{"id":221,"date":"2016-03-23T19:33:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T19:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/?p=221"},"modified":"2016-03-23T19:34:20","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T19:34:20","slug":"sarajevo-provides-a-second-opinion-on-suffering-sarajevo-regards-pluriels-sur-la-souffrance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/sarajevo-provides-a-second-opinion-on-suffering-sarajevo-regards-pluriels-sur-la-souffrance\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarajevo Provides a Second Opinion on Suffering Sarajevo : Regards pluriels sur la souffrance"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dialogue on the Sarajevo MESS Festival
\nUn Dialogue sur le Festival MESS de Sarajevo<\/h4>\n

Matti Linnavuori<\/strong> and\/et Michel Va\u00efs<\/strong>[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Livanuori\"\u00a0\"1305674142\"<\/p>\n

MESS international festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September-October 2012.<\/p>\n

Festival international MESS de Sarajevo (Bosnie-Herz\u00e9govine), septembre-octobre 2012.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matti Linnavuori: Dear Michel, let\u2019s enrich each other\u2019s views on MESS, and let\u2019s do it in two languages to highlight the bilingual nature of Critical Stages<\/em>. If you write in your native French, I will answer in my adopted English.<\/p>\n

There is something unusual in the Sarajevo atmosphere, something bright. This might sound stupid or ignorant coming from a foreigner, when so many things remind us of the sufferings of the siege (1992 to 1995). But how else can I explain that after eleven shows in four days I did not feel exhausted, but refreshed. You, as a jury member, of course, saw 33 shows in ten days, which must have been very physically taxing.<\/p>\n

Michel Va\u00efs : C\u2019est vrai, Matti. J\u2019ai aussi ressenti cela \u00e0 Sarajevo. Il y a l\u00e0 quelque chose \u00e0 la fois de grave et de joyeux, de jovial m\u00eame. D\u2019un c\u00f4t\u00e9, toutes ces tombes blanches align\u00e9es sur les pelouses des banlieues, dans les parcs de la ville et m\u00eame dans les jardins de maisons cossues le long du boulevard Tito (il fallait bien enterrer les 11541 morts pendant le si\u00e8ge) ; de l\u2019autre, un app\u00e9tit de vivre avec ses propres couleurs et selon ses croyances.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Le
Le m\u00e9lodrame et les gestes exag\u00e9r\u00e9s frisaient consciemment le ridicule dans le spectacle serbe \u00ab Les ouvriers meurent en chantant \u00bb.
\u00a9 Haris Tahmi\u0161\u010di\u0107<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ce qui m\u2019a frapp\u00e9, c\u2019\u00e9tait de voir les salles de th\u00e9\u00e2tre remplies, surtout de jeunes gens. Cette effervescence nous a nourris, mes deux coll\u00e8gues du jury et moi, pendant dix jours. Parfois, nous devions voir quatre pi\u00e8ces d\u2019affil\u00e9e, la premi\u00e8re d\u00e9butant \u00e0 midi et la derni\u00e8re \u00e0 minuit\u2026 Essoufflant !<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matti: It is the planning of the festival program that I feel most grateful for. Every performance there seemed to have a counterpart, not necessarily in contradiction but rather in dialogue with it. Some topic might receive a comic treatment in one production, and then be given a more dramatic handling in another production. The best example of this was the dialogue between the Chilean Villa<\/em> and the local Bio je lijep I sun\u010dan dan<\/em> (It Was a Beautiful and Sunny Day<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Villa<\/em>, written and directed by Guillermo Calder\u00f3n, is a building where Chilean soldiers raped women of the opposition during the junta years (1973-90).<\/p>\n

It Was a Beautiful and Sunny Day <\/em>is an account of how ordinary citizens of Sarajevo experienced the first day of the 1395-day siege, when Serbian artillery started shooting into the city. The dramaturgy of the production, by Dubravka Zrn\u010di\u0107-Kulenovi\u0107, is based on interviews with 78 Sarajevo citizens. It concentrates not on historical timelines but on emotional reactions.<\/p>\n

