The culture of resistance as a common denominator

The program entitled "Why and why - Borka Pavićević, an evening with friends" will be held on Friday, November 29 at 19 p.m. in the premises of the Matica Montenegrin Branch in Herceg Novi.

Matica Montenegrin organizes this program in memory of a prominent playwright and civic activist who passed away five years ago. They participate in the program Ljiljana Dufgran, publicist, former president of the PEN Center Sweden, long-term member of the board of directors of the Swedish Cultural Council and member of Matica Montenegrin, prof. Radmila Vojvodić, theater director and playwright, Želimir Žilnik, film director, prof. Ph.D Nedžad Ibrahimović, writer and theoretician of literature and film, former president of PEN Center BiH and prof. M.Sc Janko Ljumović, producer and member of the board of directors of Matica Montenegrin.

The legacy of Borka Pavićević (1947–2019), playwright and civil activist in the field of culture, journalism, civil society and activism makes her a unique person, both in the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav contexts. After graduating from the Academy of Theatre, Film, Radio and Television in Belgrade, she worked in several Belgrade theaters, Atelje 212, Bitef, the "Nova sensibility" theater she founded, KPGT, and the Belgrade Drama Theater, from which she became an artistic director dismissed in 1993 due to political and public activities. She is the founder and director of the Center for Cultural Decontamination (1994–2019). She is the winner of the Hiroshima Peace and Culture Foundation award in 2004, the "Routes Princess Margriet Award" of the European Cultural Foundation in 2009, the "Conquest of Freedom" award given by the "Maja Maršićević Tasić" fund in 2005, and is a recipient of the Order of the Legion of Honor of the Republic of France in 2005.

Her books of essays and columns "Fashion" (1994), "Na ex - Post-Dayton Fashion" (1998), "Head in the Bag" (2017) and "Head in the Bag II" (2024) form a complex network of people and events that have in common the denominator of the culture of resistance, and the values ​​she advocated in the field of activist culture and art, anti-war movements and civil activism, intercultural dialogue, politics of reconciliation and many other important topics testify. The texts and projects of Borka Pavićević represent an exciting archive that can be approached in different ways, including through an evening with friends in Herceg Novi, a city she loved and where she often stayed. Because of all this, the title of the program is simple "Why and that's why - Borka Pavićević". "Why and why" is also the title of her foreword for the book "Head in a Bag", but also a title that can be read as a clear and always ready answer of Borka Pavićević to say and act based on the need to understand the time we lived in, to stimulate memory against the oblivion of events and personalities and as she points out "the concept of the whole, and today's urgent need to understand and thereby change reality." To every “Why?” Borka Pavićević uncompromisingly answered: That's why!