From December 5 to 7, 2024, the Festivity of Otherness was held in Belgrade. After the Zagreb version of the festivity in November, when three performances created as part of the Eclectic of Otherness project co-financed by the European Union were shown on the theater stage of the Arterarij organization, Heartefact House hosted the Belgrade version of the festival.
The Festivity of Otherness was opened with Heartefact’s immersive performance “They have already gone” which was performed four times in a row. Created according to the concept and directed by Andrej Nosov, this performance confronts the audience with the emptiness that remains behind those who are no longer there. This artistic event, rich in documentary materials and intimate soundscapes, created a space for reflection on collective memory and responsibility towards the past. The project was awarded the prestigious Ibsen Scope grant for the year 2022 at its beginning, in the research phase, and is based on extensive research into enforced disappearances during the wars in the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the period from 1991 to 2001. The performative event activated the memories of the audience using solitude and group dynamics, and Zorana Petrov’s set design plays a particularly important role in this.
On the second day of the Festivity of Otherness, the play “Dog House” by Arterari from Zagreb was performed in Heartefact House. Director Romano Nikolić, in collaboration with authors Dorotea Šušak and Mario Mazić, brought us an emotionally intense play that explores the impact of wartime rape on the individual and society as a whole, following the stories of two families. Although set in the context of the last war in these regions, the play talks about universal themes – about violence, trauma, silence and the courage to face it. Through the emotional performances of Anita Matić Delić, Dušan Gojić, Jelena Graovac Lučev, Nikola Nedić and Davor Tarbuk, we were given the opportunity and invitation to reflect on the legacy of war traumas and the need to talk about them openly.
On the third and last day of the Belgrade edition of the Festivity of Otherness, the play “Rabbit House” was performed in Heartefact House, produced by the French-Argentinian company El Vaiven based in Paris. Directed by Juan Miranda, the play depicts memories of growing up in Argentina during the military dictatorship, inspired by Laura Alcoba’s novel of the same name. Through the eyes of the girl, the audience experienced the emotional nuances of loss, migration and the search for identity, while questioning how past traumas shape the present and future. The performance was performed by actress Astrid Albiso.
After Zagreb in November, this concludes the Belgrade version of the Festivity of Otherness, which will have its third and final destination in Paris in January 2025. The Festivity of Otherness is much more than a theater festival – it is an invitation to think, to face the invisible and the unspoken. It is part of the Eclectic of Otherness project, a partnership initiative of three cultural organizations: Heartefact from Serbia, Arterarij from Croatia and El Vaïvén from France. The Eclectic of Otherness project, co-financed by the European Union, is dedicated to exploring the identity tensions between us and them, insiders and outsiders, those we think belong, and those who are not part of that privilege.
*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Heartefact and the project partners and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor other donors can be held responsible for them.
