Ljubica Ristovski: It is difficult to say that we have a system of culture
Ljubica Ristovski, Director of the National Theater in Subotica at a time when some of the best plays in its recent history were performed in that theater, such as " Bacchanalia" by Goran Stefanovski, directed by Kokan Mladenovic, believes that the pandemic has left many bad influences to theaters - it has become a convenient excuse for everything, and primarily for the lack of competence. Ljubica Ristovski criticizes theaters today for taking less and less care of the repertoire and the needs of the theater, and for leaving the creation of the repertoire to directors who do it spontaneously, according to their taste and current appetites in relation to their own CV.
"The job of a manager has been degraded, it is not observed as a special skill and talent. Today anyone can be a manager. It doesn't matter who. It is important that some premiers are played, and it doesn't matter what they are like, it’s important to have something happening. Unfortunately, there is no plan, strategy, or mission or vision in all of this. It's just happening, "said Ljubica Ristovski in an interview with SEEcult.org, who is currently teaching several subjects at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.
Speaking about the very traumatic teaching in online classes at the beginning of the pandemic, Ljubica Ristovski believes that this practice has not brought anything good to education in the meantime. She is of the opinion that schooling, which is followed from the comfort of one's own home, lowers attention and concentration, does not enable focusing and lulls the curiosity of a young man. That is why it is not certain how someone mastered certain knowledge.
In her opinion, the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, however, did well in the whole situation.
"Students were divided into groups, which again opened new problems, because then, for example, the whole acting class was not fully seen until the end. The producers, because they were divided into three groups, had to have triple classes, since I had to teach everyone everything that is important and in a uniformed manner, which again was not quite possible until the end. So now, when we have live classes again, I use the opportunity to repeat something to them, expand their knowledge, refresh their memory, remind them of what I said and return them to the path of self-research and learning ", added Ljubica Ristovski.
When it comes to solidarity and empathy in a storm such as a pandemic, Ljubica Ristovski assessed that it did not exist.
"People without income were not helped in any way. Solidarity used to be part of the Association of Dramatic Artists of Serbia, especially at the time when its president was Svetlana Ceca Bojkovic. At that time, various actions were launched for pensioners, but that is something that has been done all year. Ceca gladly did it. Today, unfortunately, there is nothing like that. Some kind of engagement on that topic would certainly establish a system of solidarity of some artists towards others, only someone has to start that", said Ljubica Ristovski, credited for bringing Oliver Frljic to direct in Serbia for the first time. She was also the first director of a theater in Serbia to invite Andras Urban to direct in Serbian. After many years of experience in running a very complex theater in Subotica with two ensembles - Serbian and Hungarian, and previously working at the Youth Center in Sombor, and at the Children's Theater in Subotica, Ljubica Ristovski turned to pedagogy.
The entire interview (in Serbian) can be found on this link.
(SEEcult.org)
Funded by the International Relief Fund for Organisations in Culture and Education 2021 of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut and other partners, goethe.de/relieffund
