Ivan Medenica – Serbie / Comex Candidature

I am running for a member of the new Executive Committee of the International Association of Theater Critics for several reasons. First of all, because this is the wish of the Serbian national section of the IATC, which has made, since years and decades ago, thanks not only to my work, but also to the work of many other, older colleagues, a great contribution to the IATC. Even in the most difficult times, we managed to preserve the International Symposium of Theater Critics and Theater Scholars, the traditional event of the Sterijino Pozorje festival from Novi Sad and, at the same time, the oldest conference in the world co-organized by IATC. During my mandate as artistic director of Bitef, in 2016, the IATC Congress was held in Belgrade within this prestigious international festival. In several consecutive mandates in the IATC Executive Committee, I contributed to many activities of our organization at the global level, from the development of the code of ethics, through activities as the conference director, to the chairmanship of the Talia Prize award committee. From all the facts above mentioned, it goes with out stressing: I have a full support for my candidacy from the Serbian national section of the IATC.

If I am elected to the new Executive Committee, I would like to dedicate myself to a new challenge, a job I have not dealt with before within the IATC: working with young critics. I want this all the more because, after seven years as artistic director of Bitef, I have now fully returned to my work as a professor and theater critic. As the future of theater criticism (as well as theater in general) is a delicate issue, I would like to contribute with my experience to what that future is based on: the development of young generations. This activity goes hand in hand with my new responsibility within the Board of the IATC’s journal Critical Stages: the position of the editor of the section Critics on Criticism. As far as I am concerned, one of the most important things when discussing the position of world criticism nowadays is the perspective of our youngest colleagues.