interview

Mirko Petrić (born in Split, 1961) studied Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb, with study periods at Freie Universitaet Berlin and the University of Bologna. His work as a cultural journalist started back in the late 1970s and continues to this day. Petrić’s experience in the cultural sector also includes his work as a translator for several publishers, as well as editorial collaboration at Literaturhaus in Vienna. In the mid-1990s, he was one of the founders of the Arts Academy in Split, where he taught Semiotics and Media Theory in the Department of Visual Communication Design. Since 2006, he has been lecturing at the Department of Sociology, University of Zadar, on cultural and media theories and methods. Petrić’s work also includes research in the field of cultural policy as well as his involvement in struggles for the preservation of cultural heritage and public space and the increased participation of the public in urban planning.

Dejan Kršić (1961) is a graphic designer, writer and translator based in Zagreb, Croatia. Since 2000, he has collaborated as a member of the NGO for visual culture What, How and for Whom / WHW on contemporary art exhibitions and media projects such as “What, How and For Whom - On the Occasion of the 152nd Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto” (Zagreb 2000, Vienna 2001), “Broadcasting Project, Dedicated to Nikola Tesla” (Zagreb 2001/2002), “Collective Creativity” (Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel 2005) and has co-created programs for Gallery Nova, Zagreb.

He has worked for various magazines and newspapers (Polet, Studentski list, Quorum, Svijet, Start, Mladina, Moment, Danas…, Frakcija, Zarez...) as a journalist, editor and/or graphic designer. In the 90s, Kršić was one of the founders and later the editor-in-chief of Arkzin, an independent bi-weekly newspaper/magazine, as well as of Arkzin’s book publishing project.

He currently teaches Graphic Design at the Department of Visual Communications at UMAS, Split, Croatia.

Dunja Blažević is an art historian, art critic, contemporary art and new media curator and producer. She has  been the director of the Sarajevo Centre for Contemporary Art since 1997. From 2004 to 2007, she supervised the multidisciplinary regional project De/construction of Monument in Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1971 to 1980, Dunja was director and head of programming at Belgrade University’s Student Cultural Centre art gallery – the first in ex-Yugoslavia to promote conceptual art and new media. From 1980 to 1991, she was editor-in-chief of the visual arts programme at TV Belgrade. She is a recipient of the Legion d’Honneur title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Jeton Neziraj (1977) is a playwright and the Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Kosovo. He has written over fifteen plays, which have been staged and presented in Kosovo and abroad, in Europe and the USA. His plays have also been published and translated into several languages. His play Liza po fle [Liza is Sleeping] won First Prize at the national drama contest "Buzuku". Neziraj is also the author of dozens of essays on theatre, which have been published in local and international newspapers and magazines. He is also the author of several books, including a book on the famous Kosovan actor Faruk Begolli. Jeton Neziraj is the founder and leader of the theatre company Multimedia Center, focusing on contemporary theatre.

I first met Jasna Koteska in 2009 at a conference in Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana. She stepped on the stage in what seemed to be a radical gesture: she refused to sit and lecture. Instead, she was standing in what at first seemed to be rather uncomfortable manner but which soon proved to be well-staged performance that, with her witty and lucid thoughts, instantly captured the entire audience. Among other things, she talked about her father, the famous Macedonian poet Jovan Koteski, who was, along with his family, persecuted by the secret services in the former Yugoslavia. Jasna Koteska has ended her family’s silence on the matter by putting her father’s fate into the sphere of political. And it was this topic that has gained Koteska international recognition as one of the most renowned contemporary Macedonian authors. She is closely linked to Slovenia, for she has been teaching 19th century Slovenian literature for nearly 15 years at Skopje’s state university. Other than literature, with which she made her PhD, she works in the sphere of theoretical psychoanalysis and gender studies and deals with topics such as intimacy, sanitation, trauma, ressentiment, identities, abjection and communism. She was born in 1970 in Skopje, Macedonia, and studied at the Central European University in Budapest and at the University of Skopje. She has written several books and articles. Her book Intimist (which was the Yugoslav secret police file’s code name for her father) has been translated into Slovene. It explores the 20th century as the world without intimacy.    