The festival program calls the production a mosaic. It was directed by Tanja Mileti\u0107-Oru\u010devi\u0107 for the Sarajevo War Theatre, established in 1992. I was curious about how effortless it was to watch this production. It was far from sentimental, even though filled with emotion. Most importantly, it was not accusatory in nature; it did not curse any enemy.<\/p>\n

\"A
A documentary performance about the experiences of Sarajevo\u2019s citizens on the first day of the siege in 1992, \u201cIt Was a Beautiful and Sunny Day\u201d shows what a power cut means. \u00a9 Haris Tahmi\u0161\u010di\u0107<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One must remember that the Bosnian war was, to some extent, a media creation. Most of us are familiar with Zlata\u2019s Diary<\/em>, which was consciously produced by the French to become a kind of Anne Frank of Sarajevo, even during the process of writing. I have nothing against Zlata\u2019s Diary<\/em>, but I wonder if there is a foreigner-friendly way of conveying the war experience, and if there exists alongside it a more authentic Bosnian experience.<\/p>\n

Apparently my suspicion is unfounded. Mind you, not all Bosnian rhetoric is easy. And look at the expert who is talking here: I have read only one other Bosnian book, which is Isnam Talji\u0107\u2019s novel, The Story of Srebrenica<\/em> (1996, English 2011). May I conclude that Bosnian artists treat their material as individuals and not as tools for nationalism? And that perhaps theatre uses a different rhetoric from fiction.<\/p>\n

Michel : Ce spectacle \u00e9tait beaucoup trop verbal, aussi j\u2019ai eu du mal \u00e0 suivre le texte. Les surtitres, tr\u00e8s difficiles \u00e0 lire \u00e0 cause des \u00e9clairages, d\u00e9filaient \u00e0 grande vitesse. C\u2019est d\u2019ailleurs arriv\u00e9 pour plusieurs autres spectacles du MESS. C\u2019en \u00e9tait frustrant ! D\u2019autant plus que la pi\u00e8ce \u00e9tait charg\u00e9e de symboles : cette compagnie, fond\u00e9e \u00e0 Sarajevo alors m\u00eame que d\u00e9butait le long si\u00e8ge de la ville, jouait pour la premi\u00e8re fois une pi\u00e8ce adapt\u00e9e d\u2019un recueil de t\u00e9moignages recueillis au sujet d\u2019une \u00ab belle journ\u00e9e de printemps \u00bb, le 2 mai 1992, alors que d\u00e9butait la guerre. Cela faisait donc d\u00e9j\u00e0 vingt ans !<\/strong><\/p>\n

J\u2019aurais tellement aim\u00e9 comprendre le texte, qui est demeur\u00e9 malheureusement obscur aux deux membres \u00e9trangers du jury !\u2026 C\u2019est d\u2019ailleurs injuste pour la compagnie, mais nous ne pouvons juger seulement sur des intentions. Naturellement, j\u2019ai compris les grandes lignes de la pi\u00e8ce, mais le jeu et les situations ne suffisaient pas \u00e0 me faire suivre l\u2019action d\u2019assez pr\u00e8s pour l\u2019appr\u00e9cier comme elle l\u2019aurait m\u00e9rit\u00e9.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matti: I am so glad that we dare to disagree! The IATC jury, you along with Jelena Gajevic-Perisic and Savas Patsalidis, awarded a prize to Villa<\/em>, in which three women must decide about a possible monument on the spot where the soldiers\u2019 raping centre used to stand. They are suspicious of each other\u2019s motives and they doubt the meaningfulness of remembering.<\/p>\n

