Egon Savin, theatre director
Isidora Žebeljan, composer
Boško Milin, dramaturge
Miomir Mijić, acousticologist
Darinka Nikolić, theatre critic
Janko Ljumović, theatre producer
Milosav Marinović, dramaturge
Irena Šentevska, architect / curator

A WORD FROM THE JURY...

At the very beginning, we would like to remind the audience of this year’s Biennial of these remarks of Boško Milin, the president of the jury of the Fifth Biennial of Stage Design:

“At times when chips are down, there is a saying that no news is good news. But even though it may rightly seem that the time between the First (1996/97) and the forthcoming Fifth Biennial of Stage Design has been a time characterized by crises, it may also rightly seem that there are news – and good ones for that matter. If we leave aside many tangible difficulties experienced by theatres, such as uncertain fate of theatre companies in Serbia and Montenegro, their troupes and employees, reluctance of artists to take production risks and voluntarism in organization of festivals, we will nevertheless see something in the theatre which has remained intact, a kind of a particularized illusion which, owing to the effort by theatre workers, became a reality that can be seen or heard...” 

The jury of this year’s Biennial has no president. The Selection Commission and the Biennial jury are one and the same body. This text does not have one author. Everything which the selectors / jury members presented to the professional public and the audience of this Biennial is an outcome of our teamwork and a long research. All the decisions have been reached by consensus, acknowledging different (often opposed) opinions and competences of team members. A philosophy of inter-disciplinary teamwork in theatre that we have been promoting and advocating so far, has now been employed in the preparations of the Biennial.

The results of our research are in front of you, for the first time in a form of a multi-media presentation, which affords a much better overview of both the Biennial’s selection and the entire biennial production in the field of performing arts in our country. We do hope that it does so in the best possible way.

BIENNIAL’S GRAND PRIX

It should come as no surprise that this year’s Grand Prix of the Biennial of Stage Design is awarded to creative and technical teams of six theatre performances produced by Little Theatre Duško Radović. Everything the Little Theatre has presented in the past two seasons is not only a result of diligent teamwork of high-quality designers and skilled craftsmen, but also justifies the theatre’s deep understanding of its own position in the theatre community and its self-conscious effort to act as a taste-maker, shaping and meeting the needs of the new theatre audience – namely children and youth.

Two years ago, the Biennial of Stage Design presented a special award to the Executive Committee of the Belgrade City Assembly for all the efforts and resources which, unlike in most European or world cities today, invested into the reconstruction of the city’s theatre infrastructure. The very fact that the reconstruction of Little Theatre Duško Radović is yet to begin speaks for the first-rate professionalism of the Grand Prix winners, able to achieve highest artistic results in the modest technical conditions.

We hope that this prize will help keep the “flame” in the Little Theatre. To use the rhyme by Lenka Zelenović, an embroiderer and an associate of the ŠKART group that designed this year’s Grand Prix, our “coded” message to the Little Theatre is: “What nice scent of flowers in your hand, planting more of them is something to demand...”

BIENNIAL’S AWARDS AND TRIBUTES

The optimism that accompanied the already mentioned “major reconstruction” of Belgrade theatres brought, very expectedly, a few disappointments as well. Namely, it turned out that optimal conditions for work did not automatically mean more and better productions. This jury defines its competencies in the sphere of design and technical production in performing arts and we therefore leave the assessment of other artistic accomplishments to other professional forums. However, as far as design and technical production are concerned, it turned out that investments in technical equipment of Belgrade theatres were not sufficient. What was also needed was upgrading  “human resources”, a proper motivation for creative and technical staff to exploit the enormous possibilities provided by contemporary technology. The key word in this process is training, precisely the leitmotif of this year’s Biennial. Finally, we have to admit that contemporary information society, in addition to providing enormous creative possibilities, obliges us to keep learning in order to be able to survive professionally in this “brave new world”.

Accordingly, this jury awarded precisely those professional contributions which, without neglecting tradition or abandoning established values of their professions, dared to tread new ground, responding to challenges of our time.

