Borka Pavićević

Borka Pavićević (born 1947) is a Serbian dramaturge, newspaper columnist, and cultural activist. Also described as a "dramatist, Belgrade liberal and pacifist intellectual", she founded the Centre for Cultural Decontamination in 1994, and is a co-founder of the Belgrade Circle.

Born in Kotor, Pavićević is a 1971 graduate from Belgrade's Academy of Theatre, Film, Radio and Television. Her theatre career has spanned decades. For ten years, Pavicevic was a dramaturge at Atelje 212. She founded the New Sensibility Theater in a Belgrade brewery in 1981. From 1984 to 1991, she participated in the artistic movement "KPGT" (Kazaliste Pozoriste Gledalisce Teatar). She was a playwright and the artistic director of the Belgrade Drama Theatre, until she was let go in 1993 due to her political views. She also served as a jurist for the Belgrade International Theatre Festival, working for the organization for 20 years. A co-founder of the Belgrade Circle, she is a regular newspaper columnist.

Pavićević founded the Centre for Cultural Decontamination, devoted to the creation of catharsis, in 1994; it has organised more than 5,000 events, exhibitions, protests, and lectures. She was one of the signers of the Declaration of The Civil Resistance Movement in 2012 and is the co-author of the book Belgrade, my Belgrade. Pavicevic has received many awards including, the Otto Rene Castillo Award for Political Theater (2000); the Hiroshima Foundation Prize for Peace and Culture (2004); the Osvajanje slobode (“Winning Freedom”) prize by the Maja Maršićević Tasić Foundation (2005); Routes Award by European Cultural Foundation (2009/2010); and, from the Government of the Republic of France, the Legion of Honour (2001).

Married to the human rights lawyer, Nikola Barović, she lives in Belgrade.