BITEF jedan je od nekolicine najstarijih, najvažnijih, najuglednijih i retkih u porodici velikih svetskih festivala. Osnovan je Rešenjem Skupštine grada Beograda kao stalna manifestacija, od posebnog značaja za Grad Beograd, 26. decembra 1967. godine.

Osnivači, umetnički direktori i selektori BITEFA su bili Mira Trailović (Kraljevo, 22.01.1924–Beograd, 07.08.1989) i Jovan Ćirilov (Kikinda, 30.08.1931–Beograd, 16.11.2014). Od 2006. do 2016. godine selektorka BITEFA je i Anja Suša, pozorišna rediteljka, a od 2015. godine umetnički direktor festivala je Ivan Medenica, profesor Fakulteta dramskih umetnosti u Beogradu i pozorišni kritičar.

Vođen izuzetnim kulturnim radnicima, BITEF od osnivanja podržava i značajno učestvuje u promociji novih / aktuelno proizvedenih svetskih umetničkih, kulturoloških tendencija i ultimativnih teatarskih vrednosti. Gledaocu, indirektnom analitičaru i uživaocu otkriva najsavremenije domete scenskih umetnosti u svetu, kako kroz eksperimentalne tako i tradicionalne forme. Skoro pola veka gradi naše intelektualne veze sa svetom i obratno. Zalažući se uvek za nove i otvorene kulturološke prostore, ostvaruje izvanredne kontakte, ruši fiksirane umetničke hijerarhije, podstiče razvoj srpske scene izvođačkih umetnosti i doprinosi njenoj potpunijoj afirmaciji u širem kontekstu.  Angažovan je u polju formiranja domaće pozorišne kritike i u borbi sa provincijalnim duhom i duhovnom prazninom. BITEF predstavlja epohalnu antitradicionalnu pojavu nulte kategorije u manifestacijama jugoslovenske i svetske kulture.

Festival, čiji je dugogodišnji podnaslov Nove pozorišne tendencije / New Theatre Trends, jeste skup vrednosti, odnosno umetnički projekat koji ne saopštava konačne istine o teatru i ne prikazuje, već otvara i problematizuje neka od najosetljivijih pitanja savremene javne sfere koja se proizvode, pojavljuju ili prikrivaju u posebnim svetovima razlika i raskola u umetnosti.

Prevazilazeći modernističke dogme, medijske granice i discipline, teži ka proučavanju, analizi, novim čitanjima i pomacima u umetničkim izvođenjima, najrazličitijim oblicima predstavljačkih struktura i mehanizmima pripovedanja – od proznog narativa, odnosno dramskog teksta u doslovnom smislu gde književni tekst prethodi teatarskom događaju, do dekonstrukcije njegove autonomije i interdisciplinarne primene u ostalim sistemima komunikacije (plesno, muzičko, pikturalno, video, poetsko, filmsko, tehno, telesno, sajber itd. “pripovedanje”). Baveći se ne samo proizvodnjom, proizvedenim delom ili interpretacijom čina izvođenja, već i njihovim društvenim, političkim i kulturnim kontekstima i konsekvencama, dinamično, produktivno i eksplicitno neguje moć upitanosti, kritike, negacije i raskida. Uprkos političkim i kulturnim barijerama, BITEF mapira, kritički reaguje na nove društvene izazove i probleme, otvara socijalno-politička pitanja, aktivno preispituje sopstvene i, umetničke i teatarske strategije uopšte, kao i načine njihovih i proizvođenja novih pozorišnih realnosti.

Njegove su granice, istovremeno propustljive i meke i veoma konfrontirane i napete. To je festival dinamičnog, oštrog, prodornog, veoma obuhvatnog tematskog fokusa čiji su izazovi i čvorišta: savremena poimanja pozorišnih, izvođačkih i vizuelnih umetnosti, istraživanje njihovih orijentacija, afirmacija drugačijih teatarskih prostora i mizanscena, artikulacija različitih teorijskih i kritičkih poimanja, i provokacija učaurenim i šabloniziranim i često dosadnim obrascima scenskog izražavanja i prikazivanja.

