Monika Bilbija (Banja Luka, 1982), scene designer, theoretician of drama and audiovisual arts, film critic. She completed the integrated architecture studies at the University of Banja Luka, received a Master’s degree in theatrology at the University of Amsterdam, and a Master’s Degree in drama theory and audiovisual art at the University of Arts in Belgrade. She holds a Ph.D in scene design from the University of Novi Sad. She is the author of Filmske kustoske prakse: Iz crne kutije u crnu kutiju bijele kocke (Film curator practices: from the black box into the black box of the white cube, 2014), and she is working on a book on scene design. She has published a paper in Performance Research: On Sceneography (Routledge). She has presented papers on scene design, theater and visual arts in the United States of America, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Great Britain, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, including a work presented at the Prague Quadrennial (2011), as well as the Sarajevo Winter festival, the Mikser Festival Belgrade, the October Salon Belgrade, the Alternative Film/Video Festival, Sterijino Pozorje Novi Sad, Bitef Belgrade, etc. She has produced scenography for the National Theater of RS, Children’s Theater of RS, the Prijedor City Theater, Youth Theater Sarajevo, the Banja Luka Student Theater, the Jazavac City Theater Banja Luka… She has worked as a producer, coordinator for international cooperation, and coordinator of the educational programs at the Flaster Street art festival, the Kratkofil Plus short film festival, and the KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival. She has published more than two hundred film and series critiques. She has been the representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Eurimages, the Council of Europe film fund. She has actively taken part in creation of the cultural policy of Republika Srpska and Banja Luka. She is editor and coauthor of the Cultural Development Strategy of Republika Srpska (2017–2022) and Banja Luka (2018–2028), and has worked on the draft RS Law on Culture and the RS Law on Audiovisual Activities. She has lived in Serbia, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Canada. She is presently living and working in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she is preparing an independent exhibition of scene design, titled Storm.

Role at the 2022 Biennale

Jury member for the Student Biennale, category Scene Design in Non-Theater Practices.