23rd MESS 1982

Branko Bačanović made this poster – 23rd MESS – using collage to advertise a theatre festival. Imagine Bačanović in his studio, scissors in hand, arranging and rearranging images of Shakespeare, piecing together a vision. It’s a dance between control and chance, a back-and-forth. He has assembled a pantheon of Will Shakespeares, their faces lined up like actors waiting in the wings. Is he playing with repetition and variation, the way Shakespeare himself revisits themes across his plays? The image is a little rough, a little raw—less polished illustration, more of an urgent proclamation. For me, the poster is an invitation to see Shakespeare anew, not as some untouchable literary god, but as a playwright whose work continues to inspire experimentation. Bačanović's collage reminds us that art, like theatre, is a space for reinvention, a messy, beautiful conversation across time.