspective that festival can resist different social-political changes that are really intervening the content of it and the concept we could have seen and we could have heard about different varieties of the festivals but what redefines them is the concept of itself but also the political acts of the professionals or the people that are related with the festival and the concept and its interrelation with the notion of the festival which gets another meaning nowadays it's not the same as it was before which is only the celebration of something else but becomes a bunt or becomes a resistance of the market of the establishment of the hegemonic politics etc. it can be a platform for solidarity economy of exchange meaning exchange among all of us in order to sustain something which is professionally important for us and it can become you know body of rebellion presenting this culture of rebellion and it can be related or kind of producing different paradigms which can be interrelated with the ideal the political, the esthetical and the cultural let's say realm and yes, I would conclude this and thank you very much about this inspirational session that I would agree with you Mr. Nienowicz and thank you for the audience being present and participating thank you