Mediantrop broj 13
Instead of a Foreword – 4
The thirty-odd texts in this issue testify to an increased number of new collaborators and topics. We start the issue with a chronology of the rise of graffiti honoring Ranko Munitić, commensurate with the new pictorial tendencies in street art and the devotion to a man for whose oeuvre the whole region owes a debt of gratitude.
Also new is the decision that Mediantrop should now have two co-editors – Zorica Jevremović Munitić and Snježana Banović – instead of only one, i.e. the editor-in-chief: one editor from Serbia and the other from Croatia, commensurate with Ranko Munitić's life and work. The editorial board has also undergone changes commensurate with the members' involvement. Thus, Aleksandra Đurić Bosnić from Serbia's multiethnic province of Vojvodina, whose artistic and cultural achievements are little known, has been co-opted by the board, whereas Maja Bogojević has become editor from Montenegro. Coming from Vojvodina is the poetry of local Romanian bards and the unavoidable poem, "Majko, ispričaj priču o Jugoslaviji" [Mother, Tell the Tale of Yugoslavia], by the poet Pavel Gatajancu. From Montenegro, through the Cameralucida website, administered by Maja Bogojević, we meet our new collaborator, Merima Omeragić of Sarajeva. The regional approach of Cameralucida has led the website to find its place in the broader context of regional media and culturological activities of Mediantrop, as the Sarajevo lady, Merima Omeragić, is as much "cameralucid" /Podgorica/ as she is "mediantropic" /Belgrade.
We get to know the actress, Dušicu Žegarac, a little better through her interview with the Zagreb journalist, Paula Bobanović. They talk like two close neighbors rather than two public figures from two different countries, and this vouchsafes regional intimacy. Dušice Žegarac's text on the jubilee Pula Film Festival will go on to become culturologically unavoidable with respect to analyses of the history of Yugoslav cinematography, as well as a poignant testimony to the state of affairs in today's film festivals.
Milica Zajcev, a perennial critic of dance and the new theater, has contributed her very first text on ballet, published in Macedonian in Skopje in 1955. The bilingual Neđo Osman continues his collaboration in his two languages with a text about a heart-rending visit to Auschwitz. Sanja Krsmanović Tasić writes about the FemmesFataleFestival, held in Pristina in May this year and her encounter with her old friends from the region Meli and Zana. Andrej Šprah has graciously contributed his "uredniška beseda" [editorial] from his compendium on Žika Pavlović, marking the eightieth anniversary of the birth of the renowned film director and author. Maja Vukadinović presents a spectrum of the ways in which the reality show, Farma, is viewed, while our new Montenegrin collaborator, Mirjana Vlahović, brings her observations on the role of mustaches as insignia of the local common law. The historian, Olga Zirojević, contributes her resplendent text on eggplants and Ljiljana Maričić Grujić reports on a children's regatta on Lake Palić. Lifestyle is also part of culture and is so direly needed in our emotionally and mentally distressed region.
After the extremely elegant but negative review of Krugovi [Circles], we are bringing a different, contrasting opinion on the movie in "Krugovi, opet" [Circles, Again].
The composer, Ivana Stefanović, explains the reasons why she has not taken part in this year's BEMUS music festival.
"Novo ćirilično izdanje Leksigrafskog zavoda Branko Kukić iz Čačka" [New Cyrillic Publication of the Branko Kukić Lexicographic Institute, Čačak] by Miljenko Jergović is one of the brilliant texts we have borrowed from regional websites. We are thankful for having the technology to keep track of what is going on on the cultural map of the region... And Snježana Kordić is teaching us again what "language" is, lest we forget.
Instead of the usual In Memoriam public figures we bring past texts published elsewhere following the demise of Dragan Babić and Andrej Mitrović.
Zorica Jevremović Munitić