This year’s Grand Prix winners; Marija Kalabić, the scope and quality of whose work as a set designer justify all prizes which have been presented to her by this Biennial and other professional forums; Miroslav Nikolić, whose extraordinary results in scenic painting speak for a perseverance in a profession which slowly becomes extinguished with the advent of new technologies of digital print in contemporary theatre; Željko Rudić, who heads technical teams of the National Theatre in Belgrade, capable of technically supporting most demanding theatre productions; BELEF Centre, a “fluid body” and a common denominator for numerous creative contributions to exploration and unconventional use of urban public venues; Jelena Stokuća, whose work as a costume designer is featured by perfectionism and understanding of director’s ideas behind the performance; Nenad Milosavljević, with his witty and inspired music for the puppet show “The Emperor’s Paladin”; Svetislav Calić, whose long-standing work at the Yugoslav Drama Theatre is synonymous with excellent stage lighting; creative teams of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, who work thoughfully and thoroughly on promoting this theatre’s productions; the Puppet Theatre from Niš, which amply demonstrated what they are capable of accomplishing in children’s puppet theatre with the play “The Emperor’s Paladin” (puppet theatre nowadays being put to a serious “test of time”) – they are all examples of professionalism in an environment dangerously prone to conformism and not very supportive of those who go far ahead in their professions.

And while the aforementioned professional accomplishments were achieved in conditions which can be considered optimal or in a way expected, the jury would also like to mention two works which can be said to have been carried out in nearly impossible or quite unexpected conditions.

The play “Pylades” by National Theatre in Užice was created as a result of cooperation of this theatre with young Italian theatre director Andrea Paciotto, an associate of Ellen Stewart - “La Mama”. Paciotto is well-known to the audience of the BITEF Festival for his work on productions “King Oedipus” and “Geranos”. The mere fact that such a demanding project has been commissioned by a theatre in inner Serbia is in itself unprecedented. The works which also impressed members of the jury were: excellent digital set design created (in almost impossible technical conditions) by young architect Mia David Zarić – even though it isthe first set design in her career; outstanding technical production, accomplished in close teamwork of the director and the set designer, composer Rolando Macrini and sound designer Nikola Pejović (again, in almost impossible technical conditions), and the clear insight of the creative team into expectations and taste of the local theatre audience, as evidenced by the fact that the complicated text by P. P. Pasolini has been suggestively contextualized and attuned to the audience in Užice.

Another project which is something of an exception is an unconventional celebration of the anniversary Day of Rakovica municipality, a project its author Zoran Tošić named „Kids From the ‘Hood“, an open-air festival in one of the parks of the Belgrade Miljakovac II neighbourhood. Aiming to promote „grassroot creativity in the local community“ (Rakovica municipality), this celebration assembled winners of national and international awards from the territory of this municipality, namely folklore ensemble „Dimitrije Koturović“, Music School „Davorin Jenko“, Drama Studio „Znakovi“ of the primary school „Ivo Andrić“ and musicians from rock bands Darkwood Dub, Jarboli and Neočekivana sila koja se iznenada pojavljuje i rešava stvar, together under an exclusive label „The Robot Brothers Project“. That miracles do happen even in Miljakovac II (with an appropriate degree of enthusiasm, understanding and support of the local authorities in charge) was evidenced by wonderful fireworks which transformed this local celebration into a true city festival and demonstrated to other municipalities in Belgrade the „hidden“ possibilities and potentials of a „local community“.

Finally, let us mention a company which deserves a place among prominent participants of this Biennial due to the scope and quality of its production, namely the National Theatre “Toša Jovanović” from Zrenjanin, although they did not win any trophies this time. As in the case of the winners of this year’s Biennial, we hope that outstanding artistic results of the Zrenjanin theatre from the past two seasons will not be short-lived and that already at the next Biennial the jury will be able to verify and award them.

NOMINEES FOR BIENNIAL AWARDS

It is very important to note that the decisions of this jury might have been slightly different if authors or producers of all the works nominated for awards had submitted their applications. However, few of them did not. Let us explain briefly that the Biennial jury selects works on the basis of:
1) research and „monitoring“ by selectors / members of the Biennial jury of the current stage production and
2) selection of works submitted to the competition. By sending an application for the competition, authors and/or producers ensure that:
a) their works will have the jury’s attention and that they are eligible for Biennial awards;
b) their works are eligible to be exhibited at the Main Biennial Exhibition,
c) they will obtain a free Biennial catalogue and
d) that they will receive directly all information on the Biennial programs.
Having attended a production, the selectors / jury members may include into the Biennial selection works that have not been submitted to the competition. However, such works are only eligible to be presented in the Biennial catalogue as a result of research on the part of selectors / jury members and are not eligible for awards.