Borka Pavićević was born in Kotor (Montenegro) in 1947. She graduated from the Academy for Theatre, Film, Radio and TV in Belgrade in 1971. She has worked as a dramaturg and a publisher in numerous theatres and institutions, most notably Atelje 212, Belgrade Drama Theatre and BITEF – Belgrade International Theatre Festival. In 1981, she founded New Sensibility, one of the few venues for alternative culture in Belgrade in the 80s. In 1994, she founded the Centre for Cultural Decontamination to counteract the politics of Milošević and all forms of nationalism, xenophobia, intolerance, hatred and fear. To date, CZKD has organised more than 2,000 different performances, exhibitions, theatre events, protest actions, lectures, etc. Pavićević is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Medal of Legion of Honour, the Hiroshima Prize and the ECF Routes Princess Margriet Award. She currently lives and works in Belgrade.

Darko Suvin is a Yugoslav-born academic, philosopher and poet. He became a Professor at McGill University in Montreal – now emeritus. He was born in Zagreb, Croatia, and after teaching at the Department for Comparative Literature at Zagreb University, moved to Canada in 1968. He is best known for several major works of criticism and literary history devoted to science fiction. His work also includes political theory and dramaturgy. He was editor of Science-Fiction Studies (later Science Fiction Studies) from 1973 to 1980 and is the author of poetry and numerous theoretical works, such as Metamorphoses of Science Fiction,To Brecht and Beyond, Positions and Presuppositions in Science Fiction, Lessons of Japan, U.S. Science Fiction and War/Militarism and Defined by a Hollow. Since his retirement from McGill in 1999, he has lived in Lucca, Italy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Recently, his book Kje smo? Kam gremo? Za politično epistemologijo odrešitve (Where are we? Where are we going? For a political epistemology of salvation) has been translated into Slovene and published by Založba Sophia, which gave us the opportunity to have a conversation on art, society and pertinent questions regarding the contemporary political situation. This book is also available in Croatian (Gdje smo? Kuda idemo? Za političku epistemologiju spasa: eseji za orijentaciju i djelovanje u oskudnom vremenu (Hrvatsko filozofsko društvo, Zagreb 2006)).

Dr. Suzana Milevska is a theorist and curator of visual art and culture from Skopje, Macedonia. She teaches art history and theory at the Faculty of Fine Arts – Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Her research interests include postcolonial critique in arts, visual culture, feminism and gender theory. She was the Director of the Center for Visual and Cultural Research in Skopje (2006–2008). She holds a PhD in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths College, London. In 2010, she published the book Gender Difference in the Balkans and completed the three-year curatorial project The Renaming Machine.

Lev Kreft holds a PhD in philosophical sciences, is a full professor for aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, and a director of the Peace Institute in Ljubljana. He has published texts in the field of aesthetics, has lectured abroad and, in 2000, he was as a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Democracy (director John Keane, University of Westminster, London). In recent years, he has been involved in the philosophy of sport. In his political, journalistic and professional activity, he has dealt with the rights of minorities, the policy of equal opportunities, alternative culture and cultural policy, refugee policies and other issues pertaining to the field of human rights.

Dr. Dragan Klaić (Amsterdam) was a Professor at the University of Arts in Belgrade until 1991 and Director of the Theater Instituut Nederland in Amsterdam, 1992-2001. A Visiting Professor of Cultural Policy at the Central European University in Budapest, he also taught regularly at the Bologna, Leiden, and Istanbul Bilgi University and at the University of Arts Belgrade. He was the initiator and Chair of the European Festivals Research Project. He  was a writer, lecturer, researcher, author of several books, his last one was Mobility of Imagination, a companion guide to international cultural cooperation (2007), and of numerous articles in journals and books. See www.draganklaic.eu