Centre for Civic Education (CCE/CGO) calls on the Montenegrin National Theatre (MNT) to withdraw its production “The Medea Case” from the selection of the 59th Bitef and publicly explain the grounds on which the decision was made for it to remain, alongside the Belgrade Drama Theatre (BDT), as the only two productions in the programme of a festival from which five out of seven productions have withdrawn in solidarity with artists and other social actors exposed to political pressure in Serbia. By remaining in such a programme, CNP is no longer merely a festival participant, but also assumes responsibility for the message that censorship and pressure on artistic freedom can be overlooked without consequence.
The German collective Gob Squad declined the invitation even before the programme was officially announced. Following the announcement, Teatro Praga from Portugal, the Slovene National Theatre Nova Gorica with its production “Anhovo”, the Italian company Motus with “Frankenstein (A Love Story)”, Lebanese artist Ali Chahrour with “When I Saw the Sea”, and Argentine artist Marina Otero with “Kill Me” all cancelled their participation. Their withdrawal is not a matter of artistic programming, but an act of professional and civic solidarity with those parts of Serbian society that are under pressure and fighting for professional autonomy – artists, students, the academic community and activists demanding justice and freedom of expression. This follows last year’s decision by the Bitef Board to censor Miloš Lolić’s programme and reject a production by Swiss director Milo Rau.
It is also important to note that Oliver Frljić, director of the production “Black Gold”, publicly stated that he had not known that his production, produced by BDT, had been included in this year’s Bitef programme, that he learned about it from the media, and that he did not want to serve as an alibi for forgetting last year’s censorship. Therefore, in the case of one of the two productions that remain in the programme, we have the director’s unequivocal opposition to such a decision. It is only logical that the public should also know who, and for what reasons, decided that MNT should continue participating in this edition of Bitef under such circumstances.
It is particularly paradoxical that “The Medea Case” was selected to open the 59th Bitef. Festival selector Spasoje Milovanović explained that, drawing on Euripides’ tragedy through the prism of a contemporary relationship and the myth of Medea, the production raises questions of responsibility, guilt and the criteria by which we judge others. MNT should apply precisely those same criteria to its own decision. The festival that this production is supposed to open has lost most of its programme precisely over the issue of responsibility towards artists and their freedom. The very theme of “The Medea Case” should therefore provide an additional reason to withdraw, rather than serve as a backdrop for opening a festival burdened by the consequences of censorship.
Artists and theatre companies from five countries cancelled their appearances, sacrificing visibility and opportunities to engage with audiences in order to send a message of solidarity, using one of the few instruments available to them. Any institution that, at such a moment, decides to remain in the programme weakens the impact of that solidarity and sends a message that the programme can continue regardless of the price others are paying for defending artistic freedom. By remaining in the selection, MNT is siding with the normalisation of such a situation.
The problem does not end with a single festival. If those who withdraw because of censorship are simply replaced by those willing to remain, solidarity loses its force, while those exerting pressure receive confirmation that the cultural system can continue functioning as though nothing had happened. Such a lack of solidarity affects the entire region, where the space for free, critical and independent cultural exchange has already been seriously narrowed.
Art, and theatre in particular, has always been a space of rebellion, questioning and resistance to authorities that suppress freedom of expression. That role also carries responsibility. Artists and cultural institutions cannot pretend that what is happening to their colleagues in a neighbouring country is someone else’s struggle. Solidarity among theatre institutions across the region is neither a matter of collegiality nor a gesture of goodwill, but a defence of the space of freedom on which the very possibility of critical art depends.
As Montenegro’s national cultural institution, MNT should be among those defending that space, rather than among those whose presence helps make the consequences of its erosion less visible.
CCE therefore expects MNT to reconsider its decision to participate in the 59th Bitef and stand with the artists who, by withdrawing, have made it clear that the festival cannot simply continue as though the censorship had never happened. When artistic freedom is under threat, the neutrality of cultural institutions ceases to be neutral – it becomes a choice and a form of complicity.
Miloš Knežević, Development Coordinator