This year's 54th edition also had a novelty: the awards that were established this year - "Pivsko oko" and "Kosta Radović" - were presented. The winners of the awards were decided by a jury consisting of: Milica Bakrac, president, i Radomir Uljarević and others Radoje Femic, members, and decisions were made unanimously.
The Lifetime Achievement Award, “Pivsko Oko”, was awarded to an academic and writer Matija Bećković for the overall contribution to contemporary literature, with a special emphasis on the book "Mother Zorka" which represents "a kind of resurrection of a mother and motherhood and her return to her native Piva, where she does not come alone, but with her son on the wings of his poetry."
"With this arrival, all the absurd sufferings of Mother Zorka gain their full meaning for the first time, forever and ever. Welcome Mother Zorko to your family, welcome nephew Matija Bećković to the living source of your mother's melody. Beer gives you both its source tonight, its Beer Eye, which now lives in poetry and paintings," said the president of the event's Council, academician Jovan Delic.
The award was presented by Delić and Milutin Djukanovic, President of the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Company of Montenegro, a company that is one of the sponsors of this year's event.
"Life doesn't just write novels, it also writes poems. One of the most poignant is when the Piva Eye and mother Zorka emerge from the bottom of Lake Piva. She left Piva 107 years ago, and she returns tonight. Thank you, uncle, thank you Piva, invincible and water-bearing," said Bećković.
The award, which bears the name of a writer from Piva and one of the founders of "Poetic Words at the Source of Piva", Koste Radovic, they got Nebojsa Jevric, for the short story collection "Mrvi dim", and Zoran Kostić, for the book of plays “Serbus-Europeicus”.
"There are so many reasons why the two of them can and should share this award. Both are in their homeland tonight, because Župa Nikšić is not far from Zoran Kostić, nor the Lim Valley and Bijelo Polje from Nebojša Jevrić. Both set out into the world from quiet, distant places that remember them and would like to see them return more often... Both nurtured in their works the traits, natures, characters of ordinary, honest and strange people who accompanied them into the world, life and literature. Sometimes, coming to these parts, they would meet Kosta Radović, hang out with him over coffee and brandy, talking about the old Piva, Piva Eye, and the beauty that lies silent beneath the lake. None of their and our farewells to Kosta was forever. They knew that Kosta was waiting for every writer, poet and accidental traveler who would pass through Piva. And tonight, Kosta welcomed them and us," said the president of the jury, Milica Bakrač.
Kostić was presented with the award by her and the Minister of Agriculture. Vladimir Jokovic, while the Mayor, Slobodan Delic, and director of the Cultural Center, Milenko Mićanović, presented the award to Nebojša Jevrić.
"By deciding to award me this prestigious award, for a book of drama texts, the distinguished jury has given me a true honor and pleasure that I have not had in a long time. This medal has a special shine and significance because, as far as I know, it is the first one that Piva has awarded to the Nikšić Župa, or more precisely to the people of Pivljana Župljani. Let it be an honor for both of them," said Kostić and decided, as he pointed out, that instead of praising him, he would go and say a few words about Kosta Radović to the jury and the host.
In addition to the aforementioned awards, the traditional “Spasoje Pajo Blagojević” award for poets under 27 years of age, and the “Radule Željko Damjanović” award, which is awarded to primary and secondary school students, were also presented at the poetry meetings. The “Spasoje Pajo Blagojević” award was given to the poet Rade Supic from Lazarevac, and the Cultural Center will print the winning manuscript. Milenko Mićanović presented the award to him.
"The award made me very happy and is a great encouragement, because I am just entering the poetic waters. So far, I have published two books, and this is the third manuscript, or the final triptych. Let this be the beginning, and let the end be uncertain," said Šupić, who received this second literary award in Montenegro.
Two years ago, at the "Pod lipom" festival in Nikšić, organized by the "Prvo pismo" Art Club, his poem was declared the best in the "Bez granica" poetry competition.
The “Radula Željko Damjanović” award went to Amaru Kuču from Rožaje, who will receive the award later.
From new books to "Poems and Words"
This year's literary gatherings opened with the presentation of the collection "The World is Renewed by Miracles", which contains texts from last year's symposium dedicated to the literary work Milutin Mićović, president of the Literary Society “Njegoš”. Writers Milica Bakrač and Milena Kulic, and Mićović pointed out that his work had been sidelined for a long time.
"These books in question, which are the basis of the collection, were in the grave of unreadness. But, fortunately, words are alive and cannot remain in the grave, as last year's symposium and this gathering, good readers, confirmed. This is deeply gratifying and I can say with full feeling that after so many years, that the word sustains a person, sustains life, gives freedom and increases spiritual strength, so that in today's time when everything is essentially pushed to the margins, as if it does not exist, this is something that truly surprises a person. Creative freedom, trust in the word, the primal trust in the divine power that oversees, helps in this great world darkness, gives light and inner strength in a person, to cope with all forces," said Mićović.
Academician Jovan Delić presented the monograph "Stevan Tadić before his time", prepared by the historian Pavle Orbovic and the collection "Poetry and Poetic Thought" News Tadic", editor Svetlana Seatovic, dok je Radojka Cicmil Remetic presented a professional paper entitled "Illumination of the original color spectrum in Piva".
