The main programme will consist of two plays. In addition to Uncanny Valley, directed by Stefan Kaegi and co-produced by the Rimini Protokoll and the Munich Kammerspiele theatre companies, the famous Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, which the Bitef audience was introduced to through Heiner Goebbels’ production of Eraritjaritjaka, as well as the coproduction of Nachlass: Pièces Sans Personnes, which was a winner at Bitef Festival two years ago, has also confirmed that it would be coming to Belgrade. This time Théâtre Vidy is coming to Bitef Festival with the play Be Arielle F. This is a theatrical experiment by Geneva-based visual artist Simon Senn, which aims to prove how the real and virtual world do not necessarily have to be opposed to each other. He buys online a digital replica of a female body, only to then become interested in the real person whose digital body he possesses and starts investigating her, analyzing the psychological, gender, legal and other aspects of this phenomenon. The play will be performed at Bitef Theatre on 14 September.
As part of the Bitef-Prologue discussion program, an international panel discussion on systemic support for theatre during pandemic times will be held under the title Edge of the New Theatre Season. The panel will be led by Jelena Knežević and Aleksandar Brkić, and the discussion with local and foreign experts in the field of cultural policy and cultural management will attempt to answer the question what measures cultural policymakers should implement in the near future in order to enable the functioning of the cultural sector in the new circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to present examples of good practice and to anticipate possible models for functioning in the upcoming times. The Edge of the New Theatre Season panel discussion will be held on the open stage in Mira Trailović Square at 3 p.m. on Monday, 14 September.
All the Bitef-Prologue programs will be available on the official Bitef YouTube channel, as well as via screens that will be set up in Mira Trailović Square. The performance of Uncanny Valley will also be aired live on television, on RTS 2. For all additional information visit https://festival.bitef.rs/.
Tickets for the Bitef-Prologue performances go on sale on Wednesday, September 2, through the Festival website https://festival.bitef.rs/. Tickets can also be reserved by email [email protected] or phone +381 69 899 24 00. The price of admission for all performances is RSD 2,000, while online reservations come with a discount of 10% to 20%.
The Bitef Festival has traditionally been supported by the City of Belgrade Secretariat for Culture, the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, and the Office of Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Belgrade, the Goethe Institute, the Swiss Embassy in Belgrade, the French Institute in Belgrade, and Open Society Foundations. Once again, I&F Group, which includes McCann Belgrade, the Festival’s creative agency, is the partner and friend of Bitef, in addition to the Festival’s partner Erste Bank a.d. Novi Sad, long-standing Festival friend Coca-Cola HBC Serbia, the Halo Creative Team, Alma Quattro, Bel Medic general hospital, Mezestoran “Dvorište”, „Zaokret“ club, cattering companies Domaće kiflice and Muffinstore.
