Yearbook of the Independent Performing Arts Scene in Serbia - TkH

changed when compared to the situation in the 1990s or early 2000s, whenindependent cultural-artistic projects were mainly financed by internationaldonors, as the public institutions in Serbia had not yet adopted theprocedures of annual open calls for support to independent productions.However, the very fact that the sole option for acquiring legal status isforming a non-governmental organization or civic association – supposed,as a legal and operational model, to meet demands of a wide range of differentstructures and activities: from charities to art collectives – is a tellingindication of the State’s profound indifference to anything departingfrom its institutional framework. On the other hand, the protagonists ofthe independent cultural-artistic scene (performing arts included) grow innumber. So do their productions and public visibility. Additionally, they becomeincreasingly interested in self-management, reflection and articulationof their own position in relation to the official cultural policy. This publicationis a tangible material contribution to systematic information and representationof independent performing arts scene as an important agency ofthe cultural life in Serbia today.Similar initiatives have been, however, launched in the past: note the documentaryfile on alternative companies in Yugoslavia edited by Dragan Klaićin 1982 4 , or the research and archives created within CENPI (Center for newtheatre and dance) in the early 2000s, addressing primarily the protagonistsof the independent theatre and performance art scene of the 90s, additionallycovering some instances of avant-garde and Modernist theatre productionsdating back to before the Second World War. Unfortunately, all theseinitiatives failed to maintain continuity of work – The Alternative TheatreFile was an exception to the rule, while the archive work ceased whenCENPI closed in 2002/03, bestowing its content to the Archive of Serbia.Drawing from these predecessors, including similar publications releasedabroad 5 , Raster 2008 is structured as a directory of performing arts-relatedworks and projects premiered in Serbia in 2008 as fully independent (or,rather, ‘deprived’) productions. Beside the info/documentary section – inaccordance with the pursuits of TkH as a theoretical-artistic platform aspiringat advancing not merely artistic, but primarily theoretical practices of4 Dragan Klaić, Alternativno pozorište u Jugoslaviji: iskustva samostalnih pozorišnihtrupa (Alternative theatre in Yugoslavia: the experience of independent theatrecompanies), Sterijino pozorje, Novi Sad, 1982.5 E.g. Say Cheese – Theatre and Dance in the Netherlands 2005, Theater InstituutNederland, Amsterdam, 2005. and “Arguments for the Future”, FrakcijaNo. 16, Zagreb, 2000., an overview of the independent Croatian performing artsscene in the 90s.