We would now like to spotlight several works which, in our opinion, could have been awarded, but which were regrettably not eligible for awards.

Branko Pavić, scene design, Pornografija 1,2...4

„Pornography 1,2...4“, a production of Centre for Cultural Decontamination and the 2005 BELEF Festival, has certainly introduced several remarkable innovations in the sphere of design and technical production, primarily in its unconventional set design and lucid utilization of performing space of the Belgrade „Partizan“ cinema, whose repertoire, image, or „hygiene correctness“ we will refrain from commenting. In tight cooperation between the director Ana Miljanić, set designer Branko Pavić and his associates, who are to be credited for production of all the digital images flashing on the cinema screen in this almost six-hour long „musical“, creative possibilities of digital technology in theatre have been amply demonstrated.

Darko Nedeljković, a designer of pronounced sensibility for technical innovation in set design (new materials, print technology, animation technique) has confirmed his openness for new media in the set design for the play „The Wounded Eagle“. In another successful cooperation with director Alisa Stojanović, he created a show memorable both for its wit and for its general visual expression. The brilliant costumes by Zora Mojsilović should not pass without mention here.

The composer Božidar Obradinović is the greatest „discovery“ of this Biennial in the field of stage music. We followed with great interest his outstanding work for productions „Lead Wings“ (Belgrade Drama Theatre) and „Alice“ („Boško Buha“ Theatre), as well as his participation in other theatre projects.

Another musical breath of fresh air is participation of Norwegian band XPLODING PLASTIX (Jens Petter Nilsen and Hallvard Hagen) with Ivana Grahovac in the project „Fall...or How Do I Look“ by the Hat Theatre Company. Their contribution, for the same reasons, remained in the short-list for a Biennial award.

Uroš Maksimović, stage lighting design, WAR&MEMORIES

In the field of stage lighting design, there are two authors in this group, namely Uroš Maksimović („War and Memories“, BELEF 2004) and Radomir Stamenković („The Great White Conspiracy”, Atelje 212). In the Performing Space category, we present Dah Theatre and their project „In / visible City“ –theatre actions on the bus line 26.

Dah theatar,

One of the most pleasant discoveries of this year’s Biennial is truly innovative and persistent work of publishing house Rende in the field of event marketing. Launching of new editions of this publishing house has grown into highly professional and inventive stage events. It could be said that publishing house Rende has introduced a new discipline in Serbia and the structure of this Biennial, namely „marketing by way of stage events“,demonstrating that the connection between contemporary literature and theatre still can be very tight.

Other works short-listed for awards have met all formal requirements of this Biennial and we would like to congratulate to all authors whose works have been nominated for awards in the most comprehensive Biennial selection so far. These are:

Geroslav Zarić, Igor Vasiljev, Juraj Fabri, Boris Miljković, Vesna Štrbac and Kristina Ignjatović (stage design)

Ljiljana Petrović, Tatjana Radišić, Olivera Gajić, Maja Mirković, Božana Jovanović and Leo Kulaš (costume design)

Svila Veličkova, a guest from Bulgaria (puppet design)

Irena Popović, Vladimir Pejković (music)

Srđan Jovanović, Vojkan Gostiljac (stage lighting)

Dane Budimlija and Veliša Vukojčić (scenic sculpture)

Svetlana Savić (music selection)

Ljiljana Sekulić, Božidar Zarić, Živorad Radenković and Zoran Kosanović
(stage costumes and footwear)

Theatre and Opera “Madlenianum”, BLUMEN Group (PR campaigns)

Uroš Obradović and Marko Milanković (TV clip)

Vladimir Radišić, Slobodan Babić and Nebojša Cvetković (web presentation)

ŠKART (visual identity)

Zdravko Mićanović (posters)