Jelena Đurović

Jelena Đurović in 2007

Jelena Đurović (Cyrillic: Јелена Ђуровић) (born 13 July 1973) is a journalist, writer and political activist. She advocates changes to the cultural policy of the Government of Serbia, Serbian acceptance of the responsibility for recent wars in the Balkans and re-affirmation of the Second World War anti-fascist movement in Serbia.

Biography

Jelena was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, into a Jewish-Montenegrin family with strong civic tradition. She is a daughter of Vukašin Đurović, successful Belgrade lawyer who died in a car accident in 1983, and Svetlana Davidovac. While Jelena was a young girl, her mother Svetlana and grandmother Helena Škarda run a glove manufacturing business in Belgrade, a craft learnt by her grandmother in her early age and perfected after her family moved to Serbia at the beginning of the 20th century. Aunt of Jelena’s grand grandmother Serafina was Lotika Zellermeier, a character from the 1961 Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić's novel The Bridge on the Drina. Lotika’s and Serafina’s family moved to Višegrad, Bosnia (then Austrian Hungarian Empire) from Kraków, Poland, in the 19th century, only to move to Belgrade at the beginning of the 20th century after the economic situation in Višegrad deteriorated. Her father has roots in the village of Vukovci, in the valley of the Zeta river, near Titograd (today Podgorica), in Montenegro. Both parents of Jelena’s father Vukašin were Partisans, the fact from which Jelena draws interest in the anti-fascist movement in Yugoslavia. At the same time, her mother’s family strongly supported pre-Second World War Yugoslavian communist party. However, the fact that none of them were actually members of the Communist party after the Second World War led to them being forced to sell their property and several businesses in Belgrade. Due to her mixed roots, she declares herself as of “Yugoslavian” origin.

Literary work

Jelena is a graduate of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, Department of Theater and radio production. In mid nineties she took part in several projects in Belgrade theatres but decided to cease her involvement due to widespread corruption and nepotism. Her bachelor thesis, "Theatre in the shadow of the gallows" ("Pozornica u senci vešala") explored the programming policies of Belgrade theaters during the Slobodan Milošević era. Excerpts from her thesis were published in the Teatron magazine. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, Jelena lives in Budapest, Hungary, where she works on her book "Kingdom". Although Jelena did specialize in Public Relations during nineties, she unwillingly worked for Marketing and PR agencies until 2004. During those years she used her spare time to finish work on her novel Kingdom (published in November 2004), excerpts from which were published in the book Voices from the faultline. However, her experience in advertising provided inspiration for many of the characters for her forthcoming novel February 30th. It is expected to be published in early 2010.

Style

In her own words, her strongest literary influences were works by American writer Bret Easton Ellis. She often refers to Danish director Lars von Trier’s movies Dogville and Element of Crime, as well as J.G. Ballard’s novel Running Wild, as the most important works that shaped her understanding of literary forms. She wrote several articles about von Trier and Ellis. She also often mentions Croatian writers Miroslav Krleža and Slobodan Šnajder as the source of inspiration. She is fascinated with anti-utopia/dystopia, satire and transgression and those literary forms are noticeable throughout her novel Kingdom, where she ridicules history and "nation" as a concept. Kingdom also questions meta-religious and Kabbalah concepts, in a similar fashion that movie Pi by Darren Aronofsky does. Although she considers herself to be an atheist, Jelena often emphasizes her Jewish origins and expresses deep respect towards Jewish tradition and culture. According to the information that can be found on one of author’s blogs, it is expected that her next novel February 30th is going to be a satirical homage to Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, with some elements of science fiction and political thriller. She also announced on her official website that the novel that follows February 30th is going to be "a spy trilogy". It appears that it is conceived as pseudo-autobiography based on pulp-fiction novels. The first part of the trilogy is titled Bloodstream of Crime ("Krvotok zločina") and it is expected to be published in early 2012.

Politics

By her own testimony, Jelena is active in Serbian politics since 1991 but she actively takes part in day-to-day politics since 2006 when she became member of the Liberal Democratic Party. After parliamentary elections in Serbia in May 2008, she was elected councilor in the Belgrade borough of Vračar. Reading her published articles and listening to her radio shows one easily understands that she campaigns for the wide range of rights for ethnical minorities, establishment of strictly secular state, arrest of remaining Serbian war criminals that are still at large and sweeping economic reforms that would free Serbian economy from the long established tycoon monopolies. However, her work is mainly related to cultural establishments and popular culture, both in Serbia and in Great Britain where she spends considerable amount of time.

Journalism

In mid nineties Jelena attended a 6-month journalism course organized by the Soros Fund Yugoslavia. In 1994 and 1995 she worked at one of Belgrade’s most popular radio stations "Studio B", as author and editor of the weekly radio show "Time In". This show was sponsored by Soros Fund Yugoslavia. Since October 2005 she is the author and editor of "AgitPop" blog. Its motto is a citation from the letter written by Sigmund Freud to Albert Einstein in Vienna in September 1932: "Meanwhile we may rest on the assurance that whatever makes for cultural development is working also against war...". At the same time Jelena writes for several Serbian newspapers and magazines and became a part of the editorial team of the "Novi Radio Beograd", the first independent Internet-only radio station in Serbia. Before moving to London she hosts daily show on Wednesdays, campaigns for immediate arrest of Ratko Mladić, criticizes the influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Serbia, advocates reconciliation between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians and often provokes nationalists and Euro-skeptics. Since the beginning of 2009 she co-hosts a show about movies and popular culture with playwright Ivan Velisavljević as well as weekly show with Serbian actress Lena Bogdanović that explores the role of women in modern Serbian society. Since May 19th 2009 Jelena's original daily show is aired on Tuesdays from 9pm to 11pm under the name Agitpop. The format of the show remains largely unchanged. She is familiar with pop music and enjoys music by British indy-pop band Aztec Camera, French band Phoenix, Paul Simon and R.E.M. She wrote several articles on the Eurovision phenomena and she strongly believes in abolition of division of culture into "high/elite" and "popular" culture.

Personal life

Jelena Đurović was married to Serbian painter Miron Mutaović from 2004 to 2008.

On 31 January 2009 Jelena marries Tomica Orešković, a descendant of the Second World War Croatian national hero Marko Orešković. Since February 2009 Jelena lives between Belgrade and Richmond, London.