Kroz decenije postojanja u isprepletenim, protivrečnim i složenim društvenima procesima, BITEF uvek ide u korak sa uzbudljivom evolucijom pozorišne umetnosti, istražujući koliko i šta filozofija i druge naučne discipline kao što su teatrologija, antropologija, sociologija, psihonaliza, lingvistika, teorije kulture, roda, medija itd., čine teatru i, obratno – u kojim fragmentima deluju na teatar.

Svaki BITEF svojom koncepcijom i programom odražava duh vremena, određeni duhovni i umetnički presek teatarskih istraživanja i avangardnih kretanja, sa generalnom idejom promocije novih pozorišnih tendencija.

Često se čita kao beogradska septembarska pojava koja tematskim podnaslovom svake godine odašilje uređeni i izdvojeni smisaoni i značenjski sadržaj, koji pokreće i menja ponašanje generacija. Kako onih koji “proizvode” tako i onih koji “koriste” umetnost i kulturu.

Produkcija bitefa je od nastanka festivala do 1989. godine bila poverena pozorištu Atelje 212, a nakon toga, odnosno od godine njegovog osnivanja – BITEF teatru. Oba pozorišta su ustanove od značaja za kulturu grada Beograda. BITEF teatar,  jedinstven po svom izvorištu nastao je na tekovinama BITEFA i na inicijativu Mire Trailović kao BITEFOVO POZORIŠTE i tada najmlađi, jedini projektni beogradski teatar koji nema stalno zaposlen umetnički ansambl.  BITEF teatar deluje kroz široki spektar programskih delatnosti, divergentnih koncepata izvođenja (u kojima ne preovlađuje nijedna paradigma) i vertikalnih multikulturalnih sadržaja,  ostajući i u trećoj deceniji postojanja privržen svojoj esteskoj vertikali oko koje je i nastao – BITEF festivalu.

Radom BITEFA upravlja ODBOR, koga sačinjavaju predsednik i četiri člana. Odbor, kao i umetničkog direktora BITEFA, imenuje Skupština grada Beograda na period od četiri godine.

Program festivala čine Glavni i Prateći program.

• Glavni program čine predstave zvanične selekcije, čiji broj varira od godine do godine, ali se poslednjih godina njihov broj ustalio na desetak. Nakon izvođenja predstava tradicionalno se organizuju Susreti sa stvaraocima. Festival se održava na različitim gradskim lokacijama, pozorišnim kao i drugim originalnim, alternativnim prostorima.
• Prateći programi su sastavni deo festivala još od njegovog osnivanja. Neki od njih su se ustalili kao stalni programi kao što su: BITEF na filmu (od 1976. godine) – najstariji prateći program BITEFA i BITEF polifonija (od 2000. godine), dok drugi čine jednogodišnje ili višegodišnje projekte.

BITEF organizuje i radionice, prezentacije, okrugle stolove, teorijske simpozijume, multimedijalne izložbe i izložbe izvođačkih umetnosti, kao i stalni kulturno – zabavni program After Ten Parties.

BITEF je manifestacija takmičarskog karaktera i njen žiri se sastoji od pet članova, koji se biraju na predlog menadžmenta festivala. Prvih dvadeset i pet godina žiri je bio sastavljen od domaćih umetnika, a kasnije – od svetski afirmisanih ličnosti iz redova kulture.

BITEF dodeljuje dve nagrade za predstave u zvaničnoj selekciji Glavnog programa:

• Grand prix Mira Trailović – za najbolju predstavu.  Do 1990. godine ova nagrada se zvala Velika nagrada BITEFA
• Specijalna nagrada BITEFA – za poseban / izuzetan doprinos pozorišnoj umetnosti, po žanru, stilu ili sredstvima.
• Na osnovu ankete koju BITEF sprovodi među publikom nakon završetka predstave, festival dodeljuje i nagradu publike
• Žiri pozorišnih kritičara Politikinih izdanja (dnevne novine Politika) od 11. BITEFA 1977. godine, dodeljuje nagradu najboljem reditelju BITEFA

BITEF je prvi internacionalni festival koji je dobio nagradu PREMIO EUROPA PER IL TEATRO (Taormina arte, Special Prize for 1999) kao priznanje posebnom doprinosu i ključnom značaju u svetu pozorišnih umetnosti.

