What happens when, defying all the laws of space and time, Bogdan, Borka, Mirko, Sem, Predrag, Svetlana, Saša, Miroslav, Daša and Danilo get together? And what is their connection with authors whose surnames are Bogdanović, Pavićević, Kovač, Mehmedinović, Matvejević, Slapšak, Hemon, Krleža, Drndić and Kiš? What conspiracy are they involved in? What action are they calling us to take? Based on the texts published in the “Zajednička čitaonica” edition, there emerged this exciting cacophony of voices, a linguistic and artistic polyphony that conclusively proves that, despite finding ourselves divided into several separate states – many of us even in a distracted one – we are not strangers to one another. For literature knows no passports.

The ties existing among us, based on a mutual public ownership of both language and a vast literary heritage, are much stronger than the destructive forces which, in the last few decades, have produced more evil than had ever been imaginable. It’s that evil that is being tackled in The Conspirators, as is the conspiracy for a different, better future. Literature plays the most important role in it, because imagination is now more important than it has ever been before. Readers and viewers who speak, use, create and breathe this common language and who are its sole owners, wherever they may be, are invited to take part in this adventure, or rather, this venture into reading, revealing, learning and thinking. This is an expression of the endurance of optimism and a firm belief that the ties upon which the literary republic in the European South is based, will continue to exist. Despite and against everything.

The play The Conspirators by Igor Štiks and Vladimir Arsenijević is based on the motifs of KROKODIL’s edition Zajednička čitaonica.