Фото: Марко Петровић
“Getting acquainted with the already created theatre and creating new, both have to be based on the contemporary - digital recording and information flow. Bearing in mind the time distance marked by the new century and the new millennium, the experience of the past five decades need to be summarized”, it is stated by Vesna Bogunović.
A unique approach to the Festival digitized documents commenced through projects “35 years of BITEF on CD” (35th BITEF), “The Sky over Bitef” (49th BITEF), “BITEF above Paris” (51st BITEF). At 52nd festival, a modern retrospective online BITEF catalogue will offer a precious insight into systematized artistic trends and offer a competent comment on the past period of the changing world.
BITEF DIGITIZED ARCHIVES is an online edition which represents a unique monography of the Festival as a prestigious annual event in Belgrade, a testament and a contribution to the cultural politics and the culture of the city and of the country, a lexicon of theatre art in Serbia, in Europe and in the world, an introduction to contemporary theatre practice, a view of the world as seen through theatre art, an education tool, a resource for academic research, an instrument in development and promotion of cultural cooperation on regional, European and international level, and in the programs which aim at raising the awareness of belonging to international integrative space. It is also a contribution to the affirmation of multicultural art space. It was with a distinct enthusiasm that BITEF and the University library “Svetozar Marković” opened and entered the portal digitalniarhivbitefa.unilib.rs
According to Bojan Nikolić, system administrator at the University library “Svetozar Marković” and the project co-author, who has carried out the digitalization of VHS recordings of the performances shown at BITEF Festial, the catalogues have been digitized by the means of new technology. “The colleagues from digitization department have helped and did their part, while we processed and uploaded the material. The catalogues are now available to all the Internet users. We see it as a step of enormous historic importance, one of the grand digitization projects in the new era. Moreover, it will be of great educational importance for future generations that the content is constantly available. My job was to digitize the VHS recordings of the performances. I am satisfied by our contribution - the contribution of the library as an institution, but also of my own. Our library archives can be accessed not only from the library but by any Internet-using device. The only thing users should do is visit the official site of the digital Bitef archives, and find all the digitized material, search by the name of directors, actors…”
Besides the initiators and co-authors, the project is made possible with the help of: prof dr. Aleksandar Jerkov, Vukosav Sredojević, Bojan Nikolić, Nikola Smolenski, Matea Milošević, Nikola Krsmanović, Nemanja Žikić, Dragana Popović, Sandra Spasić, Aleksandra Tica from the University library “Svetozar Marković” and Miloš Latinović, the director, Jelena Stojanović and Nenad Šugić from BITEF Theatre, with a special gratitude to all the associates and partners who have saved the festival material from the decay. At the end of the opening, the director of BITEF Theatre was given a symbolic present - a USB flash drive with a digitized edition of all the previous festival documents, with a shared wish to have the future festivals digitized too.
The link to the BITEF digital archives was officially launched in the gallery “November”. From 12th September until the end of the festival, the exhibition will be available in Kombak Arena (14, Dečanska Str.), in the festival press centre at digitalniarhivbitefa.unilib.rs