Michel : Tu mets vraiment le doigt sur la pi\u00e8ce qui m\u2019a le plus boulevers\u00e9 dans tout ce festival ! Je pourrais en parler longtemps\u2026 Ces trois jeunes femmes, Francisca Lewin, Macarena Zamudio et Carla Romero, ont exerc\u00e9 sur moi un pouvoir \u00e9tonnant. Lorsqu\u2019elles ont salu\u00e9, \u00e0 la fin, j\u2019\u00e9tais incapable d\u2019applaudir. J\u2019\u00e9tais vraiment sonn\u00e9, \u00e9touff\u00e9 par l\u2019\u00e9motion. J\u2019ai rarement eu une telle r\u00e9action en pr\u00e8s de 50 ans comme spectateur de th\u00e9\u00e2tre. Pour moi, Villa<\/em> se classe dans une cat\u00e9gorie \u00e0 part dans le Festival MESS de 2012. En fait, une partie de mon \u00e9motion vient peut-\u00eatre d\u2019un effet de surprise. Pendant une bonne partie de la pi\u00e8ce, j\u2019ai cru que le choix de ces trois jeunes femmes dans la trentaine pour d\u00e9cider du sort de la macabre villa Grimaldi \u00e0 Santiago relevait d\u2019une erreur de distribution (une faute de casting<\/em>) ! J\u2019ai donc \u00e9t\u00e9 compl\u00e8tement pris de court quand on apprend pourquoi c\u2019est sur elles qu\u2019a repos\u00e9 cette immense responsabilit\u00e9. C\u2019est \u00e7a. Mon \u00e9motion est arriv\u00e9e comme une r\u00e9v\u00e9lation : je ne m\u2019y attendais pas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matti: Yes, the ending comes as a surprise, and rather than revealing it here, I encourage everyone to go and see Villa<\/em>. It came with a companion piece, Discurso<\/em>, which was Michelle Bachelet\u2019s (fictitious) farewell speech on the expiration of her term in office as president of Chile. I certainly felt Discurso<\/em> was a disappointment, but in hindsight, I wonder if this wisdom could only come to me after having actually seen the production.<\/p>\n

Michel : Le jury a aussi \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9\u00e7u de Discurso<\/em>. C\u2019est d\u2019ailleurs pourquoi nous avons remis un prix \u00e0 \u00ab Villa<\/em>, mais pas Discurso<\/em> \u00bb, m\u00eame si les deux pi\u00e8ces sont toujours pr\u00e9sent\u00e9es au m\u00eame spectacle, l\u2019une apr\u00e8s l\u2019autre. Il nous a sembl\u00e9 que Villa<\/em> seule, qui dure une heure dix, pouvait constituer un spectacle complet, et laisser le public compl\u00e8tement sonn\u00e9 ! Cela dit, il y a un lien entre Villa<\/em> et Discurso<\/em>, car la pr\u00e9sidente avait elle-m\u00eame \u00e9t\u00e9 emprisonn\u00e9e et tortur\u00e9e sous Pinochet, comme ses parents, dans la sinistre villa Grimaldi. Seulement, ce discours \u00e0 trois voix, qui rassemble des extraits de diff\u00e9rents discours r\u00e9els de Michelle Bachelet, a un impact infiniment moindre que Villa<\/em>. Cette pi\u00e8ce, une conversation apparemment anodine \u2013 et par moments comique \u2013, est une vraie bombe et contient un \u00e9l\u00e9ment de suspense<\/em>, tandis que Discurso<\/em>, qui arrive apr\u00e8s un entracte lourd de signification, semble par comparaison l\u00e9ger, didactique, je dirais m\u00eame moralisateur. Notre jury a donc remis \u00e0 l\u2019unanimit\u00e9 un prix sp\u00e9cial \u00e0 Villa<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cependant, nous avons remis le grand prix de l\u2019AICT (\u00e0 la majorit\u00e9 du jury) \u00e0 Neh\u00e9z istennek lenni <\/em>(Hard to be a God<\/em>) du Proton Cinema Budapest. \u00c9tais-tu encore \u00e0 Sarajevo lorsque nous avons vu cette pi\u00e8ce ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matti: I was, and I am glad I saw it, even though I disliked it. Hard to be a God<\/em>, by Korn\u00e9l Mundrudcz\u00f3 and Yvette Bir\u00f3, takes place inside two long vehicles, one parked on the side of the stage, and the other one, 20 metres wide, facing the auditorum. The spectators have a view into the containers of the trucks via video camera, and at times the sides of the containers are pulled aside like any regular curtain.<\/p>\n