A writer Ranko Mićanović presented new editions of authors from Piva, published in the period between two literary meetings, and which arrived at the Plužine Cultural Center. As he said, it is a literary mosaic of about fifteen titles. Part of the program was dedicated to deceased literary creators Radojic Bošković, Ljubomir Simović i Ilija Lakušić, which were spoken about by Jovan Delić, Radomir Uljarević and Milica Bakrač, while the first evening was also completed by local poets: Radomir Mitrić, Milena Kulić, Spasoje Bajović i Batric Kandic.
The second day of the meeting began with a symposium on literary criticism. Blagoje Baković, a poet who has won numerous awards, whose poems have been represented in more than 50 poetry anthologies and translated into almost 30 languages.
During the traditional boat ride on Lake Piva, the book of last year's winner of the "Spasoje Pajo Bajović" award was presented. Teodor Cukic, "Traces of Memory" and her poetic debut were spoken by writer Milica Bakrač. The evening hours were reserved for a festive poetry rally at which 25 poets recited their verses.
A portrait of the poet Milica Bakrač, winner of numerous awards who published her first book of poetry almost three decades ago, was presented. Speaking about her work, literary critic Milorad Durutović specifically referred to the collection "Bird Feeder", emphasizing that Milica Bakrač managed to "transpose our epic, heroic past into lyrical formats, predominantly into sonnets".
"She is not the first author to reach for such a (re)poetization of national culture, but she is among the rare ones who have managed to achieve creative authenticity. Her attitude towards tradition is not polemical, but always affirmative," Durutović pointed out.
Although, according to him, there are different thematic paths in Milica Bakrač's poetry, her main lyrical hero is the Serbian language.
"Thank you, my dear citizens of Piva, for your great love and trust, and thank you for passing both my poetry and life exams here in Piva, and I hope that my grades are passing," said Bakrač, who treated the audience to verses from the songs "Sonet Kosti Radoviću" and "Trpeza".
The segment of the meeting entitled “With a Poet at Midnight” was dedicated to one of this year’s winners of the “Kosta Radović” award, Zoran Kostić, a poet who has published more than 20 books of poetry, as well as books of prose, plays and translated literature. His works have been translated into 18 languages, and many of his poems and songs have been included in several important anthologies, as well as in school curricula. He has won numerous literary awards. Kostić recited some of his poems, and two poems were recited together by him and his wife, a playwright. Jelena Trepetova Kostic, who interpreted her husband's poetry in Russian.
The poetry vigil was reserved for the first recipient of the “Pivsko Oko” Lifetime Achievement Award, academician Matija Bećković, winner of numerous literary awards. He has published more than 40 books of poetry, essays and drama texts, and his books have been published in more than 120 editions. He recited the poem “Gospode pomiluj” (Lord, have mercy), accompanied by thunderous applause.
Curtain call for the 54th literary gathering "Poetic Word at the Source of Piva", moderated by journalist Željko Vuksanović, the actress hung up Ivana Žigon which organized the artistic evening "Song and Word".
"Poetic Word at the Source of Piva" was organized by the Plužine Cultural Center, under the auspices of the Municipality of Plužine, the Ministry of Culture and Media, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Electric Power Company of Montenegro.
Body drama in the paintings of Maria Abramović
This year's poetry gatherings also had a segment dedicated to fine arts, so academician Jovan Delić opened the exhibition of works "Touching Yourself" by academic painter Marija Abramović. Speaking about the exhibited paintings, Delić paid special attention to the hands and body.
"The fingers are a little neurotic, sometimes just stylized, outlined, sometimes almost reduced to bones, in disintegration. And the hand is a miracle of creation, work, war, horror, destruction, elevation, embracing, beauty, tenderness. Hands lift, elevate and hold the body, hands hold the other with an embrace. Hands are a bridge to the other... The body is always in some drama, in the pursuit of establishment, in the effort of elevation - at least that's how I see and experience it - even when it is in a death throes," said Delić.
According to him, Abramović must have been an excellent draftsman, because she has a masterful line and figure.
"Figure and line are in alliance, just like drawing and painting. Her line powerfully figures and meanders freely... Marija Abramović anticipates a bodily drama; she conceals the body with some transparent lines, but it appears like a mountain in the fog, sometimes aggressive, sometimes almost collapsed, in an effort to lift and rise, sometimes with emphasized strong thighs, then with powerful feet, sometimes with prominent teeth, most often dark, unclear, almost gloomy, as a rule unindividualized. Sometimes even in a death throes," Delić emphasized and congratulated the artist on her "first beer ten", alluding to the fact that the exhibition in Plužine is the tenth solo exhibition of Marija Abramović.
"The works in the exhibition were created between 2015 and today. You can see the gradation of expression and notice that each new work carries the experience of the previous one, so the process that I have been developing and building all these years is visible," said Abramović.
As she pointed out, she is glad that Academician Delić "read" the significance of the hands and arms in her works, because, as she said, it is the hands that hold, carry, and from which various states of a person can be read.
"For me, in almost all of my works, they are like a separate organ that holds, carries, and supports," said the painter.
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