Beogradski internacionalni festival – BITEF je 21. novembra 2014. godine proglašen najboljim pozorišnim festivalom u regionu bivše Jugoslavije na osnovu glasova publike portala Teatar.hr

Svake godine BITEF izdaje katalog i bilten, publikacije koje daju osvrt na tekući festival. Katalog daje kritički prikaz celokupnog festivala i može se nabaviti u prodaji neposredno pred otvaranje festivala. Bilten je kraća publikacija koja prati aktuelnosti i izlazi svakog dana festivala. Od 43. BITEFA 2009. godine bilten festivala se objavljuje u formi bloga na internet stranici http://www.bitef-blog.rs

O BITEFU postoji veliki broj tekstova i publikacija, od kojih bismo izdvojili monografiju BITEF, 40 godina novih pozorišnih tendencija, dokumenta Beogradskog internacionalnog teatarskog festivala /1967-2006/, u izdanju Istorijskog arhiva Beograda (2007.) i knjigu Natalije Vagapove Bitef: pozorište, festival, život (Službeni glasnik, Beograd, 2010.)

Šezdesete godine prošlog veka bile su izoštrenije i jasnije opredeljene da menjaju svet, a buntovničke generacije umetnika i intelektualaca da se društveno angažuju. Te godine donele su događaje koji su obelezili XX vek: Berlin je podeljen na dva dela, Nikita Hruščov je podneo ostavku, ubijeni su Kennedy i Martin Luter King, kao reakcija na intervenciju SAD-a u Vijetnamu rodila su se deca cveća, izbila je kulturna revolucija u Kini i studentski bunt u Evropi, a rock and roll i Beatles-i su krenuli u osvajanje sveta. U atmosferi procvata novih umetnosti i tehnologija, radio Luksemburga, konferencije nesvrstanih, Orijent ekspres voza i autobuskih linija koje su preko Beograda spajale Zapad sa Istokom, evropske premijere Kose…1967. godine Beograd,  BITEF i fantastična generacija mladih umetnika svih medija dočekuju Grotowskog, Living teatar, Godota, Becketa, Ioneska…u naš grad dolaze Krejča, Ronconi, Brook, Stein, Richard Schecner i drugi.

Počela je tada jedna velika svetska pozorišna avantura. Avantura kao promena života.

Tokom prvih desetak godina selektori BITEFA doveli su neke od najhrabrijih scenskih eksperimenata. U želji da se sagleda pravo rastojanje između klasičnog, modernog i postmodernog pozorišta, kao i varijacije klasičnih tema u savremenim obradama kroz kritiku pojma originalnosti, suočili su publiku sa pozorištem preobražaja, razaranjem dramskog narativa, novim scenskim govorom, dramskim pozorištem bez reči (telesnim i igračkim pozorištem), otkrivenim ljudskim telom, sasvim razbijenim scenskim prostorom i izlaskom na ulice grada, grupnim autorstvom, experimentalnim i političkim teatrom, teatrom gerile…

Ističući teatar kao diskurs različitih koncepata umetnosti i društva, u kome govore različiti jezici, gde ostajemo u neizvesnosti pred različitim teorijskim modelima i odnosima teorije, umetnosti i kulture, u drugu dekadu svog postojanja beogradski festival je ušao pod naslovom Teatar nacija / Théâtre des nations (10. BITEF, 1976.), ugostivši istoimeni festival, koji je osnovan 50-tih godina i čija je članica bila i Mira Trailović. U Beograd su došli svi ostali članovi festivala: Madeleine  Renaud, Jean-Luis Barrault, predsednik Teatra nacija, Suresh Awasthi, Eugenio Barba, Maurice Béjart, Radu Beligan, Saulo Benavente, Benno Besson, Enrique Buenaventura, Antonio Buero-Vallejo, Galal El-Čarkam, Núria Espert, Jerzy Grotowski, John Houseman, Jurij Ljubimov, Harold Prince, Jean-Louis Roux, Wole Soyinka, Peter Stein, Giorgio Strehler, Efua Sutherland, Jozef Svoboda, Jesaja Weinberg i Arnold Wesker.