\"A
A sweatshop for jeans and all kinds of products also serves as a base for snuff films and prostitution in the Hungarian production, \u201cHard to Be a God.\u201d \u00a9 Velija Hasanbegovi\u0107<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inside the containers there are a sweatshop, which manufactures clothes, and a film studio which manufactures snuff pornography. The same East-European girls are exploited in both enterprises. This is worthy and politically engaged subject matter, and the camera moves are to be admired. And of course it is realistic that the actresses should be naked for much of the duration of the show. But doesn\u2019t the production treat its female performers as brutally as the owners of the porn sweatshop treat their human cargo? Do intelligent theatre crowds really need an overexposure to breasts to understand that this is modern slavery? To explain all this away, there is a god-like character who is unable to interfere, even though he is upset about the amount of wrongdoing on Earth. Sure, he is like me, a well-wishing Westerner, whose very passivity allows this human hell to continue and even flourish.<\/p>\n

Please present your counterarguments, Michel! You must have seen it differently, otherwise you would not have given it an award?<\/p>\n

Michel : En fait, j\u2019avais des r\u00e9serves sur cette pi\u00e8ce. J\u2019ai admir\u00e9 la maestria du metteur en sc\u00e8ne sur le plan de l\u2019am\u00e9nagement de l\u2019espace, mais le r\u00e9alisme du jeu m\u2019a g\u00ean\u00e9, surtout parce que les sc\u00e8nes de violence sexuelle me paraissaient plus invraisemblables qu\u2019insoutenables. Cela me rappelait Rodrigo Garcia, de sombre m\u00e9moire ! J\u2019aurais pr\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9 que l\u2019on se situe tout le temps dans l\u2019\u00e9vocation, la suggestion ou le surr\u00e9alisme.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cela dit, on ne peut revenir sur tous les spectacles du MESS, mais en terminant, je tiens \u00e0 souligner l\u2019accueil chaleureux que les Bosniens ont accord\u00e9 \u00e0 des acteurs serbes ou croates exceptionnels, surtout \u00e2g\u00e9s, comme la Grand\u2019m\u00e8re dans My Son Just Walks a Little Slower<\/em> de Croatie ou la M\u00e8re dans The Well<\/em> de Serbie. Pour un \u00e9tranger, c\u2019est tr\u00e8s \u00e9tonnant, compte tenu du contentieux qui a exist\u00e9 entre les Sarajeviens et les autres ex-Yougoslaves. On m\u2019a expliqu\u00e9 que ces interpr\u00e8tes puissants sont consid\u00e9r\u00e9s comme des tr\u00e9sors nationaux partout. D\u2019ailleurs, le fait de voir ces spectacles effectuer des tourn\u00e9es dans tous les \u00c9tats de l\u2019ex-Yougoslavie constitue en soi une victoire et une promesse.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Et toi, y a-t-il autre chose qui t\u2019a marqu\u00e9 particuli\u00e8rement pendant tes quatre jours \u00e0 Sarajevo ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matti: I will give the last word to Rajka Stefanovska, a Canadian theatre critic from Ottawa. During a visit to her native Bosnia she was impressed by Kad bi ovo bio film <\/em>(If This Were a Movie<\/em>) written by Almir Im\u0161irevi\u0107 and directed by Dino Mustafi\u0107, who is also in charge of the entire MESS festival.<\/p>\n

Rajka Stefanovska: Im\u0161irevi\u0107 and Mustafi\u0107 use the story of one family to tell us the destiny of a number of Sarajevo’s residents. They start the play just days before the war, specifically to emphasize details showing that the neighbors share true friendship regardless of religion or nationality. After this, they show the changes.<\/p>\n

