A Glagolic intellectual salon in Belgrade

It’s Sunday but we’re hard at work preparing our presentation. The venue Ceca has arranged for our little show in Belgrade turns out to be rather prestigious – the Clio publishing house which, thanks to its clear programming, has a very good reputation among Belgrade intellectual circles (worth mentioning in relation to our field is their book Cultural Tourism; also on display were Fromm and Handke). During a leisurely, discussion-filled breakfast, we plan what to do and how to do it. We opt for maximum interactivity. Something that will make clear our approach to this expedition. It turns out to be a challenging plan, but we go for it.
First, though, we have to take care of Vlado’s ticket. This operation provides an opportunity for Roman to experience, however briefly, the real Belgrade. Although we are unable to exchange Vlado’s train ticket, we do manage to find another cheap connection to Skopje which allows him to spend the evening with us, take a night train and still be able to fulfil his theatre responsibilities. Without Vlado, we would not be able clearly show our international collaboration. Besides, we want to spend some more time together.
The streets are sunny and hot. At Céca’s, we sort through piles of material, rearranging, renaming and creating new categories and subcategories; Pepa’s gadgets are overheating and spinning out of control. Our only short break is lunch prepared by Céca’s mother.
In the end, everything works out. Having only slightly altered our original plan, we take several cabs to Clio, the DVDs still piping hot. Pepa wasn’t kidding; everything is there like he promised. Plus, he discovered a number of new tricks for operating his well-tried machinery. Most importantly, however, people have come even on a Sunday evening and despite the summery weather. And they listen, ask questions and play with our material. We offer an introduction, screen our DVD, show off our undoubtedly intriguing switching between Serbian, Macedonian and Czech – all elegantly translated by Dragan – and allow people to browse through our material on two computers as they please.
The third computer shows our website; too bad we didn’t know earlier that it wasn’t exactly in best shape. All in all, Céca’s “direct marketing” proved successful. Plenty of people came and there are interviews and questions and applause and admiration; even radio and newspapers. After seeing and hearing our presentation even Mr Zoran, Clio’s director and an important personality within Belgrade’s intellectual circles, promises to write a text for a prestigious cultural magazine. And this despite our truly site-specific camping out in his office. In one word – success. Then we say goodbye to the guests, the door is locked with seven turns of the key, we see Vlado off, have a night-time stroll through Belgrade, sit at a summer restaurant and walk back through the quiet town, faintly lit by distant sheet lightning. And we stay dry. Only three of us now, we keep talking until three in the morning. And then off to bed because our leftover tandem (Pepa and Romana) is planning to travel to Romania and breakfast is planned for 10 a.m. in Jabuka.
P.S.: The author of this text knows nothing about the night scene on the balcony, noisy arguments regarding a fictitious car thief, or the destruction of a laundry rack.