09. 10. 2009.

The MESS Festival offers its Solidarity to Colleagues at the Mostar Croatian National Theatre

The MESS Festival Head Office would herewith like to express its full solidarity with the workers of the Croatian National Theatre of Mostar, who have been forced to go on strike as a result of the extremely irresponsible approach that relevant city and cantonal authorities are giving this cultural organisation. We bring you the MESS Festival official statement.

Dear colleagues at the Mostar Croatian National Theatre,

We would like you to know that the MESS Festival fully supports both you and the warning strike you have begun, and that you can always count on our support in your struggle to preserve the dignity of artists, and employees in the field of culture. We know that you regret having to go on strike, because having to bring down the curtain before the “end of the show” is something every theatre worker, every theatre lover, finds difficult, but we also understand that you were compelled to take such action by the bewildered ethnic party politics that has paralysed your city for almost a year, making both you and your fellow citizens its hostages.   

When, just two days ago, the MESS Festival issued a statement on the closing down of the Mostar National Theatre, warning the public that this event is a clear example of the way in which the current political authority is treating culture and art, we didn’t dream that, two days later, we would find ourselves in a situation to identify with our colleagues at the Croatian National Theatre, and we wish to protest, once again, against the incomprehensible neglect that city and cantonal authorities in Mostar have shown you, and against what now appears to be a systematic attack of political primitivism on the cultural institutions of the city of Mostar.

MESS International Theatre Festival, Head Office