\"La
La pi\u00e8ce croate \u00ab My Son Just Walks a Little Slower \u00bb, \u00e9crite par Ivor Martini\u0107 et mise en sc\u00e8ne par Janusz Kika, pr\u00e9sente une famille v\u00e9ritablement dysfonctionnelle. \u00a9 Velija Hasanbegovi\u0107<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Almir Im\u0161irevi\u0107 (born 1971) wrote several plays with the same theme, many of them translated into French (Si c’\u00e9tait un spectacle<\/em>, Le diable des Balkans<\/em> and Le cirque Inferno<\/em>) and performed in theatres in France.<\/p>\n

The author digs deep into the transformation of his characters, one of whom comments on his brother’s religious immersion, saying that while the brother has started to fervently believe in God, he has completely lost his faith in people. Throughout the play it is obvious that there are no answers\u2014there is only an ongoing attempt to understand a time that crushed the characters\u2019 world forever. Im\u0161irevi\u0107 suggests one answer by weaving a subtle but powerful story suffused with warmth, love, humour, and disappointment.<\/p>\n

Edited by Lissa Tyler Renaud<\/p>\n

\n

\"Livanuori\"\u00a0\"1305674142\"<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Matti Linnavuori<\/strong> (born 1955) edits the Performance Reviews Section for Critical Stages. He is a freelance theatre critic for Finnish newspaper, Satakunnan Kansa<\/em>. He has also written and directed radio plays for YLE Finnish Broadcasting Company.<\/p>\n

Ex-r\u00e9dacteur en chef de la Revue de th\u00e9\u00e2tre Jeu<\/em>, journaliste ind\u00e9pendant et traducteur, Michel Va\u00efs<\/strong> est Secr\u00e9taire g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de l\u2019Association internationale des critiques de th\u00e9\u00e2tre depuis 1998. Apr\u00e8s des \u00e9tudes en lettres fran\u00e7aises \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al et \u00e0 McGill, il a obtenu un doctorat d\u2019\u00e9tudes th\u00e9\u00e2trales \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Paris 8. Il a re\u00e7u la m\u00e9daille d\u2019or du Rayonnement culturel d\u00e9cern\u00e9 par la Renaissance fran\u00e7aise et plusieurs prix Jean-B\u00e9raud pour son activit\u00e9 de critique de th\u00e9\u00e2tre, notamment au journal Le Devoir<\/em> et \u00e0 la cha\u00eene culturelle de Radio-Canada pendant 21 ans. Michel Va\u00efs a publi\u00e9 ses m\u00e9moires en novembre 2005 : L\u2019accompagnateur<\/em>. Parcours d\u2019un critique de th\u00e9\u00e2tre<\/em> (\u00c9d. Varia). Le premier Dictionnaire des artistes du th\u00e9\u00e2tre qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/em>, dont il est directeur \u00e9ditorial, a paru en 2008 (\u00c9d. JEU\/Qu\u00e9bec Am\u00e9rique).<\/p>\n

\"1244844971\"
\nRajka Stefanovska <\/strong>was a radio journalist and arts reviewer in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina for 20 years. When the war began in the former Yugoslavia, she moved to Ottawa, where she joined the Parliamentary Press Gallery as a correspondent for several media, and was a contributor to the Canadian news agency, Issues Network. At the moment, she works as a federal public servant and still lives in Ottawa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dialogue on the Sarajevo MESS Festival Un Dialogue sur le Festival MESS de Sarajevo Matti Linnavuori and\/et Michel Va\u00efs[1] \u00a0 MESS international festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September-October 2012. Festival international MESS de Sarajevo (Bosnie-Herz\u00e9govine), septembre-octobre 2012. Matti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","","tg-column-two"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/03\/LivanuoriVais.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ojFg-3z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}