Ana Vujanović Analyzes Serbia's Post-2000 Performing Arts Scene and Independent Cultural Politics

In a 2012 interview, cultural theorist Ana Vujanović dissects the performing arts landscape in Serbia following the year 2000. She identifies a persistent division between state-funded institutions and an autonomous, self-organized independent scene. This independent sector, she notes, has shifted leftward since the 1990s, contrasting with the earlier pro-democratic, pro-European opposition to Milošević's nationalist regime. Vujanović highlights the complexity within this scene, which now includes both critically-oriented, leftist groups advocating for art as a public good and segments aligned with neoliberal cultural policies focused on market self-sustainability, exemplified by initiatives like the Cultural Centre in Grad. She critiques Serbia's artistic education system as rooted in a 19th-century bourgeois paradigm of individual genius, which she argues aligns with neoliberal individualism and fosters internal competition rather than critical thought. While alternative educational spaces are valuable, Vujanović contends they cannot subvert a political system where major cultural decisions are made privately by political parties. Based in Berlin, Paris, and Belgrade, Vujanović is a PhD-holding theorist and editor for the TkH (Walking Theory) platform, with a focus on empowering independent scenes in Belgrade and the former Yugoslavia. Her work examines the intersections of performance and politics within neoliberal capitalist societies.