INTERVIEW Milena Lubarda Marojević: The race for superficial sensations is usually a shortcut to bad taste

The "City Theater Budva" festival was held last July and August for the 37th time under the motto "Strength, courage and stupidity", which is a quote from the text of the play "Radovan III". Dusan Kovačević, whose premiere, with praise and the presence of the writer, marked the end of the festival. The holding of this edition of the festival was almost threatened by financial uncertainty, and when that was resolved and the festival opened, the main feature became a full auditorium night after night.

On Wednesday, September 20, Budva expects a response from the European Commission on the declaration of Budva, Tivat, Kotor and Herceg Novi as the European Capital of Culture in 2028. On this occasion, we spoke with the director of the "City Theater" Milena Lubarda Marojević.

At the beginning of July, it seemed that the entire domestic public was worried about whether you would be able to resolve the financial situation and whether there would even be a "City of Budva" festival this year.

- And we who work there were sincerely worried. The main financier of the institution and the festival is the Municipality of Budva, which, due to the current political situation in the city, did not "transfer" the funds intended for the program to the institution in a timely manner. However, everything ended really well because it turned out that all important actors of political life in the country showed interest and actively got involved, thanks to which the festival was first approved for government assistance, and then the transfer of money from the city budget was made possible. Thanks to this, we were able not only to open the festival but also to successfully hold it as well as to plan additional inter-festival programs.

You have been at the head of the City Theater for a little over six years. What are you most proud of in that period?

- I literally grew up with this festival. I've often compared it to when people support a sports club, and over time they pretty much identify with it. I was lucky enough to follow him inside and out since my teenage years, and to constantly learn about and fall in love with art year after year. That's why I've always been happy with his every success, breakthrough, newly discovered original author, award, delighted audience, and at the same time sad crises and setbacks.

In the first year and a half of that period of business management, we managed to settle the institution's debts, some of which dated back to 2005, with the total debt estimated at just over a million euros. At the same time, the trust of the participants and the audience returned, and after several decades we managed to bring the problem of noise under control during performances and outdoor concerts.

Another direction in which we went was international cooperation and networking. I can say that the moment "Grad Teatar" as a festival received an invitation to join the European Association of Festivals EFA, which until that moment meant complete financial stability as well as preserved quality of the program that is evident at the international level, that it is one of those moments when a man can perhaps allow himself to say that he is proud.

Do you think that enough money is allocated for culture in Montenegro? What is the situation in Budva?

- We often witness statements of percentages of the total budget of a city or state, or amounts that indicate how much money is allocated for culture. I think it's just as important to know what that money is spent on. If we don't know the priorities and specific projects in which investments are being made, those numbers alone don't tell us much.

Of course, investing in culture is of vital importance for the development of a nation, and these amounts are never large enough. But culture and, with it, art, which belong to areas that cannot be adequately expressed in numbers, can unfortunately become subject to abuse or even unclear distribution as such.

That is why I believe that we need stricter professional regulations and clear criteria that will affect the distribution of that money. We all deal with some statistics, how many programs, how many days, how many announcements in the media, on the networks, how many views... However, we should not allow the essence to be missing in all this race for numbers, lest the art itself suffer.

The writer Dušan Kovačević, who this year was a guest at the "Grad Teatar" festival on the occasion of the premiere of "Radovan III", told Vijesti on that occasion that this festival "has long surpassed the conditions in which it is played with its meaning and respect". How do you see it?

- Scenes at the sea, in the hinterland, in the middle of the hustle and bustle, on fortresses - all of these are the basis of the "Theatre City" and all of them were easily taken away over the years due to the privatization of most of the space. First of all, the city theater needs a big stage, as it once existed at the Citadel.

We are constantly looking for scenes, so we found partial refuge in the monastery of St. Trojice in Stanjević thanks to the spiritual breadth and hospitality of the people there Abbot Efrem and other monks. One year, we managed to develop a wonderful flat on Cape Zavala, but even there later, uncleared private interests got in the way. Not to mention various other locations in and around the city where the festival "stayed", including the amphitheater on Sveti Stefan, which we would like to become one of our stages again. But even then, all of them (except Zavala) are small spaces.

Budva needs at least one big stage, like all festival cities have. Just as she needs a theater. Just as it needs an adequate building for the city library, which is the oldest cultural institution in Budva with 155 years of existence. Private capital slowly displaced culture. The European Capital of Culture project, for example, could bring about ways to reconcile these interests.

These days, Budva is expecting a response from the European Commission on the outcome of its candidacy for the European Capital of Culture. In your opinion, what could be the most important benefits if this title is won?

