15. 10. 2009.

MESS Festival 2009 side programmes

The members of the Jury of the 49th MESS International Theatre Festival 2009 are:

Gjergji Prevazi (Albania)

Director, “Dance meeting” International Festival of Modern Dance

Damir Zlatar Frey (Croatia)

Director, choreographer and playwright

Kinga Keszethelyi (Hungary)

Professor of Dramaturgy at the Budapest Academy of Drama and Film

Elie Malka (France)

Professor of Dramaturgy, playwright

Tatjana Šojić (B&H)

Actress

WORKSHOP 

The 49^th MESS International Theatre Festival will this year, like previous years, host art workshops for students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia. The Festival, alongside its regular programmes that present us with the best and most significant works of theatre from the region and the world, has for many years given special focus to this educational Festival segment, organising workshops in Sarajevo by experts in the art of theatre, who come to MESS to offer their valuable expertise and experience to younger generations in a direct and efficient way. 

The MESS will this year host the following workshops:

1)    “Pentjak-Silat” (Charles E. Renoult, Netherlands)

2)    “The composition of a play: Repetition, duration, development” (John Freeman, United Kingdom)

3)     “Fundamentals of NO Theatre” (Masato Matsuura, France).

ROUNDTABLES OF THEATRE CRITICS

During the 48^th MESS Theatre Festival, roundtables of theatre criticism will be held everyday at the Sana Conference Room of the Bosnia Hotel, which will host theatre studies professionals and critics from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region and Europe. These roundtables will begin everyday at 12 noon, and will, like last year, be moderated by Bojan Munjin.

BOOK LAUNCHES 

The side programmes of this year’s MESS will also include two book launches:

1) A digitalised version of all the issues of “Pozorište” (Theatre) Magazine, 1953 – 1990 (issued by the Media Centre).

2) «Estetika performativne umjetnosti» (The Aesthetics of the Art of Performance), by Erika Fischer – Lichte, translated by Sulejman Bosto. Promoting the book will be Muhamed Dželilović, Dino Mustafić and Sulejman Bosto

THE MEMORY MODULE

The Memory Module is a cultural project launched by the MESS Festival in 1996 as a form of promoting a public debate on the following questions:

How is it possible that a contemporary and unified Europe is the place of genocide, and the destruction of cities, cultural and religious heritage? How is the possible that humankind witnesses, at the same time, extraordinary technological advancement and destruction that is the result of this progress?

How do we defend ourselves from this?

What is the effect of these developments on art?

The basic aim of this cultural project is to preserve the memory of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s recent, tragic past, but also to recognise the cultural and artistic values that were shaped during that time. The project focuses on artists whose work is a synthesis of ethics and aesthetics.

As an institution which shaped its artistic niche partly during the days of the siege of Sarajevo, the MESS Festival has launched this project, on the one hand, to remind us of a time when art was a form of motivation for the citizens of Sarajevo, a way to survive. On the other hand, the project also aims to preserve some of the values exhibited by art during these difficult times.

Simply speaking, the Memory Module is a cultural project focused on the works of arts created during times of war and other times when human morals are put to the test. This type of project is especially significant today, a time of attempts to erase the tragic suffering of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, genocide and the aggression on our country from the collective memory. In this way, not only would an injustice be done against all the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina – this would also open the floor to new manipulation. While the MESS remains oriented towards the future, we try not to ignore the past, and we believe that the preservation of the positive values born in those difficult times of our past are very important in the creation of a favourable cultural identity of our country.

This year’s Memory Module will feature the performance of

“THE COUNTRY THAT NO SOLACE SEES”

Author: Mile Stojić

Co-authored by: Hasija Borić and Rea Jugo