The evening dedicated to Dimitrije Mitrinović and promotion of the collection “Otkrivanje zagonetke Mitrinović” (“Revealing of the Mitrinović mystery”) took place in the Madlena Art Palace on 16 March 2023.
An essayist, poet, philosopher, translator, vanguard critic, mystic, visionary, revolutionary, and undestined social reformer, intimate friend of some most renowned intellectuals, philosophers, artists, writers, and psycho-analysts of their time, Dimitrije Mitrinović (1897-1953), a “man-of-the-world”, born in Hercegovina, is believed to be one of the most interesting persons of European 20 century culture who originated from the Balkans.
In May 2021, Centre for British studies of the Faculty of political sciences and the Anglo-Serbian Society organized an international conference on Mitrinović and his heritage in Zepter Hotel in Belgrade. This was an opportunity to present more recent findings based on researches of the work of this intellectual and philosopher, and to initiate preparation of the collection on his life and work. Thus, professor Slobodan G. Marković prepared the collection of works in English language, entitled “A reformer of mankind, Dimitrije Mitrinović, between Cultural Utopianism and Social Activism”. This collection was published as a joint publication of Zepter Book World and Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences.
The works in the collection provide an insight into key findings which experts engaged in Mitrinović’s work reached so far. They reveal a world exceptionally rich in ideas, people and cultural space of Europe and the world in which Dimitrije Mitrinović lived. This participant in European intellectual trends was presented as one of the most mysterious, but also most interesting persons of 20 century who originated from Serbian and Yugoslav cultural circles.
The works of authors from four countries (Serbia, Great Britain, Italy, and the Netherlands), published in a lavish get-up, graphically formulated by Svetislav Todorović, are a contribution to understanding of the emergence of concepts of Dimitrije Mitrinović, as well as European cultural space in which he acted. Each new research in recent decades revealed Mitrinović in the spreading circles of intellectual endeavor in Europe and the world.
Journalist Antonela Riha, writer Muharem Bazdulj, artist and advertising expert Srđan Šaper, and Slobodan G. Marković, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences and the editor of the collection spoke about what Mitrinović had realized or conjectured about the world and the man, or what made renowned Brits, well-known and recognized journalists, priests, professors, even a Nobel prize winner, connect with him and stay under his influence for years.
The three imaginary interviews also presented testimonies of two different individuals and Mitrinović himself, performed by actors Tamara Aleksić and Ljubomir Bulajić.