- The idea of ​​"Theatre City" is basically very similar to the idea of ​​cities as capitals of culture. That is why, in my opinion, the realization of this project in Budva would be a return to the original City Theater. The citizens of Budva have it in their collective memory, at least those who lived here 30-40 years ago.

There are many reasons why I hope and cheer for Budva to get this status. One of them is that it will oblige us to solve the Gordian knot of communal problems in the city that concern culture. For example, it is important which economic activities will be carried out in the city directly next to the areas where the programs are performed, and this is something for which the city itself issues permits anew every year. It is necessary to turn off the music, not to mention live music from the bar, in the environment of such spaces, which at the moment is also not regulated by some actors despite our long-standing struggle and comes down to an act of good will of the bar owner.

Secondly, we have great hope that the money allocated in the annual budgets for the period of preparation for 2028 will be invested in the necessary infrastructure, in a theater hall, in a concert hall, in equipping numerous spaces for outdoor scenes. We look at examples of other cities that have this experience. A large number of communal problems that normally burdened those areas, a large number of inadequacies, simply had to be solved in some constructive way.

So I look at receiving the EPK title first of all as a unique opportunity to fix everything in the city that we already know is problematic and which we cannot seriously deal with. As for the artistic events themselves, I believe that there must be an artistic body that chooses and proposes. Again, I'm not talking about the year of the title, because then that is taken for granted, but during the years of preparation, which is financed from public budgets.

Otherwise, it could happen that anyone who has access to the budget, and that can be a layman, can realize "boyish dreams" at the expense of citizens in the name of preparation for the main year. I have already said that I think it is just as important to know what money is spent on as how much is set aside. If we don't know what the priorities are, what are the areas, what kind of projects, dry figures are silent. The most recent example of a European capital of culture that I am analyzing is the example of the ancient city of Elefsina, famous for being born there Aeschylus.

However, in modern history it is a city of industrial ruins, remains of ships and wrecks at the bottom of the sea, so a city with many problems of some 25000 inhabitants. However, after being declared the European Capital of Culture for the year 2023, the city is managed in such a way that this year it shows programs of artists in over 30 different locations, among which are Saša Waltz, Romeo Castellucci... until Nikita Milivojevića. The entire project is of course managed by an expert team headed by an actor and a director Mihail Marmarinos, and to me Elefsina really seems like a real example when it comes to the contents that are shown.

How difficult is it to reconcile a wide audience and innovative, extravagant content? In your opinion, how important is and what does marketing mean in culture and how is it best to reach the audience?

- We live in an environment of consumerism that tends to impose form at the expense of content. Our job is to preserve the culture of respecting the content, the essence. This means that facts are dealt with responsibly, that not everything can be declared a sensation and innovation, ingenious and great. And then when it is declared, it must be supported by some qualified artistic parameters. There is nothing spectacular in the race to declare everything a spectacle, it is just a shortcut to bad taste.

In contrast, authentic experiences, those that announce and change trends, are the most valuable cultural product when it comes to events. If they disappeared, if the investment in it stopped, future generations would only be left with pop music. In the national cultural development program of Montenegro until 2027, there is a chapter dedicated to the audience, i.e. audience development. I believe that educating the audience is the way to go.

What does "Grad Teatar" do during 10 months, i.e. between September and July?

- One is the festival and the other is the public institution "Grad Teatar". The institution tends to engage in production outside of the festival, throughout the year. The main "enemy" in this is the lack of a theater hall, that is, any larger hall where plays and concerts could be shown, which we will continue to insist on. Despite this, for six years now we have managed to organize guest performances of valuable performances in different venues between the two festivals, most often in the space of the "Red Commune" Memorial House in Petrovac, which is at the disposal of the JU "Museums and Galleries of Budva". That's how it was and will be this year as well.

In the near future, the continuation of work on the "Theatre of Possibilities" project (Enabled Theater) which we are realizing with the help of the Creative Europe program in cooperation with colleagues from Sarajevo, Novi Sad and Zagreb and which will result in a performance directed by Haris Pašović, which should be premiered at the next, 38th festival. This summer, the European Commission accepted another project from the Creative Europe program, "Sexual Stages", on which we will soon start working with colleagues from Zenica, Braga and Montpellier.

Then we are waiting for work on a performance dedicated to the life and work of the famous Budvanin Antun Kojović entitled "Nadpop Kojović", for which she wrote the text and will direct Vida Ognjenović. On September 30, the Sombor premiere of this year's production "Radovan III" directed by Vita Taufer. In the meantime, we all wait together for news from Brussels...