Tradition of resistance

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE

A Community Theatre Documentary Piece About Civic Protests in Belgrade

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE is a community theatre piece created through a process of artistic research into the personal memories and experiences of citizens of Serbia who participated in mass protests in Belgrade over a period of one hundred years (from 1926 to the present day).

The piece has no authors in the traditional sense, as it was created by collaging personal stories and memories, expert lectures, and literature. It also has no audience in the traditional sense, because we perform it together.

This is a collective piece and a collective performance.

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE speaks about a part of Serbia’s history of which we are proud. About a Serbia we are proud of because it did not remain silent and did not obediently endure those who committed injustice and wrongdoing against our society, or in our name. This is a piece about anti-fascism, communism, anti-war movements, and other movements that emerged and dissolved over the course of a century while resisting repression, violence, corruption, and every form of dictatorship.

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE is a piece about generations—all the generations that still live in this country today; generations that continue to live in resistance and rebellion, with whistles around their necks and banners in their hands.

It is an attempt to hear, see, and understand one another; to recognize how we learned from each other to protest and to oppose injustices that we have always overcome, though never completely.

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE is a piece about all of us and about the ways we are connected—in the same families, on the same streets, at the same universities, where this tradition is not formally taught, yet is somehow learned all the same. Outside official curricula, through a kind of initiation into the world of adults.

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE is unfinished. Both as a concept and as a performance. It cannot be finished because it continues to grow and change. Every performance of this piece will be different. The participants in each performance will leave their legacy to those who take part in the next one. For this reason, the performance is a constant work in progress—just like our rebellion, or rather, all of our rebellions.

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE is personal and political.

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE is transgenerational.

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE is Belgrade-based, but not exclusively Belgrade’s. In this research, we understand Belgrade as a shared space belonging to the citizens of all eight states whose key institutions have, over the last hundred years, been located—or are currently located—in Belgrade. Belgrade is the space of protest for all of Serbia, and Serbia in miniature. Therefore, this piece is not centralist. On the contrary, it speaks about the importance of decentralizing all our rebellions.

TRADITION OF RESISTANCE is the only local tradition that continues to be persistently transmitted and renewed, despite the fact that each generation begins by believing it is the first.

Every generation has its own beginning. And it appears as though it were the universal beginning.

— Mitra Mitrović

Research Team / Project Authors

Milena Bogavac, Marijana Stojčić, Maja Maksimović, Marina Milosavljević, Ana Dragić, Marko Čonjagić, Isidora Žarković, Milena Perić, Jona Arsenić, Tijana Pavlović

Expert Collaborators

Katarina Beširević, Luka Božović, Maja Maksimović, Marijana Stojčić, Milena Dragićević Šešić, Milivoj Bešlin, Srđan Milošević, Vida Knežević

Co-authors / Research Participants

Aleksandra Vidačić, Aleksandar Karić, Biljana Lukić, Branislav Guta Grubački, Dejan Kožul, Dragomir Olujić Oluja, Goran Perišić, Mrs. L, Ildiko Erdei, Ivana Nedeljković, Jelka Jovanović, Lara Simić, Maja Pelević, Martina Krivokapić, Mensura Lula Mikijelj, Mihailo Marković, Miloš Vojnović, Mirjana Koraksić, Nikola Ristić – Pričač, Nevena Erić, Saša Seregina, Senka Jankov, Sonja Ponjavić, Tea, Uroš Arsić Lunja, Veso Damjanović, Vladan Slavković, Vladimir Marović, Škart Prota, and many others.

Sources and Literature Consulted and/or Cited

• Otpisana: Autobiographical Notes — Mitra Mitrović (Vukotić Media, 2023)

• Without Waiting for Inspiration: Yugoslav Art Between the Two World Wars and Revolutionary Social Movements — Vida Knežević (ULUS, 2023)

• Spit Filled with Blood — Živojin Pavlović (Dereta, 1990)

• Damn, Has It Really Been Forty Years Already? — Dragomir Olujić (Radio Belgrade 2, program Speak So I Can See You; authorized transcript)

• Art and the Culture of Resistance — Milena Dragićević Šešić (Faculty of Dramatic Arts and Clio, 2018)

• Blueprint for Revolution — Srđa Popović and Matthew Miller (Albion Books and Dan Graf, 2015)

• Nela Milić, doctoral research published online as an interactive map: https://www.kulturklammer.org/nm/

Performers

ALL OF US. AND YOU. EVERYONE. TOGETHER.

Credits

Director and Dramaturg: Milena Bogavac
Sound Design: Jugoslav Hadžić
Visual Identity: Viktor Jan
Illustrations: Isidora Žarković
Organization: Jovan Zdravković, Marina Milosavljević
Production Director: Vojkan Arsić

Produced by: Reflektor Teatar and Center E8, 2026.

The project “Tradition of Resistance: Community Theatre as a Living Archive of Political Memory” is supported by the Government of Switzerland within the Culture for Democracy (CFD) programme, implemented by Heartefact.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the publishing house Clio for donating copies of Milena Dragićević Šešić’s book Art and the Culture of Resistance; KC Magacin in Kraljevića Marka Street; Nela Milić; Ljubica Beljanski Ristić; sociology students at the Faculty of Philosophy—Dunja Stefanović, Bojana Tepavčević, and Vanja Vuković; Dragana Radosavljević, Mladen Milojković, Beba Kanački, Aleksandra R., Rusalka, Boris Popovci, Glorita Stanojlović, Valentina Perišić, Mili, Marija, Borisko, and everyone who completed the Tradition of Resistance project questionnaire on the Reflektor Teatar website.

We also extend our gratitude to the wider Reflektor Teatar community and the Center E8 team.