Less than 24 hours before the last day...
"Isn't that what everyone wants? To dream, and to think that all you have to do is wake up in order for it to be over, that all you have to do is open your eyes in order to see the things the way they really are?"
About Me
- Sanja Mitrovic
- Sanja Mitrovic is theatre director and performer born in Yugoslavia, based in Amsterdam. She is a founder and artistic director of Stand Up Tall Productions (2009). In 2010 Mitrovic was awarded the prestigious Dutch BNG Nieuwe Theatermakers Prijs for the best young director for her production “Will You Ever Be Happy Again?” which is touring Europe to critical acclaim since 2008 (selected among five best performances of the 2009/10 season by magazine TIN). Mitrović is interested in the notion of documentary in theatre and its relation to the social, political and cultural realities of our times. Her performances are structured around the idea of montage combining theatre, performance, dance and visual arts. As documentary material she often uses personal stories and testimonies which she contrasts with official historical accounts. The form resulting from such a combination she terms a “docu-tale”. Permeated with subtle humour and sharp analysis, her works are marked by an urgency to explore the influence of the collective processes as well as important political and social issues on the private lives.
2 comments:
People are afraid to see the things the way they really are. While counting together, I also start thinking about "real me". Let's see where it will bring us.
Nationality is just of the possible ways of how to define ourselves and how the others look at us. The most difficult is to remain human. The fact that you will become Dutch will never erase all those beautiful nuances that you posses as a human.
For me, being Serbian and living in Serbia is the challenge and the struggle at the same time. Why? There are several reasons. The country I live in is very strange. I believe that hardly anyone from the EU have experienced what we, who live here, did.
I remember how, in 1999, from the window of Sanja’s room I watched projectiles hitting their targets in the city nearby. A surreal scene that was happening nevertheless. Yes, we experienced the bombing as well.
Living in Serbia, you are in a constant struggle, struggle for better life, struggle against the people who want to keep the things as they are, which is that we Serbs are apparently self-sufficient, and who needs the admittance into the EU anyway?
You are struggling to show people that the fact that you are gay is nothing horrible, even though many consider my sexual orientation as something treacherous, sick or whatever. Holland have won these rights long time ago, and it seems to me that gay people in the West don’t show enough solidarity with gay people in the countries where the gay rights don’t exist.
At the same time, there is a struggle against prejudices created by the EU about Serbia as a country of hillbillies and illiterates inclined, every now and then, to the practice of genocide.
The things are never black and white, never the way that the system we live in would want us to believe.
It’s always hilarious that people from elsewhere are surprised that I’m similar to them, that I like to go out, that, for example, I have a broad knowledge of the Swedish pop-scene, or that I respect other cultures and heritage of other nations.
The point is that people, wherever they are, are quite similar and the categories which the civilisation, media, social systems box them in are very dangerous. Unfortunately, we often become victims of these externally imposed frameworks, without even being aware of it.
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