Tokom osamdesetih i devedesetih, BITEF je predstavio je najviše domete postmodernog teatra tematizirajući procese, smisao, značenja i vrednosti u vanteatarskim i unutarteatarskim aspektima, koji nastaju premeštanjem iz mogućeg sveta kulture u teatar, odnosno iz teatra u mogući svet kulture. U vreme političko-ekonomske krize i embarga, rata i ratova na teritoriji ex Jugoslavije, loših vođa, zlotvora i žrtvi, istorijskog slepila… uspeo je da dovede u Beograd neka od najvećih imena svetske izvođačke scene i promoviše najviše kulturne vrednosti scenskih umetnosti devedestih godina. Da, bilo je važno – za sve one generacije koje su stasavale i stvarale, praktično – u vremenu vlasti koja je bila bez ideologije. Koje su bile više obeležene kulturom, umetnošću i pozorištem, nego političkim vremenom u kojem su živeli…Naraštaji mladih reditelja, dramskih pisaca, scenskih dizajnera, igrača… odrastali su uz BITEF. Danas su značajno prisutni i daju dragocenu nadogradnju i “drugost“ pozorišnim scenama kako Beograda, tako i u širem ragionu.

Početkom XXI veka, pored toga što prikazuje aktuelna i inovativna dostignuća svetskog “mejnstrima“, odjeke avangarde, teatarskih laboratorija i pokušaja preobražaja teatra u celokupno umetničko delo (Gesamtkunstwerk), predstave postdramskog i neverbalnog scenskog izraza, teatar u doba kulture, novi dramski teatar itd., BITEFOV repertoar se bavi i praksama čiji su deo umetnički procesi realizovani uz pomoć novih tehnologija, ušavši u novu avangardu metamedijskog društva. Time ukazuje na složene društvene i kulturne promene nastale pod uticajem nauke, tehnologije, novog svetskog, neo-liberalnog tržišnog poretka i globalizacije i otvara vrata virtuelnoj stvarnosti, pluralizmu ideja, stavova i perspektiva koje pruža era “sajber i bio-tehnološkog“ teatra.

Svojim programima, BITEF svedoči da umetnost nastaje kontraverznim i složenim procesima, koje proizvode nejedinstveni, nehomogeni tokovi događanja i razvoja, koje možemo da posmatramo kroz različite istorije gde umetnik, istražujuči i oslanjajući se na postojeće umetničke ili neumetničke tvorevine, prenos elemenata iz jednog u drugi sistem značenja ili umetnički diskurs, “prestaje“ da bude “samo“ stvaralac i postaje subjekt koji označava i upotrebljava. Novim umetničkim tvorevinama se ne može u ovom trenutku sagledati ni pravi početak niti kraj. BITEF koji je oduvek podsticao teme o sudbini i tragediji čoveka, koji je među prvima u svetu naglasio značaj tradicionalnih formi istočnog teatra kao što je Kathakali Dance Theatre (Prva premijera BITEF-a-1967) ili Beijing Opera, Teatar Balija itd., danas najavljuje 21. vek kao mogući prostor za razgovore na ovu temu ne zagovarajući tezu da umetnost može da preobrazi stvarnost na romantičarskoj osnovi, već da, umesto da služi, kritikuje utopije.

Značajan je broj umetnika koji su nastupali na BITEFU. Od najmarkantnijih, najkarakterističnijih, najprevratničkijih do onih koji nisu bili priznati na svetskoj pozorišnoj sceni, ili su bili tek malo poznati, a postali su deo pozorišne istorije i zahvaljujući radu selektora, koji su bez predrasuda bili vođeni intelektualnom hrabrošću, kriterijumom nezavisnosti izbora i sposobnošću da ocene njihova dostignuća i predstave ih na ovom festivalu:

BITEF is one of the oldest, most relevant, most prestigious events and a rarity in the family of major world festivals. It was founded by a decision of the Assembly of the City of Belgrade as a regular annual event of particular importance for the City of Belgrade on 26 December 1967. With outstanding promoters of culture at its head, its founders and artistic directors (and selectors) Mira Trailović (Kraljevo, 22-1-1924 – Belgrade 07-08-1989), Jovan Ćirilov (Kikinda, 30- 8 1931 – Belgrade, 16-11-2014), since 2006 as another festival selector – Anja Suša (theatre director) and of 2015 as the new artistic director – Ivan Medenica (professor and theater critic) the festival has ever since its foundation supported and played a significant role in the promotion of novel and new artistic and cultural tendencies and ultimate theatre values.

It acquaints the spectator, indirect analyst and beneficiary with the world’s latest theatre achievements expressed through experimental and traditional form. For almost half a century it has been building our intellectual ties with the world and the world’s ties with us.  Ever-advocating new and open cultural spaces, it has established remarkable contacts, undone fixed artistic hierarchies, encouraged the development of performing arts in Serbia and contributed to its affirmation in a broader context. It has also helped to form domestic theatre critique in the struggle against the parochial spirit and spiritual emptiness. BITEF is an epochal anti-traditional phenomenon of the supreme category in the Yugoslav and world culture.

The festival with its long-standing subtitle New Theatre Tendencies is a set of values, an artistic project which does not communicate definitive truths about the theatre and does not represent; instead, it opens and raises questions about some of the most sensitive issues of the modern public sphere, produced, presented or concealed in special worlds of differences and schisms in arts.

It overpowers modernist dogmas, media boundaries and disciplines and aspires to study, analyse, offer new readings and advances in artistic performance, diverse forms of representational structures and story-telling mechanisms – from prose narratives, i.e. dramatic texts in the literal sense where the literary text precedes the theatrical event to the deconstruction of its autonomy and its interdisciplinary application in other communicational systems (dance, music, pictorial, video, poetic, film, techno, physical, cyber etc. “telling of a story”). Addressing not only the production of a piece or interpretation of the performing act but also their social, political and cultural contexts and effects, BITEF cultivates the power of questioning, criticism, negation and split and does it dynamically, productively and explicitly. Political and cultural barriers notwithstanding, BITEF draws maps, responds critically to new social challenges and problems, opens social and political issues, actively re-examines its own and general artistic and theatre strategies and the ways in which they produce new theatre realities.

Its boundaries are both permeable and soft and highly confronted and tense. This is a festival with a dynamic, sharp, penetrating and comprehensive thematic focus challenged by modern understanding of theatre, performing and visual arts, study of their drift, assertion of different theatre spaces and directions, articulation of different theoretical and critical interpretations, flying in the face of hackneyed, clichéd and often boring patterns of expression and representation on stage…

Throughout the decades of its existence in complex and contradictory social processes BITEF has always kept pace with the exciting evolution of the theatre art, researching how much and in what way philosophy and other scientific disciplines such as theatrology, anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, theories of culture, gender, media etc make the theatre and, vice versa, which fragments of the theatre they affect.

The concept and programme of every BITEF reflect the zeitgeist, a particular spiritual and artistic cross-section of theatrical research and avant-garde trends aiming to promote new theatre tendencies.

It is often seen as a Belgrade September phenomenon whose annual thematic subtitle emits an orderly and distinctive, purposeful and meaningful content setting in motion and changing the behavior of generations: equally those who “produce” and those who “use” arts and culture.

From its inception until 1989 BITEF has been in charge of Atelje 212 and then, after the foundation of Bitef Theatre, in its charge. Both theatres are important cultural institutions in Belgrade. Bitef Theatre is unique as, at the initiative of Mira Trailović, it rose out of BITEF achievements as BITEF’s theatre and the youngest and only Belgrade project theatre without a standing company. Bitef Theatre has a broad range of programmes, divergent concepts of performance (with no prevailing paradigm) and vertical multicultural contents. Now in its thirties, it remains dedicated to the aesthetic vertical which brought it about – the BITEF Festival.

BITEF is managed by its BOARD consisting of a chairman and four members. The Board and the artistic director are appointed by the Assembly of the City of Belgrade for a term of four years.

The Festival programme is made of the Main and Accompanying Programmes.

The Main Programme offers officially selected productions; their number varies from one year to another but of late it has steadied around ten.

Meetings with authors are traditionally organised after the performance

The festival takes place at different venues around the city, in theatres and other alternative spaces.

The accompanying programmes have been a part of the festival ever since its foundation. Some of them are a constant feature such as BITEF on Film (since 1976) as the oldest accompanying programme and BITEF Polyphony (since 2000). Other programmes present annual or longer projects.

BITEF organizes workshops, presentations, round tables, theoretical symposia, multimedia exhibitions and exhibitions displaying performing arts and its traditional cultural and entertainment programme called After Ten Parties.

BITEF is a competitive event. Its five-member jury is selected at the proposal of the festival management. During the first twenty-five years it involved domestic artists and after that prominent figures in international culture.

BITEF has two awards for productions presented within the official selection of the Main Programme:

• Grand prix Mira Trailović – for the best production. Until 1990 it was called BITEF Grand Prix.
• BITEF Special Award – for the outstanding/exceptional contribution to theatre art in terms of genre, style or means of expression.
• On the basis of the poll conducted among the BITEF spectators after each performance the festival also bestows the Audience Award.
• As of the 11th BITEF in 1977 the jury of Politika (daily newspaper and other publications) theatre critics awards the best director of BITEF.

BITEF is the first international festival awarded PREMIO EUROPA PER IL TEATRO (Taormina arte, Special Prize for 1999) in recognition of its particular contribution and crucial significance in the theatre art.

On 21 November 2014 Belgrade International Theatre Festival – BITEF – was voted by the users of portal Teater.hr as the best theatre festival in former Yugoslavia

Every year BITEF publishes its catalogue and its bulletin covering the festival in progress. The catalogue offers a critical review of the festival and can be bought on the eve of the festival opening. The bulletin is a short publication following current events, published every festival day.  Since the 43^rd BITEF 2009 it is also published as a blog and can be found at http://www.bitef-blog.rs

Of a large number of texts and publications about BITEF we should like to single out a monograph BITEF, 40 godina novih pozorišnih tendencija, dokumenta Beogradskog internacionalnog teatarskog festivala (BITEF, 40 Years of new theatre tendencies, Documents of the Belgrade International Theatre Festival) /1967-2006/  published by Historical Archives of Belgrade (2007) and Natalya Vagapova’s book Bitef: Theatre, Festival, Life (Official Gazette, Belgrade, 2010)

The 1960s were more focused and more clearly determined to change the world and rebellious generations of artists and intellectuals were more ready to become socially committed. A number of events during that decade marked the 20th century: Berlin was split in two, Nikita Khrushchev resigned, Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated; in response to the USA intervention in Vietnam flower children were born; the cultural revolution broke out in China; students revolted in Europe and rock-and-roll and the Beatles set out to conquer the world. New arts and technologies flourished; there were Radio Luxembourg, non-aligned conferences; Orient Express and buses linked West and East via Belgrade; European premiere of Hair… In 1967 Belgrade, BITEF and a fantastic generation of young artists of all media welcomed Grotowski, Living Theatre, Godot, Beckett, Ionesco…Krejča, Ronconi, Brook, Stein, Richard Schecner and others came to our city.

A great world theatre adventure began then. A life-changing adventure.

