Mediantrop broj 13
Instead of a Foreword – 7
Instead of a Foreword – Mediantrop No. 7 in September
It was necessary to bear up physical and summer turbulence in order for the regular issue No. 7 to come out. And there were so many public, cultural and social challenges in the months of June and July... Thus you will find in it everything about Gavrilo Princip, tailored to Mediantrop's measure... It is never too late if we also have Muharem Bazdulj's text, intriguingly titled "Jugoslavija ili ništa? Ništa." [Yugoslavia or nothing? Nothing.] Through his acts and words Zlatko Paković presents a conceptual resolution of the controversies surrounding Princip. Marija Krtinić's interview with Miljenko Jergović, borrowed from the website of the Danas daily, testifies to the times when and how we celebrate our jubilees.
Verging on the ideatic is Renata Balzam's text "Subotica kao ambijentalna pozornica KPGT" [Subotica as the ambient stage of KPGT]... KPGT started in Yugoslavia. And so is the text by Mediantrop co-editor Snježana Banović, "Centralno kazalište u Topuskom: Dnevnik osnitka organizacije programa za kongres kulturnih radnika Hrvatske" [The central theater at Topusko: A log of the foundation of the organization preparing the program for the congress of culture workers in Croatia]. A photograph of the posters for this gathering speaks in favor of cultural activism during the war, which is so needed even today in this peacetime region.
Some contributors have earned super-headings for their texts: Olga Zirojević for all that she has published so far in Mediantrop – "Antropološki pojmovnik (IV)" [A glossary of anthropology (IV)]; and Rajko Grlić – "Mali filmski rečnik (III)" [A small dictionary of film (III)]. The introduction of new features only goes to prove that the magazine is making headway, expanding topics and media forms.
We can all but disregard Veljko Kulčić, a member of this year's jury for Ranko's regional yearly award for the media. His text on Andrija Maurović is actually the foreword to a Zagreb-published book on one of the greatest strip authors.
Further proof of the fact that Mediantrop is entering the stage of treating alternative cultural phenomena is the text of the photographer Ivan Tobić, a unique aesthete, on the alternative artist Mikrob.
Andrej Šprah, one of the best film aficionados of the Ljubljana Cinematheque, has become the new Slovenian editor of Mediantrop for a good reason. His culturological support and proposal of contributors to the special issue on Dušan Makavejev was enough to earn him this promotion to the ranks of editors.
Is feminism an alternative view on the world as much as on the world of art and culture? It is in this region. Our new and intrepid contributor from Zagreb, Sonja Leboš, brings a programmatic feminist text on the role and position of feminist criticism of the visual media and the production of urban spectacles.
At the end of the issue, as much as at its beginning, is Vitomira Lončar. First, as an interviewed person of importance for the cultural pulse of the region – Mediji zabijaju posljednji čavao u mrtvački kovčeg naše kulture [The media is driving the last nail into the coffin of our culture]... and then at the end, in the feature "The Human Condition", she is presented in a text that reveals her in both private and public light. Luckily for us.
Zorica Jevremović Munitić