During the first ten years or so BITEF selectors brought to Belgrade some of the most courageous stage experiments. Desirous of seeing, by means of the criticism of the notion of originality, the true distance between the classical, modern and post-modern theatre and the variations of classical themes in contempoirary  readings, they confronted the public with the theatre of transformation, deconstruction of the dramatic narrative, new stage speech, drama theatre without words (physical and dance theatre), divested human body, fragmented stage space and venturing out into city streets, group authorship, experimental and political theatre, guerrilla theatre…

Putting forth the theatre as a discourse of different concepts of art and society in which they speak, different languages, when we waver faced with different theoretical models and relations between theory, arts and culture, the Belgrade festival entered its second decade under the title of Théâtre des nations (10th BITEF, 1976.), playing host to the eponymous festival founded in the 1950s and with Mira Trailović as its member. All the other festival members came to Belgrade: Madeleine Renaud, Jean-Luis Barrault, president of the Theatre des nations Suresh Awasthi, Eugenio Barba, Maurice Béjart, Radu Beligan, Saulo Benavente, Benno Besson, Enrique Buenaventura, Antonio Buero-Vallejo, Galal El-Čarkam, Núria Espert, Jerzy Grotowski, John Houseman, Jurij Ljubimov, Harold Prince, Jean-Louis Roux, Wole Soyinka, Peter Stein, Giorgio Strehler, Efua Sutherland, Jozef Svoboda, Jesaja Weinberg and Arnold Wesker.

In the ‘80s and ‘90s BITEF presented the highest achievements of the postmodern theatre offering as themes the processes, purpose, meanings and values in out-of-theatre and within-the-theatre aspects occurring when transferred from the possible world of culture into theatre, i.e. from theatre into the possible world of culture. During the political-economic crisis and embargo, the war and wars in the former Yugoslavia, bad leaders, villains and victims, historical blindness… it managed to bring to Belgrade some of the greatest names in theatre and promote the highest cultural values of stage arts in 1990s.  Yes, it was important – for all those generations which grew up and created, at the time of government without ideology. Those years were marked more by culture, art and theatre than by the political time in which they lived. Generations of young directors, playwrights, set designers, players… grew up alongside BITEF. Today their presence is felt as they build on preciously on the former achievements and introduce “otherness” to stages in Belgrade and across the region.

In the early 21st century in addition to showing topical and innovative achievements of the world “mainstream”, echoes of the avant-garde, theatre laboratories and attempts to transform the theatre into a complete world of art (Gesamtkunstwerk), post-drama and non-verbal theatre, theatre in the time of culture, new drama theatre etc., BITEF also introduces practices whose part are artistic processes realised with new technologies and thus joins the new avant-garde of the meta-media society. It thereby points at complex social and cultural changes occurred under the influence of science, technology, new world neo-liberal market order and globalisation and opens the door to the virtual reality, pluralism of ideas, views and perspectives proffered by the era of “cyber and biotechnological” theatre.

BITEF programmes attest to the fact that art is born out of controversial and complex processes induced by disparate, non-homogenous events and developments which we can view through different histories when the artist, researching and relying on the existing artistic or non-artistic products, transposition of elements from one into another system of meanings or artistic discourse, “ceases” to be a creator “only” and becomes a subject which signifies and uses. At this moment it is impossible to see either the beginning or the end of new artistic products. BITEF which has always encouraged topics about the condition and tragedy of man, which was one of the first to emphasize the importance of traditional forms of the Oriental theatre such as Kathakali Dance Theatre (the first BITEF premiere in 1967) or Beijing Opera, Bali Theatre etc.,  announced the 21st century as a possible space for discussions about this subject without claiming that art can transform the reality as romanticism wanted it but that it can criticize the utopias, rather than serve them.

An important number of artists participated in BITEF: from the most prominent, most characteristic, most revolutionary to those who were not recognised on the world theatre stage or were known but a little yet have become a part of the theatre history owing to the festival’s unbiased selectors guided by their intellectual courage, independence of choice and ability to assess the productions’ achievements and present